Katherine and Journey and I were out on a run today around the lake near our house when we ran into a neighbor. As she stopped to say hi, she said, “I promised myself that the next time I saw you I’d tell you what has happened to me since you told me something at a neighborhood party last year. You told me to take it easy running the uphills and to let myself fly on the downhills. I always thought I had to work really hard to get up the hills so I wouldn’t lose any time in my races. But, you know what, since I’ve been following your advice and going easier on the uphills, I’ve actually been doing much better in my hill running. I’m not so tired at the top of the hill that I have to spend most of the downhill recovering my strength. Now I just treat the uphills like they’re the resting phase of my runs and I can blaze down all the hills and more than make up for any lost time.”

Then she continued, “I was in a leadership class last week and they were telling us all of the same principles… like, ‘maximize your strengths’ and ‘treat your weaknesses with respect.’ It’s all the same stuff that I’ve been practicing in my hill running and I find it working well in the rest of my life.”

It was so nice to hear her story and how she’s been using her ChiRunning practice to teach herself great principles to live by. For myself, the longer I practice ChiRunning, the more I find out that it’s not about the running. It always comes down to what I come away with, that I can then apply somewhere else in my life.

Let us know what transferable knowledge you’ve come across in your running practice. I’m sure everyone following this blog would love to hear your story.

All the best,
Danny

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.

For all of you runners who will be running in marathons in the coming months, here’s an article sent to me by Dr. Mark Cucuzzella with some very helpful tips to guide you to a great performance in your next marathon. He’s a family practice doctor and faculty member of West Virginia University. He also happens to have the distinction of having run a sub-2:35 marathon every year for the past 20 years. He recently ran the Marine Corps Marathon (2:34) at age 42 and beat the time he ran it 20 years ago when he was 22! For this reason I consider him an ideal person to listen to if you want to do well in your marathon. He has been practicing ChiRunning for the past two years and will soon become a Certified ChiRunning Instructor. He was the doctor quoted in the NPR piece on ChiRunning. Following is the text of his article.

A Simple Strategy for Running Your Best Marathon

As you enter the week prior to running your marathon here are a few visualizations to help you set your plan. Running your best marathon is part art, science, guts, faith in what you can do, and a little luck. Running your best 10k is mostly about fitness.

The best analogy I can think of is this: if you have trained your body properly with the right mix of aerobic level training and some up tempo stuff in the weeks leading up to your event, you have built your efficient hybrid engine ready to race the marathon.

Many of you have likely driven in a Prius and watch the subtle shifts between gas and electric on the screen. You do not perceive these shifts. Your engine runs on gas, electric, or a mix- depending on the effort.

You are starting the race with one gallon in the tank- assuming you have eaten a nice meal the night before with a breakfast top off.
• If you are in all gas mode, your engine will run about 1.5 hours at a strong pace….and you will be done before the finish.
• If you are all electric you can go all day, but really slow.
• If you are using the proper mix you will go quick and efficient for the first 20+ miles, then fire up pure gas in the last few.

The glucose utilizing pathway is the gas. This is your stored glycogen and blood glucose (pasta meal and breakfast) - easy to access for ready energy. The fat utilizing pathway is the electric. In the marathon you must be in hybrid until the last few miles. Hybrid is where your energy (ATP) is coming from both sources.

Many runners are in great “10k shape” (an all gas event), run their marathon in the gas mode- and usually crash. No nutrition and glycogen sparing factors apply in races of less than an hour. In the marathon, top end fitness matters little and can only be applied very near the finish.

So how do you know you are running in your best hybrid mode?
This is difficult because the sense is not as profound as aerobic/anaerobic. A slight increase from your optimal pace will switch you from hybrid to all gas without you realizing it, and the effects are felt miles later.

You must rehearse a bit in training. I focus on relaxation and breathing. If I’m breathing one cycle to 5 steps, then I’m hybrid. If I breathe any faster I’m using glucose as sole fuel. Belly breathe. Allow lower belly to blow up like a beach ball on inhalation and pull your belly button back to your spine on exhalation. Then you will fill the lower lung areas where oxygen exchange occurs.

Notice the breathing efforts of those around you and many are rapid breathing and they tend to suffer somewhere past half way. Rehearse complete relaxation from the top down: eyes, jaw, shoulders, allow your legs to relax and extend behind you, relax and soften your knees and ankles. Find you own cue for this.

