Message posted by: Matthew W.

I never thought that I would attribute anything good to the Dreadmill. I hate it more than anything. BORING.

But I have to say that this winter I have put some time in on it and worked to improve my running form. I worked with concepts from both Evolution Running and the Chi Running.

I worked on running with a better ‘crouched’ position, concentrating on landing midfoot and with quicker foot turnover (I trained to do this with the dreadmill always at a 1% incline sometimes more).

I bought shoes that were recommended from the Chi Running site (I spent last season running in Nike Free 5.0 so it wasn’t much of a jump to a flat trail shoe, New Balance 790).

I just ran outside for the first time since November. It felt like I was gonna run about 7:40/mile on my big hills route. A nice relaxed though quick pace. I kept repeating “lean forward” “quick feet, get out of the way” and “run effortlessly” in my head. So I finished with a 7min/mile 5k and I could of smashed that time. For the effort I was putting in it should have been 7:40min/mile.

So despite that I still hate the Dreadmill, I will be thanking it at my next race.

I would also like to thank Craig the resident Chi Running Guru. He posts some good stuff here about running.

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