As readers, you might get bored of how ecstatic I am after running. It’s not always that way, but recently, I have been truly euphoric after each running workout.

Why? Because I love to move my body, to be in control of how my feet touch the ground, where my eyes lead me, how my breath rate increases, how my heart pumps blood so loyally to my extremities.

I wish there was a way I could shout from the rooftops that “There is a way to move pain-free, injury-free and joyfully. Step right this way, and I’ll show you how!”

This morning I headed out around 7am with Oliver to do our normal park loop, about 30 minutes. Before we left, I did a full course of Body Looseners and really paid attention to my core, keeping it engaged the whole time I did the Looseners. I made a decision before I left to go as slowly as I needed to in order to feel GREAT at the end of my run, like I hadn’t even gone running at all.

And I succeeded! While I was running, I was just focusing on staying calm, breathing, and smiling. I let Oliver off the leash and he was absolutely hysterical, causing me to laugh, as he tore around the frosted grass and splashed in shallow frozen water puddles.

I actually didn’t focus on one particular thing, but just let my body be happy, let it move freely and relaxed. I don’t quite know how to explain how I felt; I’ve never felt that way before when running. It was incredible. I really almost felt like I wasn’t running at all. I simply Body Sensed being at peace.

Now I know what people mean when the write to Danny and Katherine about their success with running and say, “I ran for an hour and couldn’t figure out when I was going to get tired! I didn’t feel like I was doing anything at all!”

There really is something to be said about joyful movement. There’s a fine line between feeling like you’re doing nothing and doing nothing; I think that fine line is joy.

I think of Gradual Progress as the framework around which ChiRunning can be learned. One step at a time, things should be incrementally and fully learned before moving on to the next step. It’s not the only way to think about ChiRunning form, but for me, is an important one.

As you’ve read in my blog, my knee has been bugging me and I have tried to work through it to see what would help and what I was doing incorrectly. Because the condition of my knee (and even more so, the condition of my form) has not improved, I have been disappointed and embarrassed to blog about it. I can walk the talk, but it’s going to take some deeper more mindful work.  Here’s what I think happened:

My training regularity from August ‘08 through the race day in January ‘09 was dedicated and mindful. I worked hard on my form, and did decently well, but when it came to race day, I had (and still have) leagues of room to improve. While I do think that I went a little hard during the last couple of miles without keeping my form together (eg, I was taking longer strides, but in hindsight, don’t think I was keeping my core engaged/pelvis level), it has been the months since the race when my own running form has been the problem, not the race.

Danny’s been using the term “feel what it feels like” a lot lately, and it’s the perfect little phrase to continually remind me I need to get into my body, every chance I can. It’s 6 months after the race and my knee hasn’t gotten any better. I want to get better and stay better, I don’t want to have knee issues again.

I will be using Gradual Progress for real as I take the time to learn again. Thank goodness I know about ChiRunning. It will guide me through this process, through beginning to run again mindfully, and through my daily activities. Thank goodness for ChiLiving, a business that does so much good for people and encourages us all to go deep.

Katherine and Danny wrote a great article recently about teaching and letting your mind and body really communicate. I am going to read it again myself: Mind over Body vs Body over Mind (June 2009).

Imagine that! I went running again in the rain today, again.

Seriously, for almost a month, we’ve been having these crazy days of rain. I think the longest it’s gone without raining here lately has been maybe three days. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining, but literally every time I plan to run, I prepare to go running in the rain!

Took a 9-miler today and did it a little slower than my ususal 10″. I ran this route in Biltmore Forest. It’s a pretty hilly route, and actually matches portions of the Seattle course pretty well in terms of elevation gain.

The first 5.5 miles rocked, and then I hit a wall. Before I hit my wall, my running form felt good, I wasn’t listening to music, and I had a big smile on my face. After the first downhill, my knee started to talk to me a little bit, which I knew to be because my stride was coming too far in front of me. On the next uphill, my knee pain went away immediately. Good lesson for uphills allowing my form to be more or less perfect (or as perfect as it’s going to get!). It’s a lot of uphill for the first half of the run and then a fair amount of downhill at the end.

The last 1.5 miles were okay, but I attribute it to downhills and water (I stashed a water bottle at mile 6).

I imagined writing my blog about my running experience, stating that it was absolutely blissful and amazing and I was so proud of myself… and I think I can do that with about 85% certainty right now, but I was honestly irritated with my (slower) time and sluggish finish.

When I was feeling good, my brain and ChiRunning focuses were all over the place, but mainly concentrated on

• tracking (big toe and pinky toe coming ‘off’ the ground at the same time)
• using my arms appropriately, depending on terrain
• barely using my legs on the uphill
• trying to get my pelvis to rotate on the downhills
• trying to breathe as calmly as possible, but without restriction

It’s so beautiful in Biltmore Forest that it’s hard to complain at all. The rain made the entire neighborhood look like a rain forest, and that was pretty special.

