Chi Running

I'm nearing the end of my running journey, so I thought I'd share some of the things that have changed since I started.

When I told MrBrioche that I was doing the Couch to 10k challenge, he gave me this book that he said helped him when he was running. He said he could do 5k comfortably, and then he found this book and it completely changed the way he ran.

The essence of the book is advocating a running style that blends tai chi and running. The author talks about how tai chi is about going with that natural flow, and the way that most runners run involves powering as hard as they can with their legs to go as fast as they can. He says that children are often the best runners, because when they run, they aren't focused on running, they're focused on getting somewhere, and so they will just let their body do its natural thing. Adults tend to focus too much on trying to run, rather than just running.

Instead, he suggests a bunch of minor tweaks to the way that you run, which should help you run in an injury-free way. Considering how A is slowly recovering from his many running injuries, I have been quite vigilant about not over-working myself and have put a lot of focus on listening to what my body is saying. So injury-free running sounded great to me.

A couple of big changes it suggests, the most important being the forward tilt. The idea is that you should always feel like you are falling forward, and it's the momentum from that which pushes you forward, rather than your legs pushing off the ground. So all your legs really need to be doing is moving forward to "catch" you, so you don't fall face-down into the ground. If you don't want to run as fast, don't lean as far forward. If you want to run faster, lean even more forward.

I have been trying to do that, and I can sort of get into it, but I don't think I'm doing it quite right. I do find that when I am able to do it, and I get a rhythm going, I almost forget that I'm running and get into that "runner's high" a lot faster.

The other important thing he talks about, which kinda comes as a consequence of the falling forward method, is where you land on your feet. You should land in the middle of your foot, rather than your heel (despite the fact that the guy in the picture on the book looks like he's landing on his heel). This way, the shock of hitting the ground is better distributed over your whole foot, rather than focused in one point, which should reduce the number of injuries that you get.

There are other things he talks about in the book, but I'm afraid of stealing his material. I'm still trying to incorporate everything in my runs, so I'm not entirely sold on the idea yet. He talks about how important breathing is, and that was one of the things I was able to work in right away, and it's crazy how much my breathing has changed. One of the things I struggled with most was breathing. Back when I was doing the shorter run times, I would always feel like my lungs were on fire by the time I hit a walking break. I'm constantly panting, and the sound of my feet hitting the ground would often be drowned out by the sound of me breathing.

He said he starts all of his runs breathing through his nose, and tries to see how long he can do that before he falls back to breathing through his mouth. The first time I did it, I think I took one full breath, and then had to fall back to my regular panting breaths. Now I can last about a minute and a half, but more importantly, I've noticed that I don't pant anymore while running. In fact, I rarely hear my own breath anymore. He says the reason a lot of people feel out of breath is not because they have trouble breathing in, but because they have trouble breathing out. He tries to breath in for three steps, and out for four. I used to breathe in for one and a half, and out for one and a half. Now I am able to do his 3-4 pattern - though most of the time, I don't even focus on my breathing, but it definitely feels a lot slower than it was before.

I want to give it another month or so, before I feel comfortable advocating it to others, but I think the biggest benefit to me so far has been the change in my breathing technique, so I would recommend that.