But, upon closer inspection, a limitation is really just a doorway into a new experience. The other side of what we might call a limitation is really just unknown territory. We’ve never been there, and in some cases, never even imagined ourselves there.

I once had a teacher who changed my relationship to limitations forever. He told me that every time I come up against what I think is a limitation, I should say to myself, “My current state, subject to change, is……..” and then fill in the blank as objectively as possible.

“My current state, subject to change, is that I can’t seem to break a 4-hour marathon.”

“My current state, subject to change, is that I want to lose those last five pounds and I can’t seem to do it.”

“My current state, subject to change, is that I want to run a 5K with my kid and I can’t even make it across the room without getting winded.”

What I’ve learned from this wonderful piece of sage advice is that, when I can see my limitations for what they are, I have a choice to make; I can either accept the challenge, or accept the limitation. I will never play basketball for the Lakers or beat Tiger Woods in a golf match. These are limitations I have accepted, and which I can do nothing about. But, if there is even the smallest part of me that looks at a limit and sees possibilities, then it becomes a challenge and I no longer see it as a limitation. It then becomes up to me to meet that challenge with all the vision, intention, resourcefulness, and expertise I can muster. This approach reminds me of the Serenity Prayer:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.”

As any good strategist will tell you, when you’re meeting a challenge, use what you know to get you to the unknown, beyond your current limit. Being resourceful means aligning all of your available resources and directing them toward your goal…even if that goal lies in unfamiliar territory. This brings up what sounds like a Universal Law: breaking through any limitation requires you to “up the ante” by doing either more than you’re currently doing, or going about it in a different way.

Let’s say you’re trying to run your fastest half marathon, and you can’t seem to break your previous times no matter how hard you try. What’s our “current state” of conditioning? How good is your running technique? What’s your strategy? If your cardiovascular conditioning is limiting you, then you need to improve that before you can expect to do better. What does that look like? It might  mean working to increase your cardio conditioning by throwing in some speed intervals into your  weekly training schedule. It might mean increasing your aerobic conditioning by adding some faster miles (3rd gear) at the end of your weekly long runs. If, on the other hand, it’s your technique that’s holding your back, it means constantly working on improving your running technique so you’re more efficient. It means knowing how fast each mile needs to be in order to beat your old time, and learning how to run faster by relaxing more, not by pushing harder.

Any one of these adjustments to your training might be the key to surpassing your limitation. All of them added together will guarantee it. So, when thinking through your plan for dusting your limitation, it is important to approach your challenge from as many angles as possible. Think about what skills you’re working with and how you can improve each of those skills over time, so that on the day you decide to meet your challenge, you can “just do it.” Not with pain and struggle, but from a place of abundance and confidence.

I’d venture to guess that if you’re like many regular runners, you have some semblance of a running program. You might have certain days you like to run or favorite running routes. Or, you go about your weekly training schedule getting in your weekly mileage and doing your best to stay healthy. But, how often do you actually work at getting better at your running? I’m not talking about getting in better shape; I’m talking about working to become a better runner…in whatever way that means for you: more relaxed, more efficient, being able to go farther or faster without increasing your effort level, maybe not having any injuries? For those of us who love to run, there’s a part of us that wishes we could keep running with no problems well into our later years. That’s why we made this app. If you’ve wanted to find a quicker and easier way to improve your running form, this is for you. 

The advantage to working with the ChiRunning App is that you have all of the ChiRunning lessons at your fingertips. You can instantly watch audio and video reminders of each of the ChiRunning focuses before heading out on your run.

Get the App >

You’ll be able to design four basic workouts – Intervals, Tempo Run, Long Slow Distance Run and Custom Run – by preselecting which ChiRunning focuses you’d like to be reminded of during each workout. Then, the app will save your choices for next time, or until you update them.

Keeping tabs on your training progress will be easy with the tracking feature. At the end of your run it will give you all the stats you need to know: mileage, pace, elevation gain, calories burned, and give you a map of the course you run, complete with mile (kilometer) markers.

One of the best features of the app is having my voice guiding you through every run, telling you which focuses to practice and when. It’ll be hard to go wrong, and your learning curve will be drastically shortened.

This app is like having your own personal ChiRunning coach, showing you what to do, how it’s done, and why it’s important. 

