On the whole, I haven't been too impressed with the mid-foot strike and minimalist running stuff. It's not that I'm opposed to shoes, I dance barefoot and absolutely agree that the barefoot footwork is what has strengthened and saved my rather flat feet from all sorts of ailments. But I actually hate running barefoot and hate stepping on things. I like the grippy and stability of a shoe when running. I also think I'm one of the few people who was really turned off by Born to Run. Interesting premise, basis a whole lot of the argument on anecdotal "evidence" and "historical" and quasi-Orientalist/ "Noble Savage" generalizations that really pissed me off. It reminded me too much of the "old way of eating" diets that some people espouse. You know, "back in the day before processed and preserved food." Now I'm all about non-processed foods, that's pretty much all I eat. But be aware that most Europeans "back in the day" survived on porridge, boiled grains with some milk or blood, beer, and more boiled grains. Little meat, only fresh produce at certian times of th eyear and even that was avoided. As a historian, I really bristle at the notion that we have to "get back" to the "good old days" because most people who espouse the "way things were" don't actually have any idea as to how things actually were for the majority of folk. Right, so I was NOT a Born to Run convert. It works for some people, fine.
So I haven't paid much attention to things like Chi or PASS (PACE?) running techniques. Until one of my favorite bloggers, who is not a runner but is training for her first marathon, blogged this: http://dooce.com/2011/10/11/working-gravity . And because Heather is my hero, a pragmatic, totally psycho OCD, hero, I decided to at least look into Chi Running.
The idea behind Chi running is biomechanical: a long front stride actually uses the foot to break momentum as the body transfers weight over the front leg. I've been working on lengthening my stride w/ hopes of getting faster. What I've discovered is that the longer stride means my front foot is further out in front of me, contacts with the ground, and then pulls me forward while my back foot is simultaneously pushing me forward. Every time the front foot pulls, it puts strain on my quads, knees, and hamstrings. The constant pulling motion of my front foot strike was causing a good amount of stress, pain, and fatigue on my legs. As I remarked yesterday, this became and issue in my last long run. And, I'm not getting that much faster without working a whole lot harder.
I decided to try the Chi running technique (watched some videos and did some reading) to see if it really did make running easier and pain free. Holy shit, it actually worked. I started out on a 5 mile run and effortlessly (for my body, not my breathing) was running near 8 min miles in no time. I even had a couple of segments at sub-8 minute miles. More importantly, no pain. No cramping. No ball of lactic acid behind my knees that made extending them hurt like a mofo. No IT band issues. No calf issues. Nada, zip, zilch. AND running faster. I think I'm a convert.
Now, this does take some adjustment. After about .75-1 mile my quads started saying "whoa, you are using muscles you're not used to using, take a break." So I did. But after 30 seconds, was right back up to kicking ass speed. The other thing that has to be readjusted is my breathing. In this running style you take a many more steps that are smaller and faster in comparison to traditional running strides - which means my inhale 3 strides, exhale 3 strides is no longer going to work. In fact, my feet were moving so fast I couldnt figure out how to breath to keep up. I got a little pain in the right shoulder (common when I'm going to start getting mad right side stitches), so I had to slow down for those. Basically, my body could move so much faster, so much more comfortably than my breathing could keep pace with. It's going to take a while to figure out the breathing, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.
How about you? Have you tried Chi running or other mid-foot strike running?
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