Leaning towards a spring marathon

Just now and then, something major comes along. An FA Cup final ticket, a new computer, the amputation of a limb, a wife, that sort of thing. I have a feeling in my lower back that Chi Running might be the latest big thing.

Lower back? I’m leaving the sensation there rather than transferring to the more conventional gut because I already have a resident back ache  from this morning’s practical introduction to the art, and I won’t get away with two corporeal twinges in one post. Anyway, saving energy by exploiting what’s already there is a fundamental principle of Chi Running. But first…

Week 4/60 comes to an end with more steady progress to report. Weight loss is still slightly ahead of target, at around 11.5 pounds in 4 weeks. The week has seen 3 gym visits and a couple of runs, or run-walks, including 9 kms on Sunday. Plus core and calf exercises, a spot of yoga, and a textbook  eating regime. Yesterday’s textbook, Advanced Operative Dentistry, was particularly filling.

Below the surface, the urgent diet and exercise debates continue: do I stick with what seems to have become a high protein / low carb diet with added liberation from gluten/wheat, dairy products, coffee, and of course alcohol? Any need to change? Alcohol is non-negotiable, but should I be using my loaf a bit more? For the first time ever, I worry that I’m not getting enough fat in my diet.

And running / exercise: when do I stop making it up as I go along, and find a plan to follow? That question dogged me all last week, so I spent the weekend pondering the training approach question. Naturally, Hal Higdon was the first port of call. I also dropped by Ben Greenfield, whose podcasts I listen to with a fervour normally reserved for the great Dr Karl. But, rather sadly, Hal seems a bit dog-eared these days, and champion triathlete Ben is perhaps too far removed from the fat middle-aged plodder constituency. I turned to Jeff Galloway and his famous run-walk method. This man does speak plodder, or claims to, yet he is still doggedly advocating a 26 mile long run three weeks before the race, even for beginners. But then…

I can’t recall exactly how I got Chi Running in my sights, but last Monday I bought a Kindle book with a title almost as long as the race itself: Chi Marathon: The Breakthrough Natural Running Program for a Pain-Free Half Marathon and Marathon.

I’ve been peripherally aware of Chi Running for a few years. I don’t know when it was first devised, or when Danny Dreyer’s original book was published, but it seems to have been a forum staple on Runner’s World for a long time. I was never curious enough to read the correspondence, but I had an inkling it combined running style with ‘mindfulness’, and that there was possibly some polite ideological war with Pose Runners, but I got no further.

But suddenly I understand it, and suddenly I suspect it may be the missing link; the answer to my injury frustrations. As I read the book, I became increasingly certain that it was addressing me and my running. It was giving me the tools to break down that wall I hadn’t been able to get through, even if it’s much more passive than bashing down walls makes it sound.

So what is it?

There are long, medium and short answers to that question. The medium length one can be found by reading the book and perhaps attending a class. The long one needs that plus plenty of experience practising it. So let’s stick with the short description.

Essentially, Chi Running promotes greater running efficiency by advocating a better aligned posture and mid-foot landing. In addition it demands that the core is engaged and that the runner leans forward (from the ankles, not the waist), allowing gravity to pull the body forward, rather than asking the legs to actively drive you onwards. Steps are relatively small, with an ideal target rate of 180 per minute (compared with my previous standard 150-155). The upper body accounts for 50% of the effort, with the arms ordered to pump at the same rate as the legs, and to remain perfectly aligned and facing forward.

You have to be conscious of your running form at all times  (particularly as a beginner). There are a number of ‘focuses’, each of which deals with one or more aspects of the technique. These focuses include posture, leaning, lower and upper body, and the concept of ‘gears’ which is how Chi Running allows you to change speed. As you run, you go through these focuses in turn, helping to ensure your ‘mindfulness’ is maintained

Readers below the age of 50 might just recall a mention of a chap called Paul on the Zurich Writing Workshop post who is the landlord of a blog called Fat to Fit Diaries. He wrote a pretty good summary of a Chi Running workshop he went to in the summer — good enough to get me off the hook, as it’s the very same class I went to last Saturday, with Fiona McLellan, Zurich’s Chi Running guru. You will find his post here. Worth reading.

Having to set the alarm for 6.30 on a Saturday was cruel, but what the hell — sleep is overrated anyway.  The venue near Wipkingen, one of Zurich’s many handsome suburbs, was a curious place — a community centre in the middle of a small, well manicured park alongside the Limmat.

Fiona was waiting for me in an empty art studio. I was expecting just the two of us but we were joined by one of her workmates. Martina, from Austria, who revealed that she runs twice a year, when she takes part in a couple of races — 5K and 10K. She couldn’t really understand training, she explained, and had no enthusiasm for running without the excitement of a race. She was hoping that learning more about the Chi method might encourage her to get out there. She could probably be a cracking runner if she put her mind to it. Unlike some of the attendees, she has youth and agility on her side. It would be unfair to name names, but some of her classmates were carrying a 25  year / 30 pound (13.8 kg) penalty — a fact  all too clearly illustrated by the X-rated video taken at the end of the 4-hour session.

Fiona, an effervescent Scot, was also great company, and an accomplished trainer. She knows her stuff, and I urge all runners in Switzerland, and indeed right across mainland Europe, to throw their money at her.  This was the best 80 CHF I’ve spent  in a long time.

On Sunday, the final day of Week 4/60, I thought I’d try out some of these ideas on an afternoon plod in the woods at the end of my road. Our stretch of Wald is very pretty, with dozens of precipitous paths and steps and mini-waterfalls. It’s a delight, but not, it turns out, well suited to novice Chi Running, so I continued out the far end and kept going, with my planned 30 minutes extended to about 9 kilometres (so quite a lot more than 30 minutes in my current enforced run-walk state). Finally, I came across a long, fairly straight stretch of road where I was able to give full expression to my new lean and mean running mindset.

As a new Chi Runner, remembering the focuses simultaneously isn’t easy. Impossible, in fact, hence the incremental method advocated in the marathon book. This is the path I will follow. The book is well-written, and dense with detail and explanation and illustration. It’s a big reasons for deciding to throw in my lot with it. From the start, it was plain this is a long-held, rigorously considered methodology, and not some flavour-of-the-month money-spinner.

So where is this all heading? I mentioned the Paris Marathon on April 7 last time. Then I told myself this was too soon, and perhaps Stockholm on June 1st would be more realistic. Or even Berlin in September….

Amid this indecision, I found the Chi Running marathon book, and saw that it details a 24 week marathon training plan. On Sunday, when I got back from my first tentative Chi run, I checked my spreadsheet and noticed that it was exactly 24 weeks until the Paris Marathon. So who knows?