Watch the ChiRunning App Trailer

The app is divided into two main sections: “The Guided Run” and “Chi Lessons.” I’d suggest going through the Chi Lessons first to help you set up the “framework” of your ChiRunning technique.

The Chi Lessons
In this section you’ll find short video clips, laid out in a nice sequential flow, of how to do all the Chi Running Form Focuses. You see lessons on Posture, Lean, Upper Body, Lower Body, Footstrike, Gears, Cadence, and much more… right up to Begin Running. It’s like having All-things-ChiRunning right there in your iPhone (Note: This first version of the ChiRunning App is compatible with iPhone. Android version will be out by fall of 2013).

The Chi Lessons also contain video clips for how to do the pre-run Body Looseners and the post-run stretches. We’ve got you totally covered, from your warm-up before you run to your recovery once you finish.

Get the App >

The Guided Run
The second section of the app is the Guided Run, which, for me, is really the most exciting part of the app. We went a little crazy with the features for this part. The purpose of this section is to help you instill the ChiRunning Form Focuses in your body while you run.

There are five sub-categories to the Guided Run section: 1) Run Type, 2) Metronome, 3) Chi Focuses, 4) Body Looseners and 5) Post-run Stretches. This allows you to custom-design your own Guided Runs from beginning to end and store them as presets. In this way you can repeat each Guided Run until you can sense a good “body knowledge” of the Chi focuses, and how (and when) to use them.

1) Run Type – Preset four different workouts with the focuses you’d like to work on. The Run Types are: Intervals, Tempo run, Long Slow Distance and Custom.
2) Metronome – Set the metronome to your ideal cadence and practice running at all speeds with the same cadence. This teaches you how to use your “gears” and not overwork your legs. There are two sounds to choose from, and the range of the metronome is from 34 bpm to 220 bpm with options to emphasize every beat, every other beat, or every third beat, depending on what works best for you. Separate volume setting and on/off toggle.
3) Chi Focuses – 23 ChiRunning Focuses to choose from. Each one is a recording of my voice reminding you of what the focus is and its importance. In this section you can determine how many focuses you practice on any given run and set how often you are reminded of the focuses. They’ll play in sequential order and repeat at preselected intervals between 1 min. and 15 min. This feature can be toggled on/off and has a separate volume control. (If you listen to music while running, the music will fade while the focus is playing.)
4) Body Looseners – This feature has an on/off toggle and will automatically play sequential video clips of the complete Body Looseners routine before you begin running.
5) Post-Run Stretches – This feature allows you to choose and preset your favorite stretches. Then, it plays video reminders of your stretches at the end of your run.

Additional features include:

Help section – Where you can find the latest tips and tricks for using the app.
History – The app tracks and stores all your data from every run. This includes things like distance, overall time, pace, elevation gain, calories burned, a map of your route and a comment window where you can record notes after your workout. You can also share your workouts with friends on Facebook and Twitter.

As you can imagine, the possibilities this app offers, in terms of high quality training, are endless, regardless of your level of expertise or conditioning. Training for any race will take on a whole new level of mindfulness, preparedness and performance as the quality of your running becomes the focus of your workouts.

We put the app in happy running! Click here to get your app today. 

Watch the ChiRunning App Trailer

The Boston Marathon tragedy strikes so close to our hearts, as we love the running community and people who are brave enough to take on the Boston Marathon. Running the Boston Marathon is what we consider one of the great things a human being can aspire to. To have such a positive and wonderful event turn to such tragedy is overwhelming. To see an 8-year old boy, who was rallying for peace, lose his life at this event is beyond devastating. 

Danny and I have not lived lives without pain and difficulty. We’ve separately, and together, had our share. But, neither of us has ever been personally involved with what over 200 wounded people are facing after Boston. We did not lose any loved ones in this tragedy or some other tragedy. Despite our personal trials and tribulations, we are also blessed.

We do have a personal and internal process that we both find very helpful at times like this. It may seem simplistic and again, for anyone who has been personally affected, we are not presuming it is an answer. We just wanted to share what we do.

When tragedy strikes, we do what the sages and philosophers have suggested for ages: go within and learn from the experiences of the human condition. We are all human beings and have very similar internal experiences: from fear, anger, jealousy, and a desire to cause pain to the more exalted virtues of love, compassion, courage and a deep desire to be of help and service. We, as human beings, have a vast capacity to experience life from many different perspectives. It is our job to become consciously aware of what our most immediate experience is and to be with it as fully and with as much honesty and truth as we can.

