I just ran my first Half-Marathon! I’ve been training for the Berkeley Half-marathon (November 20th, 2016) for the past few months. I’ve run several 10 or 12 mile runs with my running group. This is no small feat given that I only started running two summers ago and ran my first 5K last November at the 2015 Berkeley Half. The only way for me to have the discipline to increase my mileage was to join a running group. I’ve been running with RUN365 on weekends to accomplish this. In addition to the long runs, I run shorter distances twice during the week – once on my own and once with a friend.
I’ve never been a runner. In fact, I never even considered it! I was a swimmer in high school and swam with Berkeley Aquatic Masters (BAM!) for over 10 years. It took tearing my rotator cuff and essentially not doing any upper body exercise for long enough to inspire me to learn to run so that I could move and get my ya-ya’s out!
Preceding this by a few years I had developed Plantar Fascitis, and had looked into running ironically as a way out of pain. I’ve blogged about this chapter in my life before, but in a nutshell, I read every book I could get my hands on about feet and running. I read Christopher McDougall’s book “Born to Run,” and “Barefoot Running” by Ken Bob Saxton. I tried running in Vibrim 5 finger shoes, in Hirachis and barefoot. Nothing ultimately worked for me until I addressed the Plantar Fascitis first. I turned to a colleague of mine in San Rafael, Dr Derik Anderson, who fixed me up using various myofascial modalities including Shockwave Therapy to break up scar tissue. Only then was I ready and able to run. And only once I couldn’t swim well due to my shoulder did I begin to look again at running options.
That’s when I learned of Chi Running. The system makes sense to me. Being 50, I don’t want to shock my joints through traditional heel strike “power running” expecially since I run mostly on pavement. Chi Running was developed by Danny Dreyer and uses concepts from Chi-Gong and biomechanics that don’t tax the body. I’ve taken two local workshops and work privately with Lucrecia Aussie, Berkeley’s local senior Chi Running Coach.
For more info on Chi Running, see my July 2015 Blog and go to www.chirunning.com