I’ve received a lot of ChiRunning email lately responding to my blogs about trail running. One topic that has popped up more than once is poison ivy, that nasty little plant that loves to make your skin look like an overcooked cheese pizza. I’m highly allergic to it, so I can empathize with all of you out there who spend a good part of your summer running in places other than your favorite trails, because they’re covered with the stuff. I flatly refuse to let a little toxic plant ruin my trail running so I spend a couple of hours a week covered from head to toe, in 80º heat, clearing trails near my home here in Asheville. I’ve never run in a place where poison ivy is the predominant ground cover.

Apart from resorting to clearing trails, I have found a great way to prevent the onset of a rash or to cure an infestation before it grows into a full-blown systemic case (which has happened every summer since I moved here three years ago).

Here’s what I do. When I return from a run where I know I’ve brushed up against poison ivy, I immediately throw all my running clothes in the washing machine with plenty of soap and a small amount of bleach…even my shoes! I then take a shower and pretend that I’m trying to scrub my skin off of my bones, using plenty of soap. I use a soap made from Jewel Weed which is an antidote for poison ivy, but any strong soap will work. Never take a bath after being in poison ivy or if you have an existing rash! Always take a shower.

As soon as I get out of the shower and dry off, the first thing I do is swab my legs with hydrogen peroxide to neutralize any oil residue that might still be on me. So far (knock, knock) I haven’t had a single case of it this year…and I’ve waded through plenty of it!
If I happen to get a rash (it starts of as little blisters on your skin) I immediately reach for the hydrogen peroxide, in which I soak cotton balls, and scrub the little blisters hard enough to break them. Then I repeat the hydrogen peroxide scrub about 4-5 times a day until the rash dries up and goes away. This technique has worked 100% for me and since I discovered it at the end of last summer. Since then I’ve never had a case of poison ivy last for more than about 3 days, which is completely acceptable compared to the usual 3 weeks (after a round of steroids) it used to take to get over it. So, now you don’t have to let a little poison ivy stop your summer trail running fun, you can go running in the hills to your heart’s content.
Happy trail running,
Danny

embedded by Embedded Video

When I ask attendees at my ChiRunning workshops, I’m always amazed at how many runners don’t run trails. I suppose there are lots of reasons why someone might be a bit shy about heading out into Nature with nothing but dirt to land on. Could it be the wild animals that lurk in the woods? Or maybe it’s just the serial killers. Whatever the reasons are for anyone, I’m sure it’s based in fear of some sort. There have been only a very few times in my 35+ years of trail running that I’ve felt fear. I’ve never been chased by a wild animal and certainly not by another human being (with the exception of my competitors in racing events). I have been caught in a lightning storm at 11,000′ elevation in the Colorado Rockies and I’ve jumped over a rattlesnake that I mistook for a rock. I’ve run along trails where one misstep could result in a vertical plunge of a couple hundred feet. But, generally I feel trail running to be much safer than running in a city. So, if we can take some of the fear out of running on trails, maybe we can turn more runners on to the joys of running “pavement free.”

Here’s my contribution to dissipating some of the fears that might come up. I’m guessing that one of the reasons for not trail running has got to be either the fear of running on an uneven or slippery surface or even worse…falling down on an uneven or slippery surface. So, here are a couple of tips for you newbies.

Running Downhill on Loose Gravel
If you’re running downhill on a single-track trail and the surface is loose dirt or gravel there are a couple of things to do. If there is grass growing along the sides of the trail I suggest running there where the traction is better. The next best thing to do is look for spots on the trail where your feet won’t slip. These could be buried rock, roots or any place where you can see solid ground. If you begin to train your eye to see only the solid places on the trail, pretty soon all of the loose footing will disappear from your field of view and all you’ll see will be the multitude of safe places for your feet to land.

Spring is in full force and summer is quickly edging around the corner and I’m watching the trails turn from the starkness of winter into the million shades of green that pop out at this time of year. I love running trails because it allows me to witness the changing of the seasons firsthand with all my senses.

Since I spend many more hours running trails than on roads and streets, I’d like to offer some tips and suggestions for making this particular aspect of running, even more enjoyable.

Take care of Mother Nature and she’ll take care of you
The most important thing I’ve learned from my years of trail running is how important it is to take care of the trails you’re running, and there’s no better way than to devote a couple days every month to doing a little “housekeeping” so that you and everyone else can enjoy those trails more. Here are some things you can do.