And so, what Danny and I practice is to go within and listen as deeply as we can, to our own internal response to whatever is before us. In watching, we can see that sometimes we respond as victims, sometimes as perpetrators of cruel acts, sometimes full of fear and anxiety, and sometimes as loving and compassionate people who want nothing more than to help. Danny has taken on the mantle of the hero a few times in his life, risking his life to save a friend who was in a very dangerous climbing situation, and once saving the life of a man in a terrible car accident. He also knows that he can shut down emotionally when overwhelmed. I, on the other hand, can lose my boundaries and get very lost in my emotional response.

Being as self-aware as we know how to be is a practice that we are committed to in our daily lives, through times of quiet contemplation or meditation and also by bringing that self awareness to the moment as much as possible. We also practice together; Danny will listen to me, with as much focus and neutrality as possible, while I share my internal experience as honestly as I can. Then, I’ll do that for him. You can also do it for yourself, acting as witness to the full gamut of your own inner experiences and feelings. I have witnessed within myself anger that I am very glad has never been unleashed in the world, but which dissipated by being witnessed by my own observer.

It is a practice Danny and I both use in coaching people, whether runners or in personal coaching to help people find their way in life.

As Christ, Buddha, Gandhi and many spiritual leaders have alluded to: we are all “sinners”, we all experience the dark, as well as the more exalted, aspects of the human condition. But, do we acknowledge it in ourselves? That is the question. Do we accept our role and complicity in our daily lives? Do we take credit and responsibility for how we act out our parts?

Danny and I, in our own small way, are trying to take responsibility for how we contribute to the violence in society and the madness that drives other people to the brink.  How do we educate our daughter to treat other people? Is she taught to exclude and bully by watching our actions, or is she learning to be inclusive and compassionate?

In ChiRunning® we ask you to go a bit deeper with your running experience – to pay attention to the voice of your body; to pay attention to the voices in your head; to pay attention to the energy moving in and out with your breath; to listen more deeply to yourself. In ChiLiving® we ask that you do the same thing in your daily lives. Listen, without judgement, to your vast capacity to feel and experience life, and from that vantage point, make the wisest choice you can.

There is a helpless feeling when tragedy strikes. How can I help? How can I contribute in a positive way? Danny and I think that it is in our small daily actions that we can all contribute to creating a better world.

Finally, in Boston and around the world, it is the human spirit that wants what is good and beautiful to prevail, and it does. It is the acts of courage, the acts of heroism, the coming together of community – that seem to be the silver lining of the very dark cloud that was upon the Boston Marathon this year.

A primary focus of ChiRunning is quality; it’s great to get out and run, but it’s so much better for your body and mind when you run well. ChiRunning’s mission has always been to help people experience the joy of running for a lifetime, and we built the ChiRunning app to help you practice effortless, injury-free technique. You don’t have to worry about getting sidelined with injuries, and you come back from a run energized instead of exhausted and aching.

The ChiRunning app has some cool features: video lessons, a built-in metronome, and guided runs where I’m in your ear, giving you audio reminders the whole way (don’t worry – it’s easy to turn me off!) It’s like having your own ChiRunning coach running along with you.

Get the App >

If you’re using an app to track your workouts, why not improve the quality of your running at the same time? Potential injuries are a threat to every runner, and the more resources we can give runners to prevent them, the better. Click here to learn more about the app features and how they can make your runs faster, easier and injury-free. 

Running never felt this good!
 

The Boston Marathon tragedy strikes so close to our hearts, as we love the running community and people who are brave enough to take on the Boston Marathon. Running the Boston Marathon is what we consider one of the great things a human being can aspire to. To have such a positive and wonderful event turn to such tragedy is overwhelming. To see an 8-year old boy, who was rallying for peace, lose his life at this event is beyond devastating.

Danny and I have not lived lives without pain and difficulty. We’ve separately, and together, had our share. But, neither of us has ever been personally involved with what over 200 wounded people are facing after Boston. We did not lose any loved ones in this tragedy or some other tragedy. Despite our personal trials and tribulations, we are also blessed.

