Catching up

I've been re-reading "ChiRunning" by Danny Dreyer. It's probably the fourth or fifth time I've read the book. It's something I read every year at the beach because it's a great time to kick back, and my running is in a different place each year so different parts of the book speak to me.

I'm on my third copy. I read and re-read parts of the first one so much, I broke the spine and the pages were falling out. My second copy is still intact but tattered. And now Danny just released a new edition with additional info.

It's great. He's simplified the teaching of ChiRunning and explain the pelvic rotation even better. Plus, there's a whole chapter on common injuries, what's likely causing the problem and how to correct it -- everything from knee pain to ITB syndrome and plantar fasciitis.

My running is going great here. And even before this trip.

I have spent 3 years telling myself that I'm running for the joy and then would judge/scrutinizing the times on my Garmin. But the back injury over the winter -- and the concerns about running after it -- gave me a lot of time to really appreciate running for the fun of it, instead of wanting to be faster or going farther. Now I really am concentrating on listening to my body rather than letting my brain/ego rule everything. If my body says everything feels fine, we run; if something feels funky, I work to change my form. If that doesn't work, we quit for the day.

I've also been conservative in my mileage increases but it's all paying off. My times are better and I'm not even trying to go faster -- just trying to relax more as Danny Dreyer suggests. One point of his that really has stuck with me is to keep the spine lengthened, so I am constantly thinking out extending my head through the crown to the sky and grounding myself from the tailbone. And then relaxing into that. It helps to keep my upper body balanced and in line with my hips which leads to good ChiRunning posture, which is the basis of good running form.

It works. That's all I know. I'm still no speed demon, but my goals have changed. I no longer want to run an "8-minute mile" although that would be nice. Now I simply want to run faster. But speed isn't the issue, it's a byproduct of form over distance. If I get faster, great. But right now the only goal for me is to complete each run without pain or discomfort and to feel great the next day. So far: mission accomplished.

Saturday's run was a long, slow, distance run, but I'm just starting to build there. Wanted to run between 11 and 11:30 minute miles. Monday's run felt good considering I haven't been hydrating very well. Tuesday I didn't plan to run but found myself running anyway. Really haven't been hydrating well and eating way too much junk. Still, happy with how I felt.

May 16
Mile 1 11:25
Mile 2 11:00
Mile 3 11:07
Mile 4 11:20

May 18th
Mile 1 11:13
Mile 2 10:37
Mile 3 10:12

May 19th
Mile 1 11:06
Mile 2 10:37
Mile 3 10:12