Trimming the trails
I went out this morning packing a pair of rose clippers, the kind you use to trim small shrubs. They’re easy to carry with you when you’re running and are great for clipping away overhanging branches that are a hazard to your head, or small roots that could snag your footfall. When I go out for a trail maintenance run I don’t plan on actually getting much of a run in. I stop for every obstruction that I can clear up with my clippers.

It’s springtime and new shoots are springing up everywhere along the trails. Some grow so thick they can block your view of the trail or soak your shoes if you brush them with your legs. These are the ones I’m after. I clip them close to the ground (or pull them up by the roots if they’re really small) before they can grow large enough to create problems. I always throw the clippings as far off the trail as I can so as to keep the natural beauty of the trail intact. In fact, I do my best to leave a trail looking as if it just naturally grows as a clear path.

Remove any loose rocks
Another thing I do is practice my foot agility by flicking loose stones off to the side of the trail with my toes like a soccer player maneuvers a soccer ball. Don’t ever try to kick a rock off the trail. You never know how deeply it might be buried. If it’s obviously lying there on top of the ground, it’s fair game. There’s nothing worse than landing on a loose rock and rolling your ankle, so these are constant targets for me.

Poison ivy removal
I am extremely allergic to poison ivy, so I caution any of you that are thinking of thinning the sides of your trails, to know what it looks like and take protective measures if you’re going to take it upon yourself to rid your trails of this toxic plant. I wear long sleeves, long pants and gloves when working with poison ivy. When I’m done, I wash my clippers in detergent and throw my clothes in the laundry by themselves, being careful to not touch anything but the inside lining of the clothing. Getting rid of poison ivy along the trails I run is a definite hazard, but it gives me lots of peace of mind. So, for me it’s worth the risk.

There are plenty of other things to do to help out your fellow runners and I’ll write about them in future blogs. Until then, this will get you started on doing your best to give your fellow trail runners a nice clean trail to run on and everybody will go home happy.
Happy trails,
Danny

P.S. As an added note to this series on trail running, I’d like to let you all know that a new revised edition of the original ChiRunning Book has just been released and it has a new chapter on how to run Hill and Trails. We hope you enjoy reading all the new material we’ve come up with since the book was first released in 2004.

embedded by Embedded Video

View looking uphill and south along the Matt Davis Trail - Marin County, CA

Funny you should ask that. I was just out running this morning and came up with the answer.

Since I moved here to Western North Carolina almost three years ago, I’ve been learning how to play the fiddle (when in Rome…). I have a great fiddle teacher named Jamie Laval and I highly suggest you check out his website if you’re interested in any form of Celtic or Scottish music. He’s one of the best around.

I’m still very much a beginning fiddle student and so Jamie has me do these great warm-up exercises where I’m learning finger placement. I begin by playing one note at a time with my first finger, and then matching it with an accompanying string so that I get the right pitch. Then I do the same thing with my second finger and so on until a four fingers of my left hand have practiced their respective positions on all four strings. When I can hit a good pitch with all 16 notes I get to move onto playing the songs I’m learning. What this does is get my fingers to always land on the right spot on the finger board so that playing the song is much more fluid and  accurate. I’ve already noticed a huge difference in my playing when I do these warm-up exercises.

So, I was out on my run this morning doing my 1-minute intervals on the trail. It was a one-hour run and I started out the first five minutes pretty easy and then got into alternating one minute of race pace focuses with one minute of easy resting pace. As I progressed through my workout, I noticed that my body was feeling more and more relaxed and the speed intervals were feeling easier and easier. So, I started doing 2-minute race focus intervals with one minute of rest. Throughout my run I gradually increased the length of the fast intervals and kept the resting intervals at one minute. By the end of my run I finished the last ten minutes at race pace feeling very little effort because I’d spent the better part of the run warming up and working on focuses.

My goal is to get to the point where I can run at race pace for an hour without stopping for a rest break. My race is at the end of August, so I don’t see any problem with working my way up to that. And, as you can see, it is absolutely the same thing I’m doing with my fiddle practice. It’s built on the premise that if you do your technique work up front, the rest just falls into place. I meet many people who think that speed comes strictly from strength and I couldn’t disagree more. Speed with running, just like speed with the fiddle, comes with efficiency, accuracy, and most of all relaxation. If you don’t have all three, you’re going to have to work harder to get that speed you’re looking for. It doesn’t matter whether you’re watching Salina Kosgei (the Kenyan woman who won this year’s Boston Marathon) or Itzak Perlman, they’re both doing the same thing underneath it all.

