This year has been a bit of a metamorphosis for me regarding my running. As I mentioned before, I had never thought of myself as a “runner” even though I have attempted this many times throughout my life. The IT Band issues I incurred around 10 years ago I thought sealed the deal on that. After reading Chris McDougall’s book Born To Run, I had stumbled onto the Chirunning method developed by Danny Dreyer. I read the book and started implementing the different forms or postures in order to get to a proper body alignment for running efficiently and pain-free. While this made a HUGE difference in my running, (went from running 3-4 miles and being exhausted to eventually running upwards of 16 miles and feeling good afterwards) I still felt like I didn’t quite have it totally correct. So, when I saw a Chirunning workshop being help up at Kripalu in Western Massachusetts, I thought it would be a great opportunity to hone my technique a bit. The other thing was my wife has always wanted to go Kripalu for Yoga as well as learn Chirunning so this looked to be a great opportunity.
The workshop was lead by Kathy Griest, who is a Master Chirunning instructor and has worked with Danny Dreyer from the beginning. Kathy was assisted by several other instructors(Ann Margaret McKillop and Michael Krushinsky to name a few.) and instructors-to-be which complemented the team perfectly. There were over 40 people in our workshop, but with all the instructors it was a perfect ratio to get the necessary attention for all the students. This workshop allowed me to start from the beginning in order to polish up the techniques I had learned from the book and DVD. The personal aspect of the workshop also added some different ways of implementing the techniques that you cannot get from a book or video. The weekend consisted of a total of 6 sessions of around 2.5 hours each. The final session consisted of reviewing a video of each student Chirunning where Kathy and the team pointed out the positives and what to work on in each persons technique. I was amazed that they could remember specific issues that each person was struggling with throughout the week and how they were able to correct them by the end. The biggest thing I learned is that Chirunning is a life-long process that you will continually work on during your running. After my first run this morning since being home from the workshop, I feel that I have improved my leaps-and-bounds. If you want to learn to run efficiently and pain-free, I strongly recommend learning Chirunning and if possible, a workshop as well. The techniques and postures learned are also useful in many other activities.
Kripalu 5 Mile Out-and-Back run map
Besides Chirunning at Kripalu, I was also able to enjoy my first Yoga class, meditation classes, great healthy food, and some open-water swimming in the lake. The weekend seemed very busy going from one class to the next and fitting in some meals in between. Although I was busy, I still felt extremely relaxed and a bit renewed after the weekend was over. It definitely opened my mind up to an alternative type of vacation in the future. Parking my phone, laptop and wallet for the weekend played a key role in the unwinding. The only thing we really had to worry about was showing up at the different sessions and for meals. The accommodations reminded me a bit of a dormitory in college, but we really weren’t in our room enough to hang out in there anyway. When we did get back to our room, we just crashed and then it was back up at 6AM again for a run.
The weekend was just superb from all aspects. I am definitely looking forward to In addition we met some really great people that I hope to keep in touch with over time.
