Fantastic ChiRunning Workshop

I’ve always wanted to take a ChiRunning workshop. I got the Danny Dryer’s book in November 2009 when I started running again. The principles really helped me and I stopped having knee pain and shin splints. However, I can only get so much from a book. I needed feedback from an instructor.

Fleet Feet Gaithersburg held an informational seminar presented by Lloyd Henry from OnpointFitness. Lloyd is a running coach and a certified ChiRunning instructor. He talked about the fundamentals of ChiRunning and showed us a few drills. I took these changes on my next run, which was about two miles. Both miles were under a pace of 10 minute per mile. I couldn’t believe it. I’m happy to run at 11.5 minute miles, but under 10 minutes. I didn’t even feel like I was exerting myself. I couldn’t wait to take the actually workshop.

So on Sunday December 5, I showed up at Fleet Feet Gaithersburg for the 1/2 day ChiRunning workshop. It was freezing outside – literally. It was less than 35 degrees and we were going to be outside. We spent the first hour indoors working on some drills and then we headed out. We were outside for approximately 3 of the 4 hours, but no one really noticed how cold it was. Lloyd made the workshop so much fun that we probably wouldn’t have noticed if it was snowing.

Lloyd broke ChiRunning down into workable components, and we did lots and lots of drills. I highly recommend his workshop if you’re in the DC area or if you’re not in DC, find out about ChiRunning on their website. As I said, I benefited from the book, but it really made a difference getting feedback from a coach.

Next up training for a half marathon with a 10-miler thrown in for good measure. Happy running!