Part III: The Butt Walk

embedded by Embedded Video

 For Spring Break our family traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area where ChiRunning was conceived and launched. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing many of our old friends and doing a little sightseeing, which for me means trail running in the Marin Headlands, home to arguably some of the most beautiful trail runs in the world. Over the next few blogs I’ll post some of the photos I took just before my camera died an untimely death at Stinson Beach.

Spring is upon us and I hope these shots inspire you to get out and see Nature in its finest season (in my opinion). There’s nothing better than feasting your eyes on the millions of shades of green that paint the landscape this time of year. I had a wonderful 90 minute run through redwoods, past waterfalls, and along vast fields of blooming Lupines. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed running to find them. I find that it’s really hard to match trail running for connecting your eyes, your heart …and your legs!

Carpe diem!
Danny

This is a shot of San Francisco looking south from the top of the Matt Davis Trail above Stinson Beach. The tower in the background is Sutro Tower which rises above Golden Gate Park. The water you see is the Pacific Ocean as it enters the San Francisco Bay (to the left, out of the picture). 

Looking south from the Matt Davis Trail towards ocean side of San Francisco

Here’s an add-on to my last blog about running one-minute intervals. In the last half of this workout, depending on how I feel, I’ll begin extending the “racing” intervals to two minutes instead of one. I still keep the “resting” intervals by running in 1st gear for a minute. (Just as a side note, I avoid walking during my rest breaks. It does nothing for my conditioning or my psychology to be giving myself an “out” unless I absolutely need it.) Lengthening the time of the racing intervals, especially once I’m well warmed up, is fun and it stretches the conditioning phase of the workout. My goal is to very gradually increase the length of the conditioning intervals over the next few months until I can comfortably run at race pace for an hour, taking “rest” breaks only when I absolutely need them.

When I transition into running the “race” pace intervals during these trail runs, I’m not focusing on speed per se, but on the running form required to run the fastest through whatever section of trail I happen to be passing through. Then, instead of working harder and harder, I’m actually making it a fun game. I’ve only played a few video games, but approaching my runs in this way feel much like playing a video game where you’re working through different levels of difficulty and developing new skills in the process. I would have to say that this is a far cry from a video game because it’s in real time and it has a direct influence on my mind/body connection in ways no virtual reality could possibly do.

Happy Trails,
Danny

OK, I just have to report on my new favorite workout… my Monday morning hill intervals. This workout has a wonderful blend of cardio/aerobic training mixed with technique training, and the best thing about it is that it’s really fun.

In preparing myself for the National 10K championships I’m starting where I’m at right now. What I mean by that is I’m in no kind of shape to race right now, but I’m willing to up the ante and begin adding a little chutzpah to my workouts. So, I’ve begun running hill intervals once a week and I’ve picked Mondays to do them because it gets my week off to a brisk start. These workouts allow me to practice my ChiRunning form and also keep me in great shape for my marathon training.

I’m assuming that the race course will be very hilly and I’ve even had the race director tell me that there’s a hill somewhere in the course that’s a third of a mile of very steep sustained climbing. I’m thinking, “Now that’s no problem if you’re ready for it. Heck, here’s a hill at mile 52 in the Leadville Trail 100 that’s 5 ½ miles long and climbs 2500′ in elevation. If I can do that, this should be relatively easy.” So what I’m doing with this particular workout is training by body to hold a steady running pace for a sustained climb.

Here’s what I’m doing. I warm up for about 10 minutes easy and then start the countdown timer on my watch which will beep at one-minute intervals through the whole workout. Then, when my beeper sounds off, I start running at race pace (*PRE-7) for exactly one minute until the beeper goes off again, at which point I run at a resting pace (*PRE-3) for the next minute. I then alternate this cycle of race pace and resting pace for the remainder of my run. The beauty of doing this workout on trails is that no matter where I’m at in the trail, (running uphill or downhill) I have to break into a race pace whenever my beeper tells me to. This means that sometimes I’m “racing” downhill and sometimes I’m racing uphill…and sometimes I’m having to do both because I might get caught in a transition between the two. All of it is great for my running form and my conditioning level because it is the best way for me to practice all of the various situations that will happen on race day…without feeling like I have to practice holding a race pace for an hour…today. All I have to do is practice racing in little one-minute increments, which is entirely doable… and even fun!

There’s much more to this running workout, so I’m going to save it for the next blog.

Happy Trails,
Danny

(*PRE – Perceived Rate of Exertion: Exertion level based on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being easiest and 10 being instant exhaustion. See ChiRunning book pages 14-16)