Chi Running

I had my Chi Running workshop today and it went rather well! Some concepts I grasped immediately, some seemed to click once I got someone at the running store to fit me for shoes that make my feet do what they're supposed to do, and others will come with practice. I found that my shin splints generally seem to come from overextending my stride, so I have to work on taking smaller steps. I did it right once, and I was like, "But that doesn't feel like I'm doing anything." To which my instructor replied, "Exactly." Oh. Right. That was the point.

I met this really cool woman, LaVerne, at the workshop. She's 64 and started running a few years ago. Since then she's done the Marine Corps marathon, a few 1/2 marathons, and several shorter races. She did the running groups in MoCo that I signed up for and spoke very highly of them. She was also really encouraging of my beginner attempts and had some good stories. Many people there were very cool, but she's the one I ended up talking to the most. There were about 10 of us total.

I've heard from several varied sources that the #1 thing you should do when starting running is go to a specialty store to get fitted for the proper shoe. The woman at the store (Feet Fleet in Adams Morgan) saw how I walked, measured my feet, and came up with a few options. Then she told me to go run up and down the block in each of them. I ended up with Nike Zoom Structure +15s. They're way better than what I was running in before! I'll take them out for their inaugural spin tomorrow after work.

Once I got home I took a bubble bath and had a bit of an Ariel moment. Remember in The Little Mermaid how Ariel trades her voice for legs rather than a fishtail and she sort of sits in the water and is amazed at her legs and what they can do? I had a bizarre Ariel moment in the bath. When I was younger, I never thought about my legs. Once I got to college I started to gain weight and only thought about them in a critical manner. Then I went to Guatemala and, while still thinking of them as too big, they got devoured by mosquitoes and are still scarred from that, but I'm learning not to care. Anyway, today I started to think of them differently. Yeah, I'm curvy and most of that is in my hips and thighs. Yeah, they've got dings and marks and whatever. But they're also strong and getting stronger, and will be able to take me over distances at progressively faster speeds as I improve. I consider this progress.

I still haven't decided on which Disney race to do. I've scrapped the idea of the 2013 marathon, but I'm debating whether I want to do the 1/2 during marathon weekend in January or the Disney Princess 1/2 in February. A full marathon will still come at some point, but I think it's a better goal for me to start now with the half.

That was my day - how was yours?