chrishillnz-blog

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This documentary attempts to tell the story of one of the world’s most difficult and bizarre sporting events: The Barkley Marathons. This 100-mile footrace and it’s…

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The Truth of Running - Studio C (by BYUTelevision)

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Reflexology & Training

Pain in the foot mirrors imbalance in the body...or it could be those stone sticking in your heel.

My apartment is located on the edge of a Hong Kong park and overlooks a large paved clearing, encircled by trees and rimmed with a reflexology path.

Day in and day out for the past year I have watched the young and the old walk this path. Most people grip the steel rails and gingerly step a few feet before turning back. Others walk backwards, side to side, or just stand on the spot as if their feet are absorbing the stones. For many months I regarded this path as a playground for sadists — I had never considered how this ancient pseudo science might have any application for me or for running. An then a few weeks ago it occurred to me that it might be worth a try.

Reflexology is hugely popular here in Asia, the general gist of it, at least as I understand it, goes something like this: the various parts of the underside of your foot are divided into sections that correspond with vital body parts and organs. The reflexologist (or the path) puts pressure on various parts of the foot to help balance or harmonize the body. According to the reflexologist: pain in your foot mirrors a problem or imbalance in your body.

The first time I tried walking on the reflexology path I barely made it to the end. Between the yelps of pain it occurred to me that reflexologists have this whole concept rigged. Walking on stones just hurts period! Or so I thought, until about the fourth or fifth time—when I began to notice that the stones didn’t hurt quite so much.

I am not going to pretend I have any scientific explanation for how reflexology works, and by ‘works’ I don’t mean fixing your liver or that migraine you can’t quite shake. Nonetheless, I have found that walking on these paths has helped me get in touch with my feet. Minimalist running how-to-articles and blogs often talk about this process, and I have found that reflexology paths offer a good solution. Walking my local path a couple of times a week has had the effect of waking my feet up, and I am now more aware of how my feet impact the ground – even in shoes.

My particular prescription for using the paths is to try to produce good walking form – the walk before you can run video from Vivobarefoot is a good example of the type of posture and movement I try to replicate. The path outside my house is about twenty feet long and lined with rails. I try to avoid the rails, keeping my arms at my side and my head up and looking forward to maintain good posture. This sounds easy enough, but it takes awhile to get used to. It is super tempting in the beginning to look down for particularly ominous looking stones as you make each step.

 There are various grades of path – the higher and sharper the stones the more they dig into your feet. The pain is immense the first few times you walk a reflexology path, however, the feeling afterward, when your feet return to a flat surface is very relaxing. I never thought the simple absence of pain could be so enjoyable, as Jean-Paul Satre once remarked, “God is absence.” I frequently find myself standing at the end of the path enjoying this simple pleasure which often enough inspires a return leg.

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Training alternatives for injured runners: Swimming.

Once, stuck in an epic Jakarta traffic jam, I moaned to a companion about the ridiculousness of the city’s transport system – Jakarta jams can go on for hours, especially if there is flooding. My companion shook his head and replied.

"You think this is bad? Try Tehran!"

He then proceeded to describe the terror he encountered on his first day in the city when he took a taxicab from the airport and found himself on a huge road devoid of lanes and, apparently, rules. Cars faced off weaving in all directions, their drivers cursing and yelling.

I am reminded of this story as I ease my body into the clubhouse swimming pool of my Hong Kong apartment complex. It is 25 meters in length and almost the same in width. There is a small area at the side roped off for kids swimming lessons. The rest of the pool is wide open.

My body sinks into the lukewarm water and the smell of chlorine stings my nose. Swimmers in cramped speedos, swimming caps and goggles face off with each other as they cross the abyss. The breaststrokers are most vulnerable, because they are slow and can see where they are actually going. They weave in and out of the speedier freestyle swimmers who swim heads down blind.

The reflection of the ceiling lights dance on the waters surface between the bobbing heads and flailing hands. The swimmers move everywhere but straight. I search for a passageway to swim along, and launch out into the water.

As I begin swimming it occurs to me that I am not a huge fan of swimming. Swimming right about now is running’s poorer cousin.  That might seem a little harsh, but when you live in a city like Hong Kong soaking in chlorine and wading through a traffic jam is not my idea of fun. Worst still I can't listen to music, something to keep the beat, as my arms crawl through the water.

