Comfort Lap

I learned of a really fantastic concept from a running coach I was speaking to recently – the idea of a “comfort lap.” The concept is this: if you’re running laps, you can alternate between laps where you really push yourself to as hard as you can and laps where you take a leisurely jog.

You’ve probably heard the concept of your “comfort zone,” a metaphor for the situations and lifestyles where you aren’t challenging yourself. If you’re in your “comfort zone” then you’re in very familiar territory, taking no risks, etc. When you “step out of your comfort zone,” you’re doing something more dangerous, something less familiar. You’re taking those risks in order to grow.

As evidenced by that language, we tend to think of “comfort” as also stationary. Your “comfort zone” is a place, a location – a static location. If you’re in your comfort zone, you aren’t doing anything, or so the thinking goes.

But it doesn’t have to be! You can be making forward progress and engaging in something meaningful even if you aren’t pushing yourself to the limit. That’s why I love the concept of the “comfort lap.” You aren’t stopping. You’re just changing your pace to emphasize comfort and sustainability over high-cost growth. It’s good to alternate between those, and it’s even better if you can do it without always needing to stop entirely.

Your life shouldn’t be a series of jerking transitions between maximum energy expenditure and total sloth. That even pace should be a large percentage, even the majority. Some times of total sloth are fine, just as some times of enormous effort are healthy. If you run as fast as you can for as long as you can before collapsing, then stay collapsed on the ground until you can get back up and immediately run as fast as you can for as long as you can again on repeat, you won’t go nearly as far as you will if most of the time, you jog.