The heat was on this past weekend. The running club that I belong to (Tamalpa Runners) held its monthly club race on my home course on Sunday.  I had no excuse not to enter. The starting line wasn’t even half a mile from my house, I had no other plans for the morning, the course is part of my running route at least twice a week, the entry fee was just $3, and last but not least — it was the annual breakfast event. So you know what people say in such a situation?  “Hey, it’s your home turf, you should do well.” That’s what friends were saying and it started running through my mind like a nagging inner voice that wouldn’t stop. Talk about pressure. (more…)

As part of a recent trip to Florida to visit family and friends, my lady friend and I had scheduled in a Half Marathon run in Melbourne,  just south of Cape Canaveral.  Coming from winter weather in Oregon, we looked forward to a nice change from rainy skies and cool temperatures - running a Half in the sun would be a real treat.  But we had overlooked one thing  in our race strategy planning - the wind.

So, there we were, starting out at daybreak among a couple of thousand others at the second running of the Melbourne and Beaches Marathon and Half Marathon. As is my usual practice, I went through my looseners, scanned myself for tense or needy areas, thought through some of the form focuses I would be using during the run - and then I noticed the wind. People around me were discussing the likely impact of the wind on certain parts of this one loop Half Marathon course with its two long, elevated bridges where the wind would definitely come into play.  What should, and could, I do about it? (more…)

As those of you who have been reading my blog will know, I had hoped to run my first marathon in April this year.  I have been following the ChiRunning Beginner Marathon Program which I was really enjoying but I simply wasn’t able to get in the required long runs due to circumstances beyond my control.  I could probably still run it but I would not be as well prepared as I would like to be and I really want to be in the best place physically and mentally before I take it on. (more…)

On Super Bowl Sunday I ran in a 7 mile race, aptly called the Super Bowl Run. It’s a unique and fun race, with staggered start times and individual handicaps. Part of the fun is all the pre-race begging and complaining and bribery that goes on when runners receive their handicaps, which are not revealed until race day. There are great prizes too — the top 25 runners receive a bottle of red wine. Good wine.

Fast forward to the finish line. There I am, running as hard as I can and the race director is yelling “Hazel, you got the last bottle of wine!” I’m happy, I’m proud and I look down at the finishing stick that was handed to me. Even without my glasses the number looks clear: 26. Bummer. (more…)

Recently there has been a lot of discussion on the concept of running barefoot. There are some purists who suggest we should all be running barefoot, period. Personally, I don’t care for the word ’should’ in any context. It implies someone else telling us what to do or be, when we all have to decide that for ourselves.

But can we just go run barefoot? To help you answer this, consider how long it has been since you ran barefoot. 20 years, 40 years, 60 years?; most of us have not been running barefoot since we first learned how to run as toddlers (*). How many years of shoes, dress shoes, high heeled shoes, perhaps periods of inactivity, or of modern running shoes do you have in you? These are just a few examples of all the stimulus the body is adapting to every minute of every day. This adaptation happens slowly and if we want to reverse the resulting changes in posture, muscle strength, flexibility, balance and confidence; then (more…)

A few days ago, my boss forwarded a Nature magazine article to me that he thought I’d be interested in.  Thinking it was about something we were working on, much to my pleasure, I found it was an article by Daniel Leiberman et al regarding barefoot running. By now, most of you have probably read about this article, (more…)

Its week 13 of marathon training and I have managed to keep up with the marathon training plan more or less.  I’m not quite where I should be in terms of the length of my longer runs due to other demands on my time and as the long run is the most important part of marathon training, I will have to decide at some point if my April marathon is too soon.  

Running continues to get better and better.  I am running more often and for longer which gives me the opportunity to practise even more.  The habit of engaging my core and staying aligned has become deeply ingrained.  (more…)

In a previous post (Running Motion for a Midfoot Strike), the ChiRunning motion was described as a midfoot (full-foot) landing with a heel lift/knee bend. Along with this motion, it is also very important to keep the legs and feet relaxed.

Running with a relaxed midfoot (full-foot) strike allows a subtle forward lean (fall) from the ankles to propel you forward with no resistance. If the legs/feet/ankles are holding tension, then the hinge (ankle) is stiff which acts as a brake against your forward fall. Relaxation also removes a significant amount of stress from the lower legs and feet. The statistics indicate that 65-80% of all runners get injured each year in some way. And most of those injuries are at the knee and below. Could it be that we are asking a relatively small part of our body to do a very big job? If we can relax the lower legs and feet, then we can (more…)

As wonderful and liberating as trail running can be, it is almost inevitable that a fall is somewhere in a trail runner’s future. The question is not “if” but “when” and how well the runner will roll, recover and begin running again. Along these lines, I’d like to share a recent experience I had while running a trail marathon near Mt Hood in Oregon.

During the second of two loops on a trail around a large lake, I was running along in good ChiRunning style only vaguely noticing the plethora of roots that  covered the terrain. I recall feeling good, moving steadily forward with no apparent worries in the world.  Then, in an instant,  as if hit by a bolt of lightening, I was stumbling and on my way down.  No time to think, I hit the dirt and like a child in a gymnastics class, I rolled forward over one shoulder and was back up and running before I knew what had happened. (more…)

For those of us in northern climates, winters with cold, snow and ice are facts of life. Nothing against my surfing ChiRunning buddies, but northerners know that our winters make us tough. They can also make us better ChiRunners.

I’ve come up with a few examples of how ChiRunning in the great white north is not only possible but can improve your running form. (more…)