February
2006 Setting
the Stage: First Ultra Keeping a running
journal is like growing asparagus. You put effort into buying, planting and caring
for the vegetable, all the time knowing the fruits of your labor won’t be edible
for 3 years. In the mean time, one’s appetite for the homegrown becomes dampened
by the convenience of store bought, and tending to a time-capsuled garden becomes
less of a draw. So too, is the process
of journaling. Putting finger to keyboard and internalizing from experience get
relegated to, “tomorrow” and “I won’t forget”. Running
for two and half years, all post-cardiac stent, I’ve learned volumes about my
Experiment of One. In year-one, my mandate for improved health was an initial
commitment to (settle for) the role of 5K King… until… I was blind-sided
by Marathon Jeannie’s plan for us to run a half-marathon later that year.
Year-two became the audacious challenge to run my first marathon, and then back-to-back
marathons (5-weeks apart). In preparation for back-to-back marathons, my training
strategy was to learn how my body would respond to back-to-back long-runs through
a commitment of more frequent rest days and training tapers. Now,
it’s 2006. My Experiment of One has moved into the ultra arena – distances
longer then a marathon. Training will revolve around a plan to run my first ultra
race on 7/22/06 (Damn,
Wakely Dam Ultra – 32.6 miles), a 210-mile team relay on 9/15/06 (Reach the Beach Relay,
NH), the NYC Marathon (should I be lucky to win its lottery) or another
ultra in November. I’ll add trail-running
to my weekly long runs, and use the Lake Placid Marathon (7/11/06) as a training run for the ultra
in July. "g-running"
Goes ChiRunning My friends get me into
trouble. Long Shots forced me to start running... Fast John
forces me to be daring... and, Marathon Jeannie? Dang... it's her
fault I'm ChiRunning. ChiRunning is a
running-form coined so by Danny Dreyer in his book, ChiRunning. Steeped
in the philosophy of Tai-Chi, the practical aspect of ChiRunning is to change
one's running form from straight-up, to leaning forward. It's about landing on
your mid-foot, keeping your legs relaxed from the knee down, and allowing your
lean and cadence to propel you forward. (Oh sure.) It's what the Kenyans do...
and you know how fast and winning they tend to be! What
truly sold me on the idea to ChiRun was how the book compared my running
form with ChiRunning. Essentially, most runners (1) land on their heel and (2)
push off on their toes or balls of their feet. Dreyer refers to this process as
a (1) breaking/stopping action and (2) a pushing-off/starting action - about
80-90 times per minute per foot! If every foot-strike to the ground is both
a stopping and then starting action, the runner's form (and foot
strike) is occurring in a way that is inefficient and contradictory. (Why stop
when you want to move forward?) OK. There's more
to ChiRunning then what's just been stated, but I'm now a believer. I've
been working it for over a month, I've reread sections of the book many-many
times, I'm visualizing ChiRunning form.... oh-geez. What am I becoming? Since
my foot strike is now different, I noticed the anatomy of my (former) running
show didn't feel quite right. (Interestingly, I had been thinking the same before
ChiRunning.) With plenty of trepidation, I made the decision to change running
shoes. Instead of an ASICS shoe (the 2080 to GT-2100 pedigree) for mild/normal
pronation, I'm now running in Brooks, Adrenaline (cushioning feature for
normal pronation/arch support). I think this is a go. Today
it's 20 degrees, windy and clear skies. Shortly, Fast John and I will be
running an 18 mi. loop. May the ChiForce be with me! | 
