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This also works with the past and future:
"sa se mi viha" = "I used to run".
"sa so mi viha" = "I will get into running". A bit of a bad example, but the difference from "so mi viha" is that instead of just saying you plan to run, it means that you're going to make it a regular thing.
I call sa the "vague tense" modifier.
"se mi viha, (then) ni lo (truth) ar mi, (so) mi (stop) viha. si sa mi qeta." = "I ran / was running, then they told me the truth, so I stopped running. Now(adays) I walk."
I believe this saves more speed than it loses, but it's also for aesthetic reasons: it'd be ugly to have every sentence start with "se" when telling a story.
If it helps you can think of it like this: "The following sequence of events happened: I run, then he tells me the truth, so I stop running." And you might notice that in English we sometimes do a similar thing when telling a story, especially when it's supposed to be amusing.
This doesn't happen if you place a tense modifier before the verb instead of at the beginning of the sentence:
"mi se di A. ka ŋi di B?" = "I did A. Are you doing B?"
If it were "se mi di A. ka ŋi di B?", it would mean, "I did A. did you do B?"
"se mi se guja tip qip lɪma, (so) de tup." = "I had already drunk all the water, so I didn't have any."
You can also do like this: "so se mi guja qip lɪma" - "I will have drunk the water". You're allowed to combine the tense modifiers in any way that makes sense.