<![CDATA[Sisu Project Yoga - Practice Happy Blog]]>Wed, 23 May 2012 03:14:56 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[The Elusive Holy Grail of Running]]>Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:56:58 -0800http://www.sisuprojectyoga.com/1/post/2012/03/the-elusive-holy-grail-of-running.html Over the weekend I ran the "run to the holy grail" a small 5K in my area. I was intrigued by this race because the first mile was slightly uphill with the remaining 2.1 miles downhill. I thought this would be an opportunity to use the downhill to my advantage and get a really fast time. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.

I got to the race plenty early, got myself signed up and started to loosen up. The registration/parking area was located at the finish line. The start line was about 2 miles away and runners were being taken by yellow school bus to the starting line. I figured that rather than take the bus I would just run to the starting line as part of my warm up. I reviewed the map but wasn’t exactly clear on the course. I waited and looked around to see if there was anybody I knew warming up but I didn’t see anyone. I asked a guy if he could tell me about the course and listened intently as he described where to go.

I set off on my warm up early to make sure I could find the starting line. Unfortunately, after running around for about 25 minutes, the starting line was nowhere to be found. At this point I figured it would be best to go back to the finish and ride the school bus to the start, which I did. The school bus didn’t drive the course in reverse to get to the start, it went a completely different way, so I still didn’t have a full grasp on where I would be going during the race.

As we were warming up waiting for the start I saw local runner Chris Mahoney and knew that I would have to run a great race if I had any chance of winning the race. Eventually the final yellow school bus pulled in and we were on our way. As we started the race we were led by a cop car. This helped ease my concern about the course. I also knew Chris would likely be ahead of me and I could just follow him. The cop car lead us through one mile in about 5:08. Shortly after the mile the cop car turned left and the course turned right.  This threw Chris and I for a little loop as we had thought the cop would be leading us for the whole race. So much for following the cruiser…

On the second mile Chris and I let loose on the downhill. He pulled away about 20 or so meters and we both stayed consistent. With about a half mile to go I was trailing Chris by about 30-40 meters and I was doing all I could to stay as relaxed and smooth as possible as gravity yanked me downhill. I had one eye on Chris, one eye on the road, and my third eye turned inward illuminating the sensations coursing through my body. At one point I looked up, saw Chris throw his hands up in frustration, stop and turn around. Damn.


We went the wrong way. Chris and I realized we must have missed a turn somewhere so we turned back and jogged it into the finish line together. Somehow we had missed a left hand turn in the center of town. Luckily, I didn’t get mad or upset. It just was what it was. We finished the 5K plus the bonus distance in about 23:00 minutes.

As I walked to my car to get some clothes and water, I noted that I wasn’t upset about my performance as I had been feeling great out there on the course. I reminded myself to just laugh it off. I was, however, a bit dismayed since I knew there was a cash prize for first, second and third on the table, and thanks to my bonehead move of missing the turn, I would be going home empty handed. I very rarely win money at races so when I do, I get extremely excited.

Well, as luck would have it, the very generous race director decided to still award Chris and I the prize money we would have gotten had we actually ran the correct course. The next runner was about 2 minutes behind me, so at the point we got lost, the order was pretty solidified. At first when I found out I was still going to be getting money, I told the race director to please give the money to the runners who actually ran the correct course. She informed me that she would be awarding them the prize money as well as comping the money to Chris and Myself. Basically this women paid out an extra 175 to Chris and I because of our own error in running the course. Very generous of her and I’m grateful for the extra coin! I felt like it was my mistake for not knowing the course, but the race director insisted she wanted to reward us for our efforts and make sure there were no hard feelings.

After the race, I drove over to the local spring and filled up a case full of water bottles. The spring was only 10 minutes away from the race. It was a great feeling to guzzle down some fresh, local spring water directly from the earth after a solid effort. After hanging around the spring for a while I drive back home with a sense of peace and calm, knowing that had this happened pre-chi running and pre-yoga I would have been angry and grumpy all day. With my ongoing yoga and chi running practice it is becoming easier and easier to let things like this go by me. Little insignificant things like going the wrong way in a small race that I decided to do on a whim are no longer “sticky” they just move past me.

It’s a nice feeling.

On a final note, if you like hip-hop, check out Pep Love's new album "Rigamarole"

]]><![CDATA[Livin’ the Dream: The Balance Between Accepting Reality and Using Imagination]]>Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:27:37 -0800http://www.sisuprojectyoga.com/1/post/2012/03/livin-the-dream-the-balance-between-accepting-reality-and-using-imagination.html Often times the ancient practice of yoga gets lumped into the category of “new age” wishy washy nonsense. This is both unfortunate and inaccurate. Of course, this should be self evident. How can an ANCIENT practice be considered “new” anything? Yoga is at least a couple THOUSAND years old. To put that in perspective, the United States is a few hundred years old. But that doesn’t stop people from labeling yoga as “new” age, while at the same time pretending the u.s. is the longest standing empire of all time. So how and why does this happen?