We do have a personal and internal process that we both find very helpful at times like this. It may seem simplistic and again, for anyone who has been personally affected, we are not presuming it is an answer. We just wanted to share what we do.

When tragedy strikes, we do what the sages and philosophers have suggested for ages: go within and learn from the experiences of the human condition. We are all human beings and have very similar internal experiences: from fear, anger, jealousy, and a desire to cause pain to the more exalted virtues of love, compassion, courage and a deep desire to be of help and service. We, as human beings, have a vast capacity to experience life from many different perspectives. It is our job to become consciously aware of what our most immediate experience is and to be with it as fully and with as much honesty and truth as we can.

And so, what Danny and I practice is to go within and listen as deeply as we can, to our own internal response to whatever is before us. In watching, we can see that sometimes we respond as victims, sometimes as perpetrators of cruel acts, sometimes full of fear and anxiety, and sometimes as loving and compassionate people who want nothing more than to help. Danny has taken on the mantle of the hero a few times in his life, risking his life to save a friend who was in a very dangerous climbing situation, and once saving the life of a man in a terrible car accident. He also knows that he can shut down emotionally when overwhelmed. I, on the other hand, can lose my boundaries and get very lost in my emotional response.

Being as self-aware as we know how to be is a practice that we are committed to in our daily lives, through times of quiet contemplation or meditation and also by bringing that self awareness to the moment as much as possible. We also practice together; Danny will listen to me, with as much focus and neutrality as possible, while I share my internal experience as honestly as I can. Then, I’ll do that for him. You can also do it for yourself, acting as witness to the full gamut of your own inner experiences and feelings. I have witnessed within myself anger that I am very glad has never been unleashed in the world, but which dissipated by being witnessed by my own observer.

It is a practice Danny and I both use in coaching people, whether runners or in personal coaching to help people find their way in life.

As Christ, Buddha, Gandhi and many spiritual leaders have alluded to: we are all “sinners”, we all experience the dark, as well as the more exalted, aspects of the human condition. But, do we acknowledge it in ourselves? That is the question. Do we accept our role and complicity in our daily lives? Do we take credit and responsibility for how we act out our parts?

Danny and I, in our own small way, are trying to take responsibility for how we contribute to the violence in society and the madness that drives other people to the brink.  How do we educate our daughter to treat other people? Is she taught to exclude and bully by watching our actions, or is she learning to be inclusive and compassionate?

In ChiRunning® we ask you to go a bit deeper with your running experience – to pay attention to the voice of your body; to pay attention to the voices in your head; to pay attention to the energy moving in and out with your breath; to listen more deeply to yourself. In ChiLiving® we ask that you do the same thing in your daily lives. Listen, without judgement, to your vast capacity to feel and experience life, and from that vantage point, make the wisest choice you can.

There is a helpless feeling when tragedy strikes. How can I help? How can I contribute in a positive way? Danny and I think that it is in our small daily actions that we can all contribute to creating a better world.

Finally, in Boston and around the world, it is the human spirit that wants what is good and beautiful to prevail, and it does. It is the acts of courage, the acts of heroism, the coming together of community – that seem to be the silver lining of the very dark cloud that was upon the Boston Marathon this year.

Working on your speed can do a lot more than just make you faster – it requires that you pay closer attention to your technique, helps you truly relax, and it can feel freeing and fun. If you’ve never focused on speed, start with a 5K or 10K. The workouts in our intermediate 5K and 10K training programs are specifically designed to help you get faster.

A few general tips:

• Follow the formula: technique + distance = speed. If you’re doing a 5K, you should be able to run 4 or 5 miles easily. If you’re doing a 10K, 7 or 8 miles should be no problem. Long runs are not the time to practice speed. Instead, maintain a comfortable aerobic pace so you can focus on your technique and build the aerobic capacity you’ll need to train for speed.

• Practice speedwork on short runs. Speed Intervals are alternating periods of fast running and slow running. Speed Intervals are not about “trying” to run faster. They’re about creating the conditions for speed to happen. Speed Intervals are just Form Intervals done with more lean and more relaxation. What they do is teach you how to relax your hips to increase your range of motion and strengthen your core by requiring you to hold more of a lean. Speed workouts are best done on a track, a measured flat loop, or a straight stretch of measured road.

