Training Begins!

This year I’m planning to run three marathons: Green Bay (May), San Francisco (July) and Bilbao (October). Both my brother and my mom are running in San Francisco also—it’ll be their first marathon! And then my family and I are thinking about doing the Goofy Challenge (a half and full marathon in the same weekend) at Disney World in January.

I took last week off from running, chocking it up to “recovery” from my last marathon. (In reality, though, I was fine since Tuesday.) It was nice having a few days off, but I’ve been itching to go for a run. 

Especially since I’ve been reading ChiRunning. It’s a really interesting book that talks about form and posture in running… and the testimonials/results of good form and posture are really astounding. Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter, where the author talks about his early experience with the practice:

That was when I began to experience a new level of smoothness and ease, often feeling as if I were skimming along on a conveyor belt. As I worked on technique, my sense of running more smoothly and efficiently gradually began to replace that old feeling of working hard to run. My breathing became less labored, my muscles were not getting sore, and many times I would feel better at the end of a run than I did when I started. I could go out for a thirty-mile run and come back without any major discomfort: an exhilarating realization. “Postrun recovery” began to take on a whole new meaning—hours instead of days, and sometimes no time at all.

Judging from the testimonials of people who’ve taken his classes and read his book, he’s not unique in that. It all seems pretty incredible, and I’m excited for what this can do for my running. I had my first training run today—a 30-minute tempo run—and it felt fantastic. 

Interested? Check out the book on Amazon.