Lackadaisical Runner Does Every Run in Zone Meh
/
depositphotos.com
A local runner who describes himself as “not super motivated” does all of his runs in zone meh, Dumb Runner has learned—a training zone designation that he himself seems to have invented.
“I just get out there and run a few miles, you know?” said Lionel Richie, 35, an audio engineer and veteran of several 5Ks. “I’ve never been much interested in goals or training or any of that.”
Many endurance athletes train according to heart rate zones, defined by percentage of one’s maximum heart rate, zone 1 being the easiest and zone 5 the most intense. Richie is familiar with the system, he said, but ignores it.
“Running, for me, is super chill,” he said. “I never saw the need to muck it up with math and stuff.”
“The way I see it, if I’m out there running, I’m already ahead of the game. I do every single one of my runs in zone meh, man, and I’m good with that.”
It’s an approach Richie said he applies across the board, in all aspects of his work and personal lives.
“Everything I do, I put effort into it, but not, like, so much effort that it’s uncomfortable,” he said. “That’s why I’m easy. Easy like a Sunday morning.”
