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.

We went to see a show last night at a a local venue, and I had several moments of gratefulness for ChiRunning and ChiWalking and what they have taught me about learning to listen to my body:

1. The band last night consisted of a banjo player, a bassist, a guitarist, and a drummer. Once during each song, I would concentrate on trying to hear each instrument individually, singling it out from the other instruments playing at the same moment: for someone who has no musical talent, it’s a slightly difficult exercise.

   I realized as I was doing this exercise, that it’s very much like doing a Body Scan and listening to my body as I am walking or running: taking a moment to do a Scan, sense any tightness, recognizing it and letting it go.

   I am extraordinarily grateful for the knowledge of Body Scanning: every time something in my body needs attention when I am running or walking (or standing or sitting or washing dishes), I now have the skills to listen, to respond and to learn.

2. The venue where we saw music last night has very few seats. As a result, like most musical venues, we stood for the entire show, about 4 hours.

   Partway through the show, I realized that my back didn’t hurt at all, that my knees were soft, my core engaged and my feet felt perfectly normal. I can distinctly remember in years past, going to see shows, or walking through cities, or going to a museum and feeling absolutely wiped out after only a few hours.

   Thanks to ChiRunning and ChiWalking, I have learned to pay attention to my body all the time and am always prepared to listen and respond in order to keep my body happy, moving painlessly and without injury.

Over Thanksgiving, I have spent time on my feet in the kitchen, at parties, shopping, talking to friends. I have spend a lot of time walking as well, talking strolls with Oliver and Ivan. I can say that the entire holiday has been spent blissfully, listening to my body, learning what it needed, and responding with an appropriate Form Focus right in the moment.

What a gift! There are many of you who know what I am talking about. There are some of you who are learning… Just imagine how many people out there have yet to learn about the gift of pain-free movement!

In the past week, I’ve gone running three times. Lately, that’s a lot for me! I’ve been making the time to get outdoors and enjoy the crisp fall mornings.

Sunday I went running for 3.8 miles with the dog, surprising myself, and the dog as well. We had great weather that morning and going running sounded like just the perfect thing to do. I was focused only on not stepping past my hip and landing midfoot. I felt great the entire run, and couldn’t believe when I got home to map it that we’d run that far; I felt like I’d barely done anything!

Yesterday morning, I took Oliver the dog and went running at the park near my house, where we happened upon a Great Blue Heron standing in a puddle of water, the remains of three days of solid rain. Oliver stopped dead in his tracks and simply watched in awe, as did I. That was a nice way to start the morning.

Then, today, I went running with 5 other Certified Instructors; this weekend is an Instructors-only event here in Asheville, to work on our form, our teaching, and our business practices… I took them to one of my favorite little forest areas that Danny introduced me to. My focuses were landing midfoot, and on the trails, keeping my lower legs as limp as possible. I can distinctly remember, not too long ago, when the idea of trail running with other people would have been absolutely out of the question for me. What progress, thanks entirely to ChiRunning.

It was a glorious morning for ChiRunning, and when we finished, I felt so inspired and refreshed. I usually run solo, so running with others was very nice. I highly encourage any of you who usually run solo to try to find the right time and place and partner(s), and have a bit of a social time. It was so much fun to go running together, watching our forms, commenting, speeding up and slowing down, laughing and enjoying moving our bodies together, painlessly and joyfully.

Thanks everyone!

As you’ll see from the photo on the November newsletter, Asheville is ablaze with color. As the leaves fall to the ground, they bring the color to our feet… combine the leaves with rain, however, and you get a somewhat treacherous path.

We took Oliver for a hike yesterday in the drizzling rain. We went up the Blue Ridge Parkway to a nice area of the mountains. We encountered other dogs along the way, which is always fun to watch: they tear up and down the path, apparently oblivious to rocks, black mud, slippery leaves and steep drop offs. Ah, the joys of being on the trail!

I discovered something about shoes: I tend to wear the NB 790s all the time when I hike or run. Yesterday, because of the rain, I chose to wear a different pair, a cross between a hiking boot and a running shoe. They’re very comfortable, but have a much thicker bottom than the 790s. I found myself moving much more slowly than I normally do, somewhat terrified of falling down the slippery slopes. To counteract the “negative” effect my shoes were having on my mobility, I focused on a few simple things:

• Small steps, making sure to land on a solid piece of ground, with as much of my foot as possible.
• Keeping my core engaged. The more I kept my core engaged, the more I was able to maintain balance and center my hips over my feet, to prevent slipping.
• Kept my eyes alternately looking up and forward (Y’chi) and keeping my eyes on the ground, watching where my feet should go.
• Limp lower legs: it sounds difficult to do on a slippery surfaces, but the more I kept my core engaged, and trusted my balance and foot placement, the less I needed to effort with my legs. So especially when traveling uphills, I just tried to imagine that my leg muscles weren’t engaging. Like if I had a pair of magical muscle-watching goggles, I wouldn’t see any shift in effort in my leg muscles as we walked uphill along rocks and roots and leaves.