I would say over all, it was a good run. I stretched pretty well when I got home, and also did about a 5 minute leg drain, but I have a feeling I’m going to be a bit sore tomorrow. My knee hasn’t started any painful motions yet (last week by this time it had), so I think that’s a great sign.

Bent Creek is lovely. It’s a mainstay for me when I go running. I know the terrain, I know the parking areas, I know the hot/cold areas, I can get flats and hills, trail and gravel… It’s a great place to go running.

So I went out there today. My dad was in town for a couple of days, so on the way back from the airport, I decided to just go do my run @ Bent Creek. I did almost 8 miles (I think, this mapmyrun.com is great, but the maps aren’t always really clear.) In any event, this is the closest approximation I have for what I ran.

Started off running about 9.30 am, which was a little later than I like to start, but luckily it wasn’t too hot. I ran into a bunch of other runners (not literally, but there were a ton of people out there today). It was nice to see some smiling, happy faces on people running by. I hope I looked as happy as they did. Sometimes I wish I had a running buddy, but on the long runs, I really like to go at my own variable pace…

Since I wasn’t sure where I was running exactly (I was going for time, 80 minutes), I just tried to focus on my form, really thought about keeping my pelvis level, my chin down (crown of my head high) and not letting my feet land in front of my hips. I had bursts of energy here and there and used the downhills to my advantage and went quickly.

I would say overall I felt really great. I hate to admit this, but since last week (about 7.5 miles) I hadn’t run at all, not all week! So I wasn’t sure how today would go, but I think it went okay. The race in Seattle is hilly, so I am going to try to make my next long training runs on/near/including hills to make sure I can hack it.

Really looking forward to running the 1/2 in Seattle, though a little disappointed that I won’t be going faster than Houston. I guess that’s not the ultimate goal, because all I really want to do is finish the 1/2 marathon with a smile on my face…

My knee is talking to me a little bit this afternoon, but a little arnica creme and some careful walking is taking care of that.

I feel like everytime I write a new post, it’s about running in the rain.

So, guess what? I did my LSD run in the rain today… I ran this route, about 7.5 miles. Wasn’t sure when I left to go running this morning how I was going to do. Surprised myself with it, and am glad to say that it went well.

It’s a hilly route, and the hills are pretty steep. As I was running, I was trying to imagine any knee pain that might come about, and really thought about not letting my foot land in front of my hip. I was really working the uphills with my arms, trying to imagine that my legs were very small and not requiring lots of oxygen. When I got to the top of the hills, I kept running, kept leaning: it’s a great little trick to KEEP leaning into the hill as you crest them as you are running. Danny taught me that when we ran together months ago, and I can’t explain it, but it really works to keep your momentum going after finishing an uphill running section of a route.

I didn’t take my watch with me today because I knew the route was about 7 miles and wasn’t concerned with what time it took, I just wanted to make sure that I got the distance running in for the week. Starting last week with 6 miles, each weekend LSD from now until the taper week will be one mile longer than the previous.

Last week was supposed to be 6 miles, but I couldn’t hack it and only ran 5… then this week I managed to run 7.5, and next Sunday is 8 miles. We’ll see how that goes.

I discovered something today: I get bored on flats. Yep, bored. My parents always told me when I was young that “anyone who is bored is boring” so I have always avoided using that term, but I couldn’t think of anything else.

I guess I could play with my Gears more, but on an LSD run, I just want to get through it safely and with enough energy at the end to make it home without walking. I suppose music might make flats are more tolerable… but thankfully the Seattle race is pretty darn hilly. Looking forward to it!

Hope you all are doing well and that your spring training is going well.

I didn’t realize it until this afternoon, but it appears I really did something funky with my body when I was running yesterday.

Going up the stairs today at work is semi-painful. What did I do? My right adductor, medial quad and glute are sore. What on earth did I do?

It’s a puzzler, but definitely something to consider when I go running on Sunday!!

Thoughts? Tips? Who knows!

I can’t get over how lovely the mornings are this time of year… Brynn and I hauled ourselves out of bed this morning at met @ 6.30 to fit in a quick running workout before work.

We did this route, which we’ve done before… it’s around town and pretty consistently hilly. We ran it in about 26 minutes, and it’s just shy of 3 miles, so we had a pretty decent running pace.

Miraculously, my knee doesn’t hurt yet, as I think my Form Focuses are helping me get through these runs more mindfully and without hurting myself.

