SINCE a single-season stint as the slowest runner on my middle-school cross-country team, I have quit running many times. My return to the sport early in the pandemic seemed destined to be the latest. The first run was exhausting, but gratifying. The next, just exhausting. I figured I was the problem. My body was just not built for running.
I happened to be trying a new-to-me app called the Nike Run Club (NRC). As with similar tools I’d tested, like MapMyRun and Strava, starting a workout requires little beyond opening the app. NRC, however, has a tab the other free apps had lacked: “guided runs.”
On-demand audio coaching is nothing new. Peloton offers it through its own workout app for $13 a month, and countless podcasts tell you how to run better. But the names of the guided workouts in NRC were suspiciously seductive. Sure, there was a “10K Run,” but there was also “Breaking Through Barriers,” the “I Need a Win Run,” the “Don’t Want to Run Run.”
I decided to try it, booting up the “First Run,” and launching myself off my stoop in Brooklyn. “Welcome to the Nike Run Club,” a resonant male voice began. “I am Chris Bennett, Nike Running Global Head Coach.” My guard went up. What a needlessly festooned title! But then, he said something that would unlock the key to my future enjoyment of the sport: “Run easy.”
PERSONAL COACH Nike Run Club’s greatest asset is Chris Bennett, the company’s Global Running Head Coach who writes and narrates most of its guided runs.
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Nike Run Club
Easy, he continued, did not necessarily mean slow. Easy is still an effort. You should run at a pace that feels comfortable, especially at first when your body is adjusting to the run.
Hearing this, I realized why my runs to date had generally run out of steam. I’d been starting them the only way I knew how: as fast as I felt I could maintain. That day, I let myself take longer, less-frequent strides, well before fatigue made that my only option. It was freeing, even fun.
I’ve since learned that many consider Coach Bennett’s banal advice unhelpful. Friends and co-workers have told me they find his tone smarmy, even paternalistic.
I, however, needed the lesson repeated. Luckily, no matter what NRC workout you undertake, whether it’s focused on recovery or speed, you are reminded to start easy. I’ve since tried 107 different runs in the catalog—the “Don’t Want to Run Run,” it turns out, is excellent—and the advice has finally sunk in. Now, I don’t always need Coach Bennett to have a great run.
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Appeared in the February 11, 2023, print edition as ‘The Joys of Traveling Coach.’
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