I only swim when I can’t run. I strained my hip flexor and the physiotherapist says no running for six weeks, so I figure that at least the swimming opens up the lungs and gets the heart beating. So here I am, swimming back and forth through the traffic, with the most awful form, because I have to watch where I am going. I trying to remember how many lengths I have swum, but this is not something I do well ­– I have a habit of daydreaming.

I try not to kick too much to keep from irritating my hip, so I drag myself through the water with my arms. At first the body aches, but slowly after a few lengths my muscles come alive and after around 20 minutes I can feel myself cruising, a little like when I run – the longer I am out there the better I feel. After each swim I rinse off and treat myself to a session in the sauna. Sitting in the sauna it occurs to me that swimming is not all that bad. It is not only a good substitute for injured runners but is a great low impact cross-training activity that strengthens the upper body. I just need to find a pool with less traffic.

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Luna huaraches arrived in the mail, can't wait to try these out! I still have a few weeks to go before I can run, but will break them in walking. Review will follow.

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Six steps to ensure you injure yourself properly when running

Are you struggling to injure yourself properly? Over 30? Or have a long list of previous sporting injuries? Follow these steps and you won't stop short at a just a niggle or an ache, you will achieve a full-blown injury requiring several weeks recovery and plenty of physiotherapy.  (Please note: I am not an expert on running, but by following these steps I did manage to tear my hip flexor and am now enjoying the physio table and an extended lay off from running. As a bonus I will also miss my first 10K.

1. New to running? Set yourself an ambitious goal.

While lying on the sofa with an ice pack wrapped around my hip I decided to read Peter Larson and Bill Katovsk's excellent book Tread lightly: Form, footwear, and the quest for injury-free running. I came across the following conclusion of a running injury study which I think sums up the an important aspect of the psychology necessary to cause yourself injury: “if you are a new runner with a history of knee problems who picks up the sport with a goal of completing a marathon within six months, you’re pretty much doomed.” An important aspect of overly aggressive goal setting for a beginner is to encourage that stubborn and competitive streak inside of you. While at this crucial early stage, don’t push yourself beyond the limits while training; just ignore the idea that they even exist. Your body is not attuned to running so this is an important mindset to inhabit if you want to break it.

2. Dress lightly when you run in the cold.

Some of you from colder climates might scoff at my definition of cold, but for the body temperature is a relative thing. I live in Hong Kong where for around 9 months of the year the temperature averages around 27C/80F degrees with above 80% humidity. We get a brief bite of cold in winter when the weather can drop down to 4C/39F degrees; I consider this cold weather even for my native New Zealand. Running in cold weather with just shorts and a t-shirt is likely to put the kind of stress on your body that will lead to injuries. Perhaps you might beat your chest and challenge yourself to be “tough” enough to endure this type of weather, or perhaps you are like me, a student too cheap to buy warm running clothes  – either justification will work. Cold weather combined with insufficient dress will provide the necessary conditions for you to pull, strain or tear a muscle.

3. Trust you know your body.

In my introduction post Running free I talked about a desire to run free and to go with what feels right. I have belatedly discovered that this is an excellent strategy for a beginner runner to follow in order to injure him or herself.  As a beginner you are still learning how and what your muscles can cope with when running.  After two or three months of running your lungs, heart and mind may really start to feel ready to push towards your aggressive goals. You are liable to ignore your legs and muscles whose screams are muted under the numbing cold.  Case in point; It wasn’t until the morning after my fateful run that I realized I had torn my hip flexor, at which point I could barely walk.

4. Skip the dynamic warm up.

The cold alone may not be enough to cause you injury, consider skipping your dynamic warm up – a short walk to your starting point and a few high knees will suffice to keep your body relatively cold and stiff for when you run. If you start off at a quick pace you have a good opportunity to secure your injury.

5. Skip the 10% rule and ignore your KM/MI count for the week.

Focus on big increases in both the distance and the frequency of your runs, preferable increase these at the same time - and always run to the maximum distance - remember that Marathon is looming.

