I decided to take the ChiRunning workshop after reading “Born to Run,” including Danny Dreyer’s forward. Having transitioned to Vibram 5-finger minimalist shoes, doing copious amounts of yoga and altering my diet, I needed to take the next step to get the results I wanted. At the age of 39 and weighing 198 lbs. (Clydesdale), it’s simply not possible for me to wrack up high mileage week-in, week-out. I took the workshop on 10 Sept, 2011, the day before the Chicago Half-Marathon. I altered my style in that race, being poorly prepared, but still set a 2-min PR.
Four weeks later, I shaved another 5-1/2 minutes of my PR for the Half Marathon, recording 1.23.49. Then, another six weeks later, I set a Marathon PR of 3.08.08 at Philly, qualifying for Boston and smashing my previous PR by almost 26 minutes! Everything Danny teaches in the book, on the DVD and in the workshop makes perfect sense. There’s no “secret sauce”, as he freely asserts. Form, cadence (I’m a HUGE proponent of the metronome now!) and core strength. And, I’ve ditched the heart-rate monitor. Danny just manages to pull it all together and impart his knowledge with his inspirational style.
Looking forward to taking my running to the next level with my local instructor, Maurice Wills.
Mick
