Brian's Travel & Photo Blog

This year has been a bit of a metamorphosis for me regarding my running. As I mentioned before, I had never thought of myself as a “runner” even though I have attempted this many times throughout my life. The IT Band issues I incurred around 10 years ago I thought sealed the deal on that. After reading Chris McDougall’s book Born To Run, I had stumbled onto the Chirunning method developed by Danny Dreyer. I read the book and started implementing the different forms or postures in order to get to a proper body alignment for running efficiently and pain-free. While this made a HUGE difference in my running, (went from running 3-4 miles and being exhausted to eventually running upwards of 16 miles and feeling good afterwards) I still felt like I didn’t quite have it totally correct. So, when I saw a Chirunning workshop being help up at Kripalu in Western Massachusetts, I thought it would be a great opportunity to hone my technique a bit. The other thing was my wife has always wanted to go Kripalu for Yoga as well as learn Chirunning so this looked to be a great opportunity.

The workshop was lead by Kathy Griest, who is a Master Chirunning instructor and has worked with Danny Dreyer from the beginning. Kathy was assisted by several other instructors(Ann Margaret McKillop and Michael Krushinsky to name a few.) and instructors-to-be which complemented the team perfectly. There were over 40 people in our workshop, but with all the instructors it was a perfect ratio to get the necessary attention for all the students. This workshop allowed me to start from the beginning in order to polish up the techniques I had learned from the book and DVD. The personal aspect of the workshop also added some different ways of implementing the techniques that you cannot get from a book or video. The weekend consisted of a total of 6 sessions of around 2.5 hours each. The final session consisted of reviewing a video of each student Chirunning where Kathy and the team pointed out the positives and what to work on in each persons technique. I was amazed that they could remember specific issues that each person was struggling with throughout the week and how they were able to correct them by the end. The biggest thing I learned is that Chirunning is a life-long process that you will continually work on during your running. After my first run this morning since being home from the workshop, I feel that I have improved my leaps-and-bounds. If you want to learn to run efficiently and pain-free, I strongly recommend learning Chirunning and if possible, a workshop as well. The techniques and postures learned are also useful in many other activities.

Lenox Loop run map

Kripalu 5 Mile Out-and-Back run map

Besides Chirunning at Kripalu, I was also able to enjoy my first Yoga class, meditation classes, great healthy food, and some open-water swimming in the lake. The weekend seemed very busy going from one class to the next and fitting in some meals in between. Although I was busy, I still felt extremely relaxed and a bit renewed after the weekend was over. It definitely opened my mind up to an alternative type of vacation in the future. Parking my phone, laptop and wallet for the weekend played a key role in the unwinding. The only thing we really had to worry about was showing up at the different sessions and for meals. The accommodations reminded me a bit of a dormitory in college, but we really weren’t in our room enough to hang out in there anyway. When we did get back to our room, we just crashed and then it was back up at 6AM again for a run.

The weekend was just superb from all aspects. I am definitely looking forward to In addition we met some really great people that I hope to keep in touch with over time.

This past Sunday(June 6 2010) I completed my 2nd sprint triathlon. The event was the Belleplain Triathlon hosted by D&Q Events. I had compteted in the Duathlon two years ago and my wife had had also competed in it two years before that. It is very well run and the course is great. Very flat and shaded. Overall, I was pretty happy with my outcome but I wanted to document both the pros and cons of my result. One of the major things since my last triathlon was losing ~35  lbs. This alone has made a huge impact mostly in the fit of my wetsuit. Another was my change in running form. Adopting a fore/mid-foot strike(Born to Run and Chirunning ) has made a huge impact on my run speed and endurance.

While writing this, I was listening to “Mary Jane’s Last Breakdown” by Keller Williams & The Keels

Belleplain Tri Photos

Positives

• Transitions were majorly improved thanks to practicing. T1 went from > 2min to 1:21.
• Bike Avg Speed was fastest yet @ 22.1 mph and placed in top 8.
  • I particularly enjoy passing the guys on the $3000+ bikes and aero helmets like they are standing still.
• Run felt good. Enjoyed the off-road trail and went faster than I realized. 6:38 pace???

Things to improve upon…

• Pre-Race
• Eat less. Had a PowerBar harvest and a ClifBar 2 hours prior to race. Felt very full during swim. Could cut back to one bar or small bowl of cereal.
• Swim
  • Need to stay the back and outside of wave. Starting in the front middle of the pack of my wave was not a good idea. Running into guys in front of me and guys behind me running into me messed me up a bit.
  • More Open Water Swimming. It is just a whole different world especially when vis is poor. Hopefully open-water clinic and time in Finger Lakes will help.
  • Swim to Shore. Should keep swimming until I cannot swim anymore.
  • Endurance! In order to complete the Olympic distance I am going to have to really work on the swimming.
• T1
  • Ditch the socks. Need to try this in practice to make sure I don’t get blisters. This will get T1 under a minute I think.
• Bike
  • Keep Improving.  Would like to get up over 23MPH avg.
• T2
  • Keep it up.
• Run
  • More speed work. Up the pace.

While writing this, I was listening to “Switch and the Spur” by Keller Williams

Belleplain 2010 Sprint Tri Results

                                          age|#in
                                          grp|age
Place        Name          City, State    plc|grp age s  Bib SwPl  Swim  Pace T1Pl   T1  BkPL   Bike   MPH  T2PL   T2  RnPl   Run    Pace  Finish
===== =================== ==============  ======= === =  === ==== =====  ==== ====  ==== ==== =======  ==== ====  ==== ==== ======= ===== =======

35     BRIAN SCHWIND       ALBURTIS PA       6/19   41 M  115   90  9:49  2:19   49  1:59   21   41:38  21.9   49  0:57   47   20:31  6:38 1:14:52 

LBI 2009 Sprint Tri Results

Place        Name          City, State   Age s cat  Bib SwPl  Swim  Pace T1Pl   T1  BkPL   Bike   MPH  T2PL   T2  RnPl   Run    Pace  Finish
===== =================== ============== === = ===  === ==== =====  ==== ====  ==== ==== =======  ==== ====  ==== ==== ======= ===== =======

62     BRIAN SCHWIND      ALBURTIS PA     40 M      173  149  8:10  1:56   50  2:23   23   28:56  20.7  128  1:54   91   25:48  8:20 1:07:10

Belleplain 2008 Duathlon Results

Place        Name          City, State   Age s cat  Bib R1Pl    Run1  Pace T1Pl   T1  BkPL   Bike   MPH  T2PL   T2  Rn2Pl  Run2   Pace  Finish
===== =================== ============== === = ===  === ====   =====  ==== ====  ==== ==== =======  ==== ====  ==== ===== ====== ===== =======

16    BRIAN SCHWIND        ALBURTIS PA   39 M      330   20   13:49  6:55   38  1:21    8   41:21  22.1   35  1:15   31   25:00  8:04 1:22:45