She worked in a very high stress job, and running was the only thing that kept her sane. The run that ended it all was on a really bad day, after dealing with a difficult co-worker. She took it out running and was so into the conflict, that she found herself arguing out loud as she ran, and stopped when she started yelling. She decided there that running was not helping her but making her more stressed.

It’s too bad she didn’t know about ChiRunning and its aim to change running  into a holistic practice by focusing on form. Each time I head out for a run, thinking about my running form (through focuses and body sensing) has a way of clearing my mind of all the clutter.  In this sense, running becomes a meditative practice. As you become more in tune with your body and your running form, your mind gets clearer and your focus improves. Because my mind is on form and body sensing, there is no room for that difficult co-worker, or any other issues causing me grief. And, as in a meditative practice, when my mind does wander, I can always bring it back to the present, just by remembering my focuses and checking my form. The issues I left at the doorstep may still be there when I return, but I’ll be better prepared to deal with them. And no one on the trail gets yelled at in the process!

If you love to run, you know. If you don’t, please keep an open mind, and read on.

So many of the letters we get are from people who have experienced the transformation from hating to run, to running becoming a joy in their lives. “I hated to run, and now, I look forward to it.” “Running was just too hard, and now I love it.” “I had to run for my fitness test ... now it’s my passion.”

At the heart of these transformations is the confidence these people have found – confidence in their knowledge, confidence in their bodies, confidence in themselves.

Running can be one of the great joys of life. When you are out running, it is just you and the road and your body moving through space – it does not matter the speed. It is incredibly invigorating to be outside, to breathe in the air and see the beautiful sights. Running is one of the best ways to take positive time for yourself, enjoy the company of a friend, or relish the time alone. There really is nothing like the feeling after a run. Your body is alive and cleaned out and refreshed. Your mind is quiet and focused. If you run first thing in the morning, you have that wonderful feeling of having accomplished something important at the start of your day.

But running can also scare people. If you're out of shape or don’t know what you are doing, running can be exhausting. Many people have given it up due to pain and injury. Some just don’t really see themselves as runners. However, if you practice the techniques that make it easier, and if you are not in pain or causing injury to your body, running is a great way to take control of your health and create a deep sense of well-being in your body and mind. The endorphins alone are worth the effort! They do a great job of washing away the blues and making you feel pretty darn good about life.

As with any activity, the more you build your toolkit of skills, the more you'll enjoy what you are doing. Watching our ten-year-old daughter (who suggested the theme of this article) play soccer has been a great lesson in the triumph of learning new skills. She is in a fabulous program where they focus on learning the game and skills, not just on winning. Last week I saw two years of practice come together and these girls were amazing. Their dribbling, feinting, passing and kicks were all being used in the game, and they were surprising themselves with their ability to move that ball across the field and get it in the goal. They were beaming at the end of the game. Their skills gave them a foundation to experience the fun of the game.

The foundational skills of Chi Running take some time to learn, but the resulting confidence is worth it. When these skills become the natural way you move and when you experience the ease and fluidity of running, your body will take over and your mind can be free to relax and enjoy the ride.

For so many people, running is hard, but it does not have to be and should not be hard on your body. If you are breathing too hard or feel you're exerting too much, here's a toolkit of tricks to reduce the effort: shorten your stride, engage your core muscles, lean and engage gravity, go a little slower, straighten your posture, use your arms more. It doesn't matter how far or fast you run. You can take walking breaks and build your endurance over time.

Carmen’s story is my favorite to tell. She was overweight and took a Chi Running workshop because she wanted to lose the extra weight. What happened was a huge surprise. She got good at running. As I watched her on a video, she looked truly beautiful, like the Matisse painting, The Dance. When I commented on how great she looked, she said, “Oh, I know. It’s just changed my life.” I asked what she meant and she explained that she had never felt good at any physical activities or sports, and now, she did. She had an entirely new view of herself.

Carmen knew she was getting good at running and she was learning more all the time. She glowed with her new-found confidence and joy… and you will too.

I can also see why McDougall is on the warpath against the major shoe manufacturers (esp. Nike). Once he saw and felt the difference that running on minimal shoes made in his biomechanics, he became a convert. There’s no way around it…if you run on less of a shoe, your foot has more of an opportunity to “educate” your body how to move more correctly because you can actually feel your connection with the Earth and develop a physical relationship with the ground passing by underneath you. Your footstrike changes, your posture changes, your point of balance changes…and that’s just the beginning!

If it takes a best-seller like this one to spark a dialog in the running community about demanding better designed shoes, then I’m all for it. I’ve been trying to convince shoe companies to make less of a shoe for years now and in describing my success with them I’ve ended up many times using the descriptive phrase, “It’s like trying to steer a tanker with a rowboat.”

I’m currently in the process of road-testing a number of minimal shoes and I plan to write reviews on each of the brands I try out. Here are some of the newest “flat” shoe companies: VivoBarefoot, FeelMax, Vibram FiveFingers, ECCO and Wilcor. I’ll be posting these reviews as soon as I feel I have a pretty complete sense of the shoes in question. If any of you have come across a minimal shoe made by someone not on this list, please forward me the name and contact info of the company and I’ll be happy to give them a try.