I don’t have a whole lot to report, except that running up the first hill, I was feeling my legs beginning to beg for air, so I shortened my stride and worked my arms harder… lo and behold, my legs chilled out and I felt pretty good. I was focusing on ‘tracking’ my feet so that big toe/pinky toe left the ground at the same time. I think that’s helping my knees. I also know I am trying very hard to focus more and more on not letting my feet hit past my hip. It’s such a strange sensation, but gosh my knees really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading, folks. Here’s to cool mornings! … and as Brynn said, “It feels so nice to get running out of the way and done with. And major bonus, I started work only 15 minutes later than normal!  Score!”

I like to have it out of the way, but I really actually do like the act of running, too…

It was an absolutely stunning day yesterday. I got out on my running route at 8.30 am, when it was still cool.

I ran this very hilly 6.16 mile route. It’s all uphill for the first part and then all downhill for the 2nd part. The downhill run is more gradual than the uphill portion, so I got a very sufficient cardio-aerobic workout in.

I went running on this route during lunch time in October. Just to show you the change in my conditioning level: at that time, I ran the 6 miles in 60 minutes (last ~.16 was a cool down walk), but when I went running yesterday, I pooped out at mile 5 at about 57 minutes and walked the last mile. Quite a bit slower, wasn’t it? I reread my blog about running this route last fall, and had described it as “glorious”. Unfortunately, I couldn’t say that yesterday.

I think I had eaten some funky food the day before and it was having an effect on my belly, so my running was compromised. The neighborhood that I ran in is lovely and a ton of Chi flows around Asheville, so I felt good about that… Overall, I felt alright, but certainly not great. I really tried to keep my arms pumping on the uphills, keeping my stride very short. Running on hills forces my stride to be shorter, which helps my knee. Good lesson there.

I felt great to have gone running yesterday, and managed to get in a good stretch afterward.

Here’s to the hills!

Howdy folks. The weather in AVL is lovely… and Brynn convinced me to go running with her and I am pleased as a pea to say: we ran 5.5 miles, it was awesome, and my knee really isn’t bothering me.

WHAT? I know, I can hardly believe it. I won’t say too much, cause it’s only going on 4 hours after running, but I really think it’s on the mend. I don’t want to or plan to go crazy running, but it is so amazingly joyous that it’s not stiff and slightly painful.

The run was good. I sucked air for a little while, but then just got in a groove and managed to keep my running form in good shape and astonizhed myself when I asked Brynn at the 20 min, 30 min and 1 hr marks how long we’d been running. I didn’t bring my watch, which turned out to be quite a blessing. Maybe that’s the problem with me. I should just always go running without a watch!

In any event, I was focusing on the upper-cut of my arm swing on the uphills and really trying to keep my feet nice and light, my chin down and the crown of my head light and tall to the sky. I also focused on aligning my body forward so that I didn’t have ’stray parts’ going in other directions than my y’chi. It worked wonders. I really like having a running buddy, too. Some days it’s nice to go out alone and just really get into my head, and other days I am so sick of myself I just want company on my running routes. Thanks Brynn!

Overall I was astonished, happy and proud about our run today. We ran the 5.5 miles in about an hour, which included a few stops (@ lights) and a quick detour to pick up som moxa sticks @ the acupuncturist. All told, we rocked the run today!

PS. Ivan and I were dog sitting this weekend for Katherine and Danny (the dog is Mei Ling, no jokes, please) and my friend Rachel’s dog, Nuna. They are freakishly alike, and they had a great time playing. We took them for a hike on Saturday and this is how they were the rest of the afternoon:

Mei Ling (darker) and Nuna (lighter) in the backyard

everyone knows that!

My friend Brynn and I went running for a quick second around Biltmore Forest neighborhood, a lovely area with little traffic and pretty lawns. We took it easy, and I felt pretty good. I wasn’t sore after running: we only ran about 22 minutes, but it was long enough to feel productive, and short enough my knee didn’t talk back. I stretched after the run, and did do the Body Looseners before running, which I have been negligent with. I think the knee and hip circles are going to be really restorative for me knee, and I have intention to make more of a habit about doing them, even if I don’t go for a run. I was also thinking of ‘tracking’ like I wrote in a previous post, about being able to lift my foot off the ground while running, making my big and small toe come off at the same time. It’s a good focus.

I honestly can’t figure out what is the cause of my funny little knee issue. I don’t want to induldge in the “what if” scenario because I think it is a bit gratuitous: if I go there, I’ll probably let it hurt more. Sometimes I think of it like a yoga posture: if you look to the ground in a pose that’s balance oriented (all of them) you’re probably going to head ‘down’, ie fall down. So, if I use that same thinking and just recognize that my knee is in a strange place, honor it, and give it appropriate but not gratuitious attention, I believe it will heal itself.

But just as a word of warning for those of you who are expecting me to be running in Seattle with some crazy results: It may be a really slow run for Lizzie. I am just really looking forward to getting out there and running and having fun. Certainly the warm weather that’s creeping into North Carolina is giving encouraging rays of sunshine to the mornings to motivate some healthy movement.

Happy Friday you all.