Begin each interval at a slow pace, and gradually increase your lean as you progress to the end of the interval (2nd gear –  3rd gear). It is important to do Speed Intervals with a metronome because it will train you to relax your hips and pelvis and lengthen your stride while keeping a consistent cadence. Keep your chin down (lead with your forehead), sit up in your chair, increase your lean, and relax your legs (allow them to go almost limp) as you fall forward. Gravity never gets tired, but your legs will if they’re doing the big job of moving you forward.

Do your best to use the Principle of Gradual Progress. Your first interval should be your slowest, and the last one should be your fastest. If you do your set of intervals correctly, your exertion level should feel the same on your last interval as it did on the first. You should never feel wiped out at the end of a Speed Interval workout. If you push yourself too hard early on, you risk getting injured.

Our intermediate training programs give you more details on how to run effective speed intervals.

• If you start slow, you’ll finish fast. There are several benefits to starting your race or workout slower. During aerobic exercise, your body relies on the glycogen stored in your muscles to help burn stored fat. If you start off your runs too fast, you risk burning up all of your muscle glycogen which leaves you with nothing to help you access your body fat for fuel. When you start off slowly, you can run relaxed, and relaxed muscles burn less fuel. That fuel will be available to you when you’re ready to increase your speed at the end of your run or race.

The mental benefit of keeping a slower pace at the start of a race is that you’ll get to pass a lot of runners later on. You’ll get a boost of confidence towards the middle/end of the race when you need it most.

Increasing your speed can be about more than just numbers on a clock. Getting faster can be about pushing past your perceived boundaries, or feeling the freedom of really letting your legs go. Take your time, stay relaxed, and enjoy the release.

Get Started:

• Intermediate 5K Training Program
• Intermediate 10K Training Program

So you feel you have great posture when standing on both legs, what about on one?  Running after all is just a series of one-legged posture stances.  Most people carry muscular imbalances, the majority of my students are more stable on one side than the other. Again, there are ample opportunities to practice a one-legged stance during the day.  Waiting to cross the road, brushing your teeth and so on.  You may find that you can do this without a problem on your ‘good’ side but find it difficult to stay aligned on the weak side.  What is important is that you remain structurally aligned with a level pelvis and your lower core engaged.   Practice in front of a mirror to start with, notice that your body may drift more on the weaker side, if this is the case, stand side on to a wall to keep your body from drifting and practice until you feel you can balance on one leg on that side without using the wall to help you.   Pay attention to how balanced you are on your foot; you should feel your whole foot on the ground.  Ensure your entire leg is pointing forward, don’t allow your knee to travel in towards the midline.  If you notice the other hip drop, engage your lower core and level your pelvis.  If you intend to add either distance or speed to your running week and you have balance and stability issues, you are much more likely to get injured

Take the time to develop a sustainable body, one that will allow you to run for years to come.  You have the power to do so if you become mindful about how you use your body throughout the day.

More details about the posture and one-legged posture stances can be found in the Chi Running book.

Happy running.
Michelle

Michelle Muldoon
Senior Chi Running & Chi Walking Instructor
London, UK
www.corerunning.co.uk
 

Rejuvenated by my winter's rest, as springtime approaches it feels natural to begin increasing my mileage and reintroducing some speed work into my program.  To structure my training and further stoke my motivation, it helps to target a race several months out.  This year, I am looking forward to running the Timberline Half Marathon in early June.  The trail course circles Timothy Lake and promises (unless it's cloudy!) spectacular views of Oregon’s Mt. Hood.  To fine tune my running form while I log the miles and hone my speed in preparation for the event, I am working with one of the e-ChiTraining Programs available on-line through http://www.chiliving.com

For me, this week marks Week 1 of the 12-week Intermediate Half Marathon e-ChiTraining Program.  Day 1’s prescription: “Get a good night’s sleep.”  I loved that.  Yesterday was Day 2. The training program called for 45 minutes of 1 minute on/1minute off form intervals. For the first third of the run, I alternated between periods of focusing on leveling my pelvis and periods of letting my attention rest.  For the second third of the run, I alternated between feeling my feet at the bottom of my column; then letting my focus go.  For the last third of the run, I alternated periods of holding both focuses simultaneously with periods of less-focused running.   Today’s workout calls for 40 minute form intervals with a slightly different pair of focuses.  The sun is shining, and I can’t wait to get out there!