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.

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.

Hi all!

Seattle was great. The Expo was fantastic (great to see all of you runners there!) and the weather on race day was wonderful; sunny and fairly cool. Sarah and I were in a rearward corral and waited almost an hour to cross the start line, but we kept a positive attitude and enjoyed the many other walkers and runners and the beautiful sunshine.

It was a really lovely course, with enough hills but nothing too killer. Sarah and I walked, but threw in a couple of run “breaks” for good measure. I focused a lot on trying to keep my forward stride short, and the end of my stride long, extending rearward, aided by good pelvic rotation. I kept my core engaged the whole time (that afternoon my core muscles were sore!) and I think that helped alleviate stress on my knee. I kept my arms moving at a nice clip and we definitely made sure to slow down for a picture-op or to listen to the many great bands that were along the route.

The “C” Shape is something I constantly need to work on, and so I spent a great deal of time reestablishing my form during the race using the “C” Shape imagery: core engaged creates the bottom of the C, crown tall/chin down creates the top of the C.

About mile 11, the bottoms of my feet started to hurt. I did a Body Scan, and after a few minutes, was certain my form was in very good condition. I believe the amount of time on my feet the two days prior at the Expo, put some strain on my feet that I wasn’t adequately prepared for.  Sarah and I made it to the finish line in a respectable 3:07, where I soon propped up for a leg drain and ate a banana. We walked back to the hotel gingerly and spent the afternoon lounging around the hotel floor, stretching and rubbing our legs out.

The next several days I had some soreness in the bottoms of my feet (but no where else!), which extended to the lateral side of the top of my feet. Plantar fasciitis was trying to rear its nastiness on my feet. With a couple good doses of Advil, rolling golf balls under my feet and staying off my feet, the plantar seems to be almost back to normal. For those of you who have suffered from plantar fasciitis, I have the greatest sympathy and understanding. And for those of you who haven’t had it, do everything you can to avoid it. As Danny says, “There are a few things in this world I would not wish on my worst enemy.”

Thank you for supporting me along the way, folks. I appreciate it greatly. I’ll keep posting about my running and walking practices, which I am excited to keep developing and deepening. Ivan and I got a dog, too, so that’s sure to keep me motivated for daily walks and runs.

Here’s the keeping yourself centered with mindfulness and strength.

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).

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!

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.

hi folks… how are you all?

I have been running, a few times, though nothing too long. I have also taught ChiRunning twice recently,  and it’s so completely satisfying. Trying to teach running is making me realize how much ChiRunning really is a process. I give myself a hard time for not being perfect with my running form, for having a twinge here and there. But that’s the whole process, it’s about listening and adjusting, listening and adjusting. Always going back to Body Sensing so that you can really get into your running form and enjoy the simple act of running.

One of our Instructors has this tag line on her email signature: “Somebody busier than you is out running right now.”  !!

Part of my absence is indeed do to being busy, but I have to be honest with you all: I have had a little running pain. My knee is bugging me. As some of you know, after my race, I did something to it, and the medial side of my right knee has been a squeaky wheel.

I know that with ChiRunning, my chances of injury are low, low, low but despite that, I am listening to my body, and she’s saying, “Let’s back off the running for a little while.” I keep wanting to fight it, but I have been swimming instead, walking, lifting weights occassionally. I talked with Danny about it, and he suggested a few things to me:

• Keep my core engaged all the time. What this will help me do is alleviate some of the weight bearing down on my knee by lifting those muscles and bones in my upper legs. I tried it very consciously one day, and by the end of the day my knee felt better. Danny says that he is ALWAYS checking back in with his body every moment to see if his core is engaged. Wow.
• Pay attention to the way I move around when I am not running: being careful of not turning my upper body while keeping my feet stationary, being careful about getting out of the car, being careful about not driving with my ankle torqued laterally, about sleeping in such a way that my knee is not torqued.
• When I do run, to be really clear about tracking (both) leg(s) straight, not letting my right foot go splaying out, which it apparently likes to do, especially when I get tired. Master Instructor Kathy Griest gave this great visualization once about keeping your leg really aligned as you run: every time each foot comes off the ground, imagine that your big toe and little toe come off at the same time. What this will do is prevent your foot from straying out or in, creating torque on the knee or ankle.

So with all that said, I want to let you know that I am still here, I am still planning on running in June, I just need to listen to my body, and take it easy for the moment. I have a little disappointment creeping up on me that the Seattle R.n.R. race won’t be faster than Houston, but who’s counting? I went out to race Houston with a smile on my face, and it was great. I’ll do the same in June.