ChiRunning

As you read in my last post, I've been dealing with injuries due to a road marathon and leaves covering rocks on a gnarly trail....things have been going well and I went on my first run yesterday since the ankle incident. It is still a little achy, but was not at all during the run. I did walk and run to feel it out and I'll continue to be cautious over the next couple of weeks.

This leads to the latest interest of mine. ChiRunning...

As I always do when having a rash of setbacks, I research the web. The last time I was having running problems was 5 years ago and the research led me to Phil Maffetone and his book, Training for Endurance. This type of training has changed me for life and has made running enjoyable again after 30+ years of hard road racing. I will always train this way, but not necessarily with a Heart Rate monitor. After ready Stu Mittleman's book, Slow Burn....he taught you how to run by sensing your effort and keeping the pace, breathing and HR down for better aerobic training. This was how I used to run back in the 80's after reading Ernst Van Aaken's book, The Van Aaken Method, which was basically low HR training methods, but many miles run. So as you can see, I have pretty much always been a low HR runner because it works without creating a lot of unneccesary stress on your body. Training with these methods I have run anywhere from a 4:55 mile up to a 2:49 marathon. It does work.

But that's not what this post is about....it's about the result of my latest research and what I found was ChiRunning. Yes, I have seem posts about it on the Ultra List and the Yahoo Ultrarunning group, but I always ignored it as some far out, extreme way of running and barely read the messages.

ChiRunning claims that by learning how to use the center of gravity and a little bit of lean in your step, you can run relaxed, which in turn relaxes all the muscles which in turn helps prevent injury. Some claims are of personal best times run after years of running. When it comes to things like this, I am somewhat a skeptic, but also have an open mind and will look into it more. I have purchased the book and began to read it last night. I'll let you know what I find. I am a little excited about this as I read more and more.

On another note it was mentioned this week that LaSportiva has become a 2009 sponsor of the Wasatch Speedgoats. This is awesome as I've been planning on trying these out in the Spring anyway. I know Bryon Powell likes them and chief goat Scott Mason told me that I'd like them, so I will have the colors of LaSportiva on my feet next racing season.

Til next time....Scrape on!
Steve