Propaganda, misinformation and disinformation. It’s the same thing with food. Organic food is considered the “new” thing and chemically sprayed and genetically manipulated food is labeled as “conventional.” Even the various health food movements play into this jedi mind trick. I often see charts comparing organic food vs. “conventional” food. Of course there is nothing conventional about crops that have been genetically altered in a lab, but profits await, so it’s very important for the people selling this food to convince people that spraying our food with pesticides and altering the genetics of our food is the way we’ve always done it, while eating organic food (read: regular, unaltered food) is the new, fringe thing.

And it’s the same thing with running shoes and running form. Shoes that have been around for a few decades are considered conventional or traditional while shoes that have been around for centuries or more are considered the new fad. I never realized fads can last for thousands of years. At what point does it graduate from being a fad? A million years?

I believe in new stuff. I like technology. I believe in the inventiveness of humankind. There is a lot of new technology that I love. The point here isn’t to say anything new is bad and anything old is good, because I get just as annoyed with that argument as anyone, especially when the person arguing that ancient stuff is always better is typing their viewpoint on a computer or smart phone.. The point is to say that if something is new, call it new. If it’s thousands of years old, calling it “new age” is a huge misnomer. Mark my words, soon smart phones will be considered “conventional” communication, while talking face to face will be considered new age or fringe.

The purpose of this post isn’t to complain about semantics, it’s to help you cut through the propaganda and b.s. so you can use the ancient practice of yoga to your benefit, instead of being misled by all the bad information.. The first thing to acknowledge is that there actually is tons of hokey new age nonsense out there. I consider the book/movie http://thesecret.tv/ to be a good example. The secret basically says wish for whatever you want and it will appear. It’s easy, it’s simple, and it promises huge rewards. I’m a big believer in directing positive mental energy towards a goal or desire, but the secret takes this concept and markets it in a cute little package to be consumed by those among us who don’t want to do actual spiritual work and just want to take the fast track.  So I’m not saying that new age fluffy nonsense doesn’t exist, because it most certainly does, often for the sole purpose of discrediting the real stuff.

It’s easy to see the endgame here. By replacing real spiritual philosophy with marketable fluff people remain ignorant to what yoga actually is. The thinking is that by labeling yoga as new age it will only catch on with trendy liberal types who like to participate in anything alternative, while driving away the mainline conservative types who like to participate in what the authorities say they should be participating in. This keeps everyone fighting and bickering amongst themselves making us all easier to control.

Just like any spiritual practice, Yoga is terrifying to the power elite. The reason is simple. How can someone be subservient to the state/dictator/president/presidential-dictator when they are subservient to god? This is why you see such an attack on religion in the schools.  Worshipping government is the new religion.

When I did my yoga teacher training I lived at the Kripalu center for a month. Every single day of that month someone reminded me to check in with the current reality, explore the nature of reality, question reality, question what I’m being told. Often times teachers  would hammer this point home by reminding us that we should question even what they say. This is, of course, very different than the talking heads on the mainstream media who NEVER encourage you to think for yourself. It’s very different than the power elite (politicians and their puppet masters) who want to make you think THEY have all the answers, even when it comes to things like what you put on and in your body. what products you absolutely MUST purchase and so on. And let’s not forget the ultimate guru…the public school system, where the preferred method of teaching is – give kid answer – have kid parrot answer back to you – reward the most obedient- punish anyone who fails to cooperate with the system.

In short, Yoga is all about coming to grips with YOUR OWN PERSONAL REALITY, whatever that might be. It is NOT about accepting some Guru’s idea of reality, whether that Guru is a classical Indian yogi, a talking puppet head on fox news/CNN or whatever globalist propaganda network you prefer. Once you have established some baseline level of reality, you then move towards the mental imagery aspect.

For example, let’s say you do a meditation and check in with your current reality. You are feeling sad. First you acknowledge the sadness. Explore it. Question it. Sit with it. Be with it. THEN after you are anchored in reality, practice the opposite of sadness – happiness. Acknowledge that you are just practicing happiness. The more you practice the better you will become at being happy. This may be extremely difficult depending on your situation. That’s why it’s a practice.


A lot of new age people don’t do the initial grounding phase of this process. They wish, they hope, they dream, they pretend and their entire practice is geared towards leaving the body. They know “the secret” and live completely in their heads. This is not yoga. There are some very good reasons why asana (the physical postures) –is focused on so much. You need to anchor yourself in reality or you will go nuts, and this is precisely what the power elite want.

The saddest part of this is the amount of people who hesitate to try yoga because they refuse to let a guru tell them what to do, while at the same time they completely bow down and lick the boots of whatever guru president is currently in office.

]]><![CDATA[New Bedford Half Marathon Race Recap]]>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 07:43:17 -0800http://www.sisuprojectyoga.com/1/post/2012/03/new-bedford-half-marathon-race-recap.html Yesterday I had the pleasure of running in the New Bedford Half Marathon, one of New England’s premier races. This race was a lot of fