Run, Rigby, run
Training tips from a dog
Nearly every time I run with my friend Matt Rayment, someone else comes along, someone whose joy for running is boundless, someone who can teach us a bunch about running.
Rigby is a 2-year-old Australian working kelpie. And he loves to run.
Matt and I are co-hosts of the Dirt Church Radio trail running podcast, and Rigby is so much part of our running relationship that of course he was there the first time we did some audio recording in the forest.
Rigby barked on cue – a bark we use every episode of Dirt Church Radio as a nod to this crazy dog who knows more about running than we do.
What can Rigby teach us? If he could talk, these would be his top tips:
Running for him is social – it’s all about hanging with the pack.
The second he gets out of Matt’s car, Rigby is overjoyed to see whoever is coming along. He leaps about saying hi, and his enthusiasm for getting together with fellow runners is infectious.
Out on the trail, it’s a bad idea to try talking to Rigby, though. He’ll stop dead in his tracks to look up and engage in conversation, using a braking capacity that I, for one, don’t have (that is, if you try to talk to Rigby while you’re running, you’ll trip over him). He always finds new things to wonder at.
We can’t always get out to exciting places to run. Most of my running, for instance, is loops of the pathways around my home.
There are only so many variations and I’d hate to think how many kilometres I’ve clocked up pounding the same routes. Yes, it can be a drudge.
But for Rigby, every time he runs, he finds something new – a new smell, a new pinecone, a new place to, er, relieve himself. He looks for the differences, not the similarities.
No matter what, he’s keen – rain, shine, he’s up for it.
Let me guess: you were going to go for a run, but it was raining? Or it was too cold? Or too hot? Not Rigby. Any conditions, any
season, are perfect for a run.
Sure, adapt to the conditions put on a hat or jacket, for instance, but just get out there.
Once you’re out the door, you’ll quickly forget. And if conditions worsen and you can get in a bit of speedwork to get back inside, you’ll have an epic story to tell. Running is supposed to be fun, it’s playtime.
It’s easy to think of running as a chore. And when you’re using a training schedule, you can easily become a slave to it. Rigby reminds us that running is meant to be fun. For him, being out in the forest is playtime and it should be the same for us. Think back to when you were a kid, running around with your mates. You didn’t plan anything – you just got out there and ran. Try that. If you’ve got one (or a friend with one), take a dog. Watch their tail wag, and start wagging yours.
If conditions worsen and you can get in a bit of speedwork to get back inside, you’ll have an epic story to tell.