In the last 3-4 miles you will be all gas to maintain the same speed as fatigue sets in. The breathing is usually on a 3 to 4 step per breath cycle- that is OK. Still stay relaxed and use same relaxation cues.

Now a few extra ways to get from start to finish quicker on the same gallon.

• If you can add a little gas along the way then you can go more into gas mode. This works a little at best. If you’re running too fast you shunt all blood to working muscles and nothing digests. If you are in hybrid during the early going you can continually add fuel. The key here is not the specific fuel, but the right pace. A gel every 25 minutes is easy to digest and tops off the tank. Carry them with you at the start. The weight is nothing compared to the benefit you will get. If you do the gels you can drink water instead of the energy drinks which are often pretty awful on the run.
• Draft if you can.
• Maintain a constant effort level on uphills. Your pace will slow. You can easily use all your gas here if your effort level increases. Shorten your stride, relax, and use your arms more. Then allow gravity to take you downhill. The first hills of the race will ruin your day if you take them too quickly.
• If you are having a “bad patch” try to refocus on relaxing, maybe fuel a bit, and have faith in your training and race plan.

The fun of this event is that we are always learning and enjoying the adventure of it. I’ve done over 50 marathons now with a couple under 2:25 in my younger years. I’ve had one DNF. At my first Boston in 1989 I raced the first half in 1:08 in gas mode, not realizing it, and was done by 18 miles.

We learn from experience, taking chances, and occasional failures. My first marathon in 1988 was 2:34, when I could run a 30:00 10K. This year I also ran 2:34 at Boston, and I think my 10K split there (35 minutes) was my best 10k for the year. Along the way I have accumulated 20 straight years under 2:35 except for my year of medical internship when there was no time to find a race. I’ve learned a few things in 20 years, but there are still uncertainties every time you line up. Relax, taper, and seize the day.

Mark Cucuzzella, MD
Physician LTC USAF Reserves and West Virginia University Faculty
2 time top 5 Marine Corps Marathon and Masters Winner 2006

We’ve all heard the old saying, “It takes money to make money.” Well, here’s my latest take on that. I was out running yesterday, having an ok run, but not feeling particularly energetic. I’m sure you’ve been there. I was running my favorite out and back trail run with my dog. It’s quite a hilly trail with virtually no flat spots anywhere.

It has an uphill start (which I never recommend) so I started off walking to warm up my legs before taking on the first incline. Once I began running on the trail I walked some of the steeper uphills in order to not over-use my legs early on in the run. This has always worked well for me in the past. Once my legs were warmed up they began to feel much more comfortable on the up hills. I ran to my turnaround point and began my return trip, as I usually do. But on the way back, my legs were beginning to feel exhausted running some of the last hills, even though I was shortening my stride considerably and slowing my pace. I felt as though someone had pulled the plug on my energy. I was body sensing and my legs were telling me that they were tired.

One of the interesting things about the Chi skill of Body Sensing that is explained in the ChiRunning and ChiWalking books is that as you watch and listen to your body, it is important to be as non-identified and impartial as possible. So, here I am, running along and saying to myself, “This is just a sensation.” I intuitively knew that my legs weren’t really tired, because I had done this same run only a couple of days earlier and had a great run. So, then I asked myself, “What can I do about this?” I was on an uphill section, so I shortened my stride, relaxed my legs and began swinging my arms forward and upward wildly, creating a huge range of motion. When I crested the top of the short rise I kept swinging my arms as I had been and leaned into the subsequent downhill slope. I did everything I could to lengthen my stride, rotate my pelvis and bend my knees. I must have looked like a crazy-man. I kept this up for about a minute or two and then relaxed my whole body. What I noticed after doing this, was that my whole body felt much lighter and energized. I had no problems with fatigue for the rest of the run. In fact, I ran smoother and faster than usual.

After my run, I realized that if I hadn’t chosen to swing my arms and focused on getting my energy moving, it wouldn’t have changed over and I might have finished my run feeling tired and worn out. As it turned out, I felt very energetic afterwards. And that’s when the phrase, “It takes money to make money.” popped into my head.

Whenever you feel you have a lack of energy, it could mean that your energy (chi) just isn’t flowing and you need to do something to “wake it up.” Doing something physical is always best, and don’t always think that just because you’re tired, that you have no energy available. It’s there, but you have to consciously “jump start” it to get it moving. This technique can, of course, be applied just as effectively to situations in everyday life. Try it…you might like it.

Keep the chi flowing,
Danny