I recently started using the ChiRunning [www.chirunning.com] techniques and have experienced the promise of running faster, using less energy, with fewer injuries.

Hopefully someone out there with more experience can help me with one problem though; the method is to keep your body in a straight line head to toe, then tilt forward like your body is a gas pedal heading for the floor. The book says you are to use your ab muscles to keep your upper body tilted forward, but if your abs contract won't that just pull your face into the asphalt?
After finishing my first marathon last weekend I found my lower back to have a tremendous amount of muscle stiffness, which I would intuitively expect from the back contracting to hold the leaning upper body upright. Though the literature states that my abs should be sore. [?]

Any advice [besides 'suck it up'] would be greatly appreciated.



Alex

Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl when you must - just never give up. Dean Karnezes

hey alex, I started chirunning in May. I run with a group that has two chirunning instructors as coaches. Here's my understanding of the form and my experience:

- using your ab muscles to keep your body in line may be more subtle than you think. You utilize the muscles of your "pelvic floor", and its more "engaging" those muscles than contracting them. It's not anywhere near the sensation of doing a sit-up. Try this: stand up, and check out your waistline... it's likely that it is tilted forward. Now use the muscles a few inches below your belly-button to gently pull your pelvis forward, which causes your waistline to be parallel to the ground... that's the feeling and position you want to keep.

- this will not bring your face to the floor. The whole idea is that you are perpetually falling forward, and your legs naturally move, unconsciously, to "catch" you as you continue to fall forward. The more you lean, the faster you go because your feet have to travel farther to catch you (meanwhile cadence stays the same regardless of how fast you are going).

Hope that helps a little. Feel free to PM me if you think I can help further.

Now, I just wonder if I'll be able to use that high cadence when running at basic and indoc, or if I'll have to match cadence with the rest of the formation.

I just purchased this book, and anyone else out there try this with good results

I'm not a fan of running, so with "effortless, & injury free running" I figure it may be worth a shot

Not sure about Chirunning, but I got into Pose running and have had great results. There was a thread here that got me looking into it...can't find it right now.

Before, I was a really bad heel striker - I ran that way ever since I joined the AF - and the past few years, as I started upping my mileage, I felt like I was destroying my knees. It got to the point where I dreaded running because I knew my knees were going to be sore. I've just gotten to the point where it feels natural. I've put in about 23 miles in the past week and a half and haven't had ANY knee pain. I also realized how bad heel striking kills your forward momentum. It feels like I'm able to keep a much faster pace using the same amount of energy I did while I was heel striking. There were a lot of growing pains and I had to start off very slow with minimal mileage and some time on the treadmill, but it was well worth it.

Now, I just wonder if I'll be able to use that high cadence when running at basic and indoc, or if I'll have to match cadence with the rest of the formation. [/quote]

I naturally have an extremely high cadence and found it very difficult to stay in step during the runs. running in formation is very different than just going out n running on your own and i found it very awkward and unnatural, not to mention having to sing jodies while doing it. and as the days go by so do the cadre's patience in correcting you