In addition to these shoes there are many racing flats that are currently being produced by the “majors” that work just fine as a minimal shoe. BUT, the problem with the racing flats made by Nike, NB, Asics, Mizuno, Brooks and the like is that I’m seeing a trend that I predict will continue. In the past, if I wanted a good, flat, cheap pair of minimal running shoes all I had to do was go online and order a $45 pair of flats and I was on my way. Racing flats have always been the cheapest shoes on the market because, I assume, they’re made with less materials. BUT, because of the current demand for more minimal shoes, I predict that, rather than spend their resources in developing a really cool minimal running shoe, we’ll be seeing racing flats increasing in cost to over $100…which will only entrench me further into the feeling that the big guns aren’t really out for the good of the runners. That being said, I’d be more than happy to see them prove me totally wrong.

Happy trails,
Danny

Ray is a remarkable human being. I remember him calling me back in 2004, when the Chi Running book first came out. He had just started running after being a pack-a-day smoker and was totally excited that the book was helping him enjoy his new-found sport. Since then he has: run the 1130km to the South Pole, run 4300 miles across the Sahara desert, and founded an interactive educational program which allows school kids to track the progress of his adventures in their classrooms as a way to spread awareness of some of the countries he travels through. He has helped us immensely by helping to spread the word about Chi Running and injury-free running all over the world.

Marshall Ulrich is equally remarkable. He’s the only person to run four laps on the infamous 135 mile crossing of Death Valley from the lowest point in the U.S. (282′ below sea level) at Badwater to the highest point in the contiguous United States (Mt. Whitney – 14,505′) in one effort. He’s climbed the highest peaks on all seven continents, and he most recently ran across the U.S. in a record-setting 55 days (that’s about 60 miles every day for 55 days!). He’s also a formidable expedition-length adventure racer and has run 121 races over 100 miles. He also raises money for various charities that help to spread peace and justice in the world.

Bart Yasso is a household name when it comes to running. He’s been on the staff of Runner’s World since paper was invented. He has been inducted into the Running USA Hall of Champions. He invented the Yasso 800′s, an ingenious way of predicting your finish time for a marathon by averaging your times for ten consecutive 800m intervals and then converting minutes to miles and seconds to minutes (i.e. a 3:15 average for all 800′s would mean that you could expect to run a 3:15 marathon). He is one of the few people to have completed races on all seven continents from the Antarctica marathon to the Mt. Kilimanjaro marathon. In 1987, Yasso won the U.S. National Biathlon Long Course Championship and in 1998 won the Smoky Mountain Marathon. He has also completed five Ironmen and the Badwater 146 through Death Valley, as well as cycled, unsupported and by himself, across the country twice.

Needless to say, it was very exciting to be surrounded by three of the “big guns” in the world of endurance running. The workshop was held at Stovepipe Wells in the middle of Death Valley…a place that could be quite easily mistaken for the surface of Mars. In fact, there are still rumors that the Mars Rover was really just driving around somewhere in Death Valley. For as stark as the landscape is, it is equally beautiful and stunning to behold. On the last day I was there we did a run up a canyon that was sensuously sculpted and polished by millions of years of erosion (average rainfall is 2″ a year!) through solid marble, if you can imagine that. It was truly magical. The humidity hovered around 3%, so it was a welcome change from the high humidity of the North Carolina tropics.

If I were to pick a high point of my trip I’d have to say that it was something Bart Yasso said to me at the top of our run up Marble Canyon. After being led through a full morning of Chi Running classes and an afternoon of trail running, he smiled and said to me, “I’ve learned more about running today than I have in my 33 years of running.”

After wishing everyone safe travels Ray and I took off, half running and half dancing our way back down the canyon for a mile and a half to the parking lot. I drove directly from there to Las Vegas for my flight to NYC to teach a Chi Running class to forty five wonderful New Yorkers in Central Park. I’ve been through some abrupt changes in scenery before, but none have topped this week’s Chi Running classes which were only two days (and worlds!) apart.

Happy trails,
Danny

I also had the pleasure of going for a run with Danny in Central Park this morning. After spending all day listening to his lessons yesterday, my head was full of ideas and things to focus on.

The weather was quite chilly and wet as we headed to the park. We were staying on the Upper East Side, and entered the park around 79th, took a tour up around the lake, then weaved our way down to Columbus Circle and then back up to 79th. Not sure how far we went, but it was a full hour and felt very good.

It’s fun to go running with Danny because it really teaches me to be accountable and make sure I’m really in form. I was focusing, as always, on keeping more lower abs engaged and kepping my crown nice and high. Those two focuses almost always do the ”trick” for me and really keep me in my body.

My right knee was  bit stiff starting out, so I kept focusing on not stepping past my hip and really allowing my pelvis to rotate behind me as I was running. After we got about 15 minutes into the run, my knee had loosened up.

We ran along the gravel paths most of the way around, which is more fun and scenic that running on the asphalt, and a bit more protected from the rain! As we turned around the south end of the park and headed north, we were facing a pretty signinficant headwind. By that time, my legs were starting to talk to me, and Danny had a great suggestion: “When the wind hits you like that, really let it take your legs out from you and blow backwards. Just imagine that the wind is blowing your legs behind you.”

The second I got that focus into my head, my ease of running improved immediately. I kept leaning into the wind, kept my core strong, and simply let the wind take my legs behind me.

It was a fun run, and compared to the last time Danny and I ran in Central Park together, I am pleased to say that I have learned a lot about myself, about running, and how to enjoy it all.