Hey, I actually ran today and did it for the first time in my New Balance Summit Unknowns that I had been saving for when I can run someplace other than from the front door – you know trails. It turns out it was also a good choice today since the dirt road down-back has been “fixed” and the rocks are pretty deadly for road shoes on Stevens Hill.

The other good news is that even though towards the end of the run, the right leg/buttock area was getting a little more grumpy, I felt as though I could have run further. Yes, can you believe it, I was being cautious and shut things down, before the leg decided it was going to get all pissed off again.

Chi Running Focus – Posture

I did work on my posture using the video and the cabinet to get my right foot/ankle back to neutral versus being splayed out. This will be a long term project I have a feeling. That right foot has had too many injuries: sprains, torn ligaments and more than likely a few broken bones down there to achieve overnight success in keeping the foot straight while standing, walking or running.

Then I moved on to the video for body loosening and the final exercise gave me a lot of trouble, so it is one that I will work on and I noticed that it was the right foot that gave me the most problems where I have trouble keeping it straight and keeping the knee over foot without caving inwards. Yes, I know that I need better leg strength to make it happen as well.

My focus for the run was to keep good posture. I think I did pretty good, but if I had been videotaped, I have a feeling there would have been more times that I lost good form than when I had it. All I can do is keep bringing it back to the forefront of the brain and reset the body to get it back again. This is the part that always drives me crazy, but the part that I know that I need to nail down.

I did put a metronome app on my phone and while I thought that I was doing a good job of keeping up with it at 172 SPM, the Garmin results had me averaging 164, with some down in the 158 range. Not really what I expected, but that is not my focus right now, so that will improve as I move on.

Although I did have to chuckle, there were two women and a dog running quite a ways ahead of me (the same ones as were out last week, when I was walking Bennie). It was too hot for the dog to be running in my opinion, but they had him with them at 81*F and 74%, with a feels like 85*F. It also meant that while I was catching them pretty quickly, that I coughed a few times to let them know I was behind them and then when I passed them by the brook (the dog was wading in what was left of the water), I let them know I would be coming back at them fairly soon.

The chocolate lab was off-leash, but was well mannered, but when I came back by, he wanted to go back down to the brook with me. They had to wait for me to get a ways down the road before they could get going again.

As I said at the start the right leg felt the best it has in a few weeks and while it is not 100%, it is runnable at long as I am smart about things.

When I got back I did the runner’s yoga video and foam rolling/stretching. Both of which I need to make a permanent part of my after running routine.

New Shoes

It was also my first one run in the New Balance Summit Unknown trail shoes and to be honest once I got going, I pretty much forgot about them. Zero issues.

Which is what I want from a pair of running shoes. The rock plate protected my feet from the improved dirt road down-back that needs a couple of days of rain to settle the rocks in. I have a feeling that I will be reaching for these quite a bit, since I will be doing a lot of running down back until this pandemic stuff settles down a bit more.

Overall, I was really pleased with how I did on the run and how the new shoes felt underfoot. Also I did pretty well on focusing on maintaining good form, but I do know that I have more work to do. Right now it is a combination of working the Chi Running focuses and relaxing the right buttocks/upper leg so that it doesn’t get all grumpy on me again.

I am not sure of why the body is reacting so well to stopping the Pose Method and moving back to Chi Running method/philosophy, but it is and I that is good news. I have a feeling that the body loosening before the runs is helping, as is using the Yoga video after I get done. Neither of which I would be doing if I had continued with the Pose Method.

I guess for my mind/body connection and the way I am wired Chi Running is the direction I need to go. So here we go again.