Of course, I also had to keep my knees a bit soft as Oliver loves to tear around the trail and I didn’t want to get clipped and end up on my rear-end… What fun to watch him! It’s so inspiring to see my dog run, as Danny has mentioned about running with Mei Ling. There is so much joy that comes from moving freely.

Go out there and move happily and freely. There are very few other feelings quite as liberating.

Oliver trodding happily on the leaf-covered ground.

So, I had the pleasure of coming to NYC to assist Danny teach a workshop on Saturday in Manhattan. A great group of people enjoyed the day with us, and we were all thankful the weather held off and it didn’t rain!

I also had the pleasure of going for a run with Danny in Central Park this morning. After spending all day listening to his lessons yesterday, my head was full of ideas and things to focus on.

The weather was quite chilly and wet as we headed to the park. We were staying on the Upper East Side, and entered the park around 79th, took a tour up around the lake, then weaved our way down to Columbus Circle and then back up to 79th. Not sure how far we went, but it was a full hour and felt very good.

It’s fun to go running with Danny because it really teaches me to be accountable and make sure I’m really in form. I was focusing, as always, on keeping more lower abs engaged and kepping my crown nice and high. Those two focuses almost always do the ”trick” for me and really keep me in my body.

My right knee was  bit stiff starting out, so I kept focusing on not stepping past my hip and really allowing my pelvis to rotate behind me as I was running. After we got about 15 minutes into the run, my knee had loosened up.

We ran along the gravel paths most of the way around, which is more fun and scenic that running on the asphalt, and a bit more protected from the rain! As we turned around the south end of the park and headed north, we were facing a pretty signinficant headwind. By that time, my legs were starting to talk to me, and Danny had a great suggestion: “When the wind hits you like that, really let it take your legs out from you and blow backwards. Just imagine that the wind is blowing your legs behind you.”

The second I got that focus into my head, my ease of running improved immediately. I kept leaning into the wind, kept my core strong, and simply let the wind take my legs behind me.

It was a fun run, and compared to the last time Danny and I ran in Central Park together, I am pleased to say that I have learned a lot about myself, about running, and how to enjoy it all.

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.

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.

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

Now that I’ve had some time to let the experience of my 1st half simmer for a week or so, I have a laundry list of observations and thoughts.

