With just about everyone I knew telling me I should give it up, I decided to try ChiRunning as a last resort.  I had my doubts, but being 37 and trying to imagine never playing sports again was more than I could take.  I bought the book, read it in a day, and began to teach myself the technique.  

 

To keep a long story short, I was successful enough in my self teaching to completely eliminate injury.  I was so completely amazed by the technique that I decided to take the instructor certification course with Danny Dreyer that spring.  As a college teacher with over 15 years of classroom experience, I knew that even if I never taught a ChiRunning lesson, the instructor’s course would still be the best way tomake sure I was doing everything properly, and learn it straight from Danny himself!

The photo on the left was taken around 9:00 p.m. on September 29th, 2007.  Its a shot of my last step in the Chesapeakeman Ultra Distance (140.6 miles) Triathlon, and the end of a pretty amazing year.

In September of 2006, about one year before completing my first iron-distance tri, I was frustrated and demoralized, and on top of that, about 30 pounds over weight.  I had been trying to get back into running since earlier that spring, as a result of meeting the woman of my dreams who happened to be training for her first marathon.  Within two weeks of trying to keep up with this speedy woman, hoping she’d be obliged to go on one more date with me, I had my first of many injuries.  By the end of that summer I accumulated six calf tears, and one hamstring tear.  

Around that same time (January 2007), a new friend of mine put a bug in my ear by telling me he was registering for the Chesapeakeman.  I thought he was completely nuts.  And then a couple weeks later I registered.  And I knew I was completely nuts.  

 

Suddenly all of my training became focused on efficiency.  I had already begun learning the Total Immersion swimming technique, and ChiRunning fit right in.  Do more with less effort.  Within a very short time the idea of swimming 2.4 miles started sounding, well, easy.  Then, within a couple of months of injury-free running, 26.2 miles began to sound possible.  Likely?  I wasn’t convinced of that, but somehow I became more motivated than I think I have been in my entire life.

 

So I took the ChiRunning course in March, and everything that already amazed me about the technique was amplified at least 100 times.

The photo on the left is from the Broad Street Run (Maggie is just behind my left shoulder).  This was my first big running accomplishment.  10 miles hard and fast with no issues to slow me down.  And it was really cool to run a race with my sweetie.  Maggie ran a PR for the third year in a row, and I posted a time that will be tough to beat next year (1:16.41).

 

After Broad Street I decided to run the Vermont City Marathon.  My ironman training was progressing as planned, but I was only planning to be up to about 18 miles by race day, so I upped my run training a little and did a 23 mile run about one week before.  Live and learn.

I ran most of the marathon with Maggie’s dad, Bob, and although we both had some cramping issues during the last six miles, we ended up crossing the finish line side by side.  We were both hoping to break 4:00, and finished in 3:49.10.

 

This was the one time I really pushed the gradual progress too much, and almost ended up injured.  I spent a week recovering from a jarred SI joint, and threw off my training for the Philadelphia Olympic Distance Tri.

After that I stayed true to my number one goal for the year, to stay injury-free.  To do so required practicing body-awareness over everything else, and several times I revised my training schedule accordingly.  The end result was that I only completed about 275 hours of training, but that turned out to be enough to complete the Chesapeakman, and then finish the dreaded (2007) Chicago Marathon six days later.

 

Over the last year, since becoming a certified instructor, I have provided ChiRunning lessons to several dozen people.  All of my students have come to me with unique issues, concerns and goals, and I believe each one has gained their own valuable insight into running efficiently and injury-free.  I can’t really explain how cool it is to help other people keep running, especially when I was so close to quitting myself.  It takes a special attitude (and a relatively tamed ego) to make major changes to one’s running technique, and for that I am very proud of all of my students.

Now it is winter, 2007, and I am doing very little training, resting up mentally and physically so I can pick it back up again in January.  

 

Over the summer Maggie and I became engaged, and the wedding is set for June 28th.  Lots of planning to do, and my second crack at the Philly Tri will be one week before the wedding!  Maggie is playing around with the idea of doing her first sprint tri that same weekend, so I might end up doing a little bit of coaching.  I’ll have to be careful, because something tells me she could end up being pretty mean on a bike!  

 

All of the excitement definitely took its toll on triathlon and marathon training.  I pr’d in the Philly Tri by a few seconds, even though I had only ridden my bike 4 or 5 times.  My bike split suffered a full mile per hour, but I swam faster and cut my epic transitions to much more reasonable times.  In August Maggie, Bridget and I did the Stone Harbor Sprint Tri (Maggie and Bridget’s first!) and we all had a good time.  Apparently its going to be an annual affair.

 

My ChiRunning practice continues to evolve.  I am continually amazed at how the learning never stops.  For this I owe a great deal to all of the students who have come to me for instruction, as there is no question that going over the drills (over and over and over) as an instructor pays dividends that are unquantifiable.  For this reason, along with many others, I strongly recommend that anyone who is interested consider becoming an instructor.  There is no better way to learn than by being a student and a teacher at the same time (my ChiRunning practice turns out to be a great example of a hermeneutic circle!)  

 

Here is a list of concepts that I believe will be my main focus areas over the next year (this is in regard to my own running).

        Relaxing (particularly the ankles)

        Speed (no race over 13.1, main focus on 5K/sprint tris)

        Breathing

        I-Chi (channeling energy toward the goal at hand)

        Ongoing Zen studies under Zoe and Maisy, our cats

 

 

December 2008

 

Its been a year since my last update here, and I guess I will just continue in blog form.  Apparently some people have enjoyed reading this before or after taking a lesson, so here it goes . . .

 

This past year was an interesting one, full of lots of new learning, and exciting developments on the personal front. May and June were unbelievable.  We bought our first house in May, on June 26th I was informed that I was officially hired at Community College of Philadelphia, and Maggie and I were married on June 28th.  Since we both had the summer off we just enjoyed being married and living in our new home.  As if this year could be any better, our Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series in October!