I had posted yesterday that my running style was totally incorrect and I was feeling the pain in my knees although there was sufficient rest to recover. The “Heel Striking” was taking a toll on my knees and my stamina as well. The Chi method of running was a probable solution.
The alarm was set for today morning far from my bed for 6.15 a.m. and I did manage to wake up today with enthusiasm! The lazy me tried to convince myself to lie down on the bed for some more time. It seems it is the best practice to just wake up, wear your running shoes and head for the joggers park instead of listening to your mind as to why you should rest or go for some 5 more minute of sleep. I had my cell phone charged the previous night to 90% and after popping two fruits of dates and a 100ml of water from the copper vessel for instant energy I was on my way.
I turned on the GPS and the Nike+ application and reached the park with a curiosity about the chi technique and a silent fear that I may fail today. Since the chi technique focuses on using the legs for running in a different manner than that of the Heel striking method, I felt that I was looking like a man trying to imitate a duck at 6.50 A.M. in the morning at the joggers park. I felt I was slower than my usual day and I had decided that my focus today should be on running in the right manner instead of looking for better numbers with the NIke+ app.
I completed the first, second, third and the fourth round in 3.40, 7.45, 11.50 and 15.47 minutes respectively. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting an immediate gain but I didn’t feel any pain in my knees today and I believed that I could have also managed to run the 5th round at the park with some heavy heart yet I didn’t want to over-stress myself on the first day of the new technique.
Here are the results from the Nike+ application for today:
The red line in the above snapshot had partly yellow content in it which shows how slow I was today at the park.
The numbers weren’t that good or an improvement from the previous run but the good news is that I didn’t feel any pain in my knees and I had the stamina today to go for a 5th round at the park as well. Two mistakes which I have identified now are that, I wasn’t lifting my legs above my knees as I should be for the chi technique and I was stepping at times beyond the hip line which would make it a partly heel striking and partly chi method of running today. I will try to improvise on it as well and hope for improvement in the next week.
Can I run the 5th round and improvise on the speed or is it just a false belief? Time will tell…
act2create 