• Pasta dinner is essential.
• I was pretty good about staying off my feet the day before the race, and the short 2 miler was a nice way to keep my muscles fresh and happy. I took it so easy, I didn’t want to strain anything or hurt myself, so the jog actually felt great and made me feel better about the race the next day.
• Getting good sleep 2 nights before the event helped. The night before is important, but for me, Friday night’s rest was more important than Saturday’s. By the time Sunday rolls around, it seems to me that enough sleep the night before is fine, but if you’re running on fumes anyway, a few extra hours the night before won’t help. That’s why I usually try to get a good night’s sleep two nights before a big event: travel, triathlon, undergraduate thesis defense, etc. Most of the time it works…
• I was curiously calm the day/evening before the race and even on race morning. I can attribute it to just being happy about whatever my results would be, about being prepared with all possible clothing/food combinations I might want, about having some fans who were so positive around the whole thing.
• Getting to the race with plenty of time was a good idea. I really dislike being late, so it was good to be early… but there’s a fine line between getting there TOO early and getting there with enough time. I think we did well.
• I ate three GUs during the race, though I wasn’t quite sure I needed them. During training, I usually only ate 1 GU during my 2 hour runs, but on the race I took 3. I’m not sure if that was a good idea or not. I imagine it didn’t hurt me, but I just don’t know if it was necessary. I’ll have to play with that a little more as I train for the next race.
• I didn’t stop to have water (and didn’t carry any with me) until the 6 mile marker: I didn’t feel I needed it and certainly trained on longer runs without any water at all. So from mile 6 on, I slowed to a fast walk at each water station and just drank 2 cup of water. I messed up at the 2nd to last station and got a cup of Gatorade, which I wasn’t expecting. I think I had an espresso GU and lemon-lime Gatorade. YUCK.
• The walking at the stations helped. It gave me time to get my bearings, feel my body at a slower speed, get some water in my system, etc. It felt very strange to go from run to walk, but starting back to running was easy: I just leaned!
• My right calf at the beginning of the race was a little bothersome. Just a little bit. Right in the middle of my calf, the mild pain was running vertically along the muscle. It started to creep down into my ankle and I think by mile 4 it was gone. All I did was focus on not using my lower legs: i pretended my feet were just like dog ears or something that were just floppy as could be. No tension, no stress, no strength. I think it worked because it was gone from about mile 4 till now. Hasn’t bothered me since.
• Miles 9-11 were difficult for me. I ran the race in my newer pair of 790’s, which I’d not had for a week. (Bad, I know.) I think they just hadn’t melded to my feet yet and were still a bit ’stiff’. I use that term lightly because these shoes are nice and flexible, but you know what I mean. In any event, the sides of each of my feet at various alternating times. It was sort of strange, but I just really thought about my column and tried to lean enough that I wasn’t using my calf muscles, and lean enough that I could keep my feet hitting at the bottom of my column, behind my hips.
• My knees started to ache about mile 9 and that was a little alarming to me. In the past when I run about 9 miles, that’s when my knees start to ache. I did the same focus as I did with my feet, just trying to keep my column straight, my core engaged, and my feet hitting behind my center of mass.
• As you’ll see in these pictures, sometimes I had a great lean and foot strike and then other times (Sigh) I was just totally heel striking. Strange!
• I sent these pictures to my parents, who have watched my play sports since I was very young. Dad called this morning to say, ‘You know, Elizabeth, you look more relaxed in these pictures than you ever have while exercising. Your face isn’t even red!”
• The crowds were amazing. Truly amazing. Between tootsie rolls, Kleenex, blaring boomboxes and supportive shouts, I was a smiling fool. There’s a really funny picture at the finish line from the event photographers’ site (above) where I am crossing the finish line and my head is up towards the sun, eyes more or less closed and a huge grin spread across my face. I think it’s hilarious.
• The finish was truly incredible. Really, I thought the crowd was cheering for me! For the group I was running with! Oh yeah, these people love this stuff! WOW… and then I just started to realize that it couldn’t possibly be me that they were cheering for… Maybe it was a person coming full tilt behind me? Maybe it was a special needs coming to a blazing fast finish? Maybe it was… OH my GOSH! it was the MARATHON winner, Deriba Merga blazing past me in the adjacent lane, taking his last turn before his 20-year-record-breaking finish of 2:07:52. That’s so fast! Anyway, he was running past us and I just started screaming along with the crowd and got all sorts of excited and finished the last 200 yards or so in a full out 4th gear, at least in a 4th gear that I had left in me.
• The last 1.5 miles felt SO LONG. I thought it would go fast, but really it seemed to take forever. When I saw the sign saying ‘Only 1.5 to go!’ I was like, “Oh, I’m gonna run this so fast!” but it felt like it took forever. Probably it was my fastest pace, but that’s just the way the brain works, doesn’t it?
• When I was finished and walking back inside to be showered with ‘Congratulations!’ and the medal stuff by the volunteers, I was in a daze. I didn’t feel particularly tired, and I think at one point I actually thought, ‘Well that wasn’t so bad after all.’

I never thought the day would come that I can honestly say I can’t wait till the next race…

Stay tuned… I’ll keep posting here, with all sorts of new breakthroughs and lessons.

Thanks again to everyone’s support for making it possible.

I am happy to announce that yesterday’s Houston Aramco 1/2 Marathon was an incredible success.

Richard, Kristin and I all completed the race, with smiles on our faces. Kristin kicked butt and ran in under two hours, Richard beat his PR by a great margin, and I ran in 2:05. ! I was expecting 2:15 or longer. How thrilling!

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We all woke up about 4 am on Sunday, after preparing our things on Saturday night… I had laid out my clothes, already pinned my bib to my shirt, had all my possible layers in the Expo Bag, plus water, Gu x3, Sharkies, chapstick, etc. etc.

I woke up feeling very mellow and excited. I wasn’t nervous, I wasn’t worried, I was just calm, spent a great deal of the car ride over visualizing a great race, a run somewhere in the 2 hour range, envisioning great form and a smile on my face.

I will write more details when we get home tonight, but I just want you all to know that I had a smile on my face the entire time, my form felt great, although I had a few twinges I managed to work through them… Also, my first mile was about a 10.50 pace and apparently I averaged a 9.36 pace over the course of the race, so I picked it up somewhere (especially the end!) and had so much fun.

It was so great at the end with the large incredible amounts of screaming fans (I thought they were for me and the group I was in, but in fact, the roar of the crowd was for the marathon finisher who came in at the same time, breaking his own PR and a 20 year-old race record.) Nevertheless, the cheers were extra motivating and a finish line has never been so wonderful!

I’ll be sure to post pictures and to share the more ‘internal’ details, but I just wanted to inform all of my devoted readers the most recent update.

With all my gratitude and thanks, THANK YOU! I couldn’t have done it without all your support.

More later…