6. Finish strongly and don’t warm down.

You know in the real race you are going to run as fast as you can at the finish so push yourself to the limit at the end of your run – sprint if possible, because you probably haven’t done that since you were in college. At the end forget the warm down, you can stretch if you like, because the injury should already be yours, and there is a good chance you are now aggravating it. It is probably about time to get out your icepack and settle into the sofa, you might also call your physiotherapist and make an appointment.

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ROBOTS OR DINOSAURS?

Robots

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Looking forward to this event in September, it is a beautiful part of Indonesia. Fingers crossed I can recover in time.

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A new bug for running points toward a new politics of lifestyle

It is great to see Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the mayor of Jakarta, getting behind the running movement in Indonesia, but imagine the Jakarta Marathon if he had actually taken part in it himself. Wouldn’t it be great if Indonesia’s leaders spent less time playing Kings and Queens and more time showing everyday Indonesians that they are participating in change?

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Running Free

Last week I set myself the goal of running the Hong Kong transIantau, a 50km ultra-marathon, in early 2015. I plan to warm up doing a few shorter road marathons over the next few months, in addition to training weekly on Hong Kong’s numerous trails.

One of my big concerns about this goal is a common one - how to run an ultra marathon without destroying ones body? I haven’t run for years so have been training slowly these first couple of months, gradually increasing my distances and speeds. The problem is that something just doesn’t feel right - well it’s more than something, my hips, knees, calves and achilles tendons all ache. I do regular calisthenics to develop my muscles and always stretch my body after training. I have been careful with the way I increase my running distances. I have felt the urge to run faster, but if I go beyond 5 minutes per kilometer, my knees flame up and I generally feel stiff after my run. I have come to realize that the way I run is not right.

The shoes I wear could be part of the problem. When I started this running journey I had to scour Mongkok for an obscure running store in a small shop several floors above the street (running is not exactly a huge sport in Hong Kong and most stores carry fashion shoes rather than running shoes). The guy in the shop looked like a running fanatic and stocked only Mizuno, Asics and Brooks, so I decided to put my trust in him. He had me walk around the shop and told me I under pronate and have a medium arch. He suggested I get a pair of Brooks Glycerin 11’s - a weighty neutral shoe with a big drop - for the uninitiated that means they are like running on giant pillows - not quite Hoka One Ones but getting there. 

After two months I can say that the shoes have been better the cross trainers I used for the first couple of weeks of training, but still my running is not quite right and I can’t help but wonder if my pillow shoes are trying to cushion away problems I cause my body with the way I run. Last night I was looking for a pair of trail shoes online and found myself confused by forums and blogs about the right kind of shoe and running style. I am not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but trying to get to the bottom of the minimalist vs. maximalist running shoe debate is a path to pain and confusion. It is not hard to conclude that there are millions of runners out there with unique biomechanics, and no single theory or shoe fits them all. In other words you need to figure these things out yourself. My goal is not only to run an ultra marathon, but also to run it in a way that I can enjoy it. This sounds a little cheesy but I want to run free. I don’t necessarily mean free without shoes, but free in the way that kids run without the constant fear that an injury is lurking. Of course as our bodies get older injuries become inevitable part of exercise, but I am convinced that if you run in a way that is right for your body you will feel freer in the process.

To achieve this goal, my guiding principal is to ask myself this simple question: does it feel right? It is not a question I plan to ask once, but constantly over the next few months and I will throw in the adverb “still’ for good measure.

To explore what feels right, I have decided to begin at one end of the minimalist - maximalist spectrum and work my way through to the other end, until I find what feels right and enables me to run free. Since my pillow shoes have not been perfect and I know the maximalist Hoka shoes are in fashion I have decided to go against the grain (minimalism shoes sales have plummeted this year) and begin at the minimal of the minimal: barefoot running. I haven’t read the minimalist bible Born to Run and don’t plan to for the moment, least I be overly swayed by evangelical philosophies of running. Nonetheless, barefoot running seems a good place to start - it is free, which means I don’t have to waste any money trying shoes that might or might not work and will require a gradual and steady transition. It also requires the runner to actively think about how they run - so even if I end up back on a pair of pillows I may well be a freer runner for it. Over the next few weeks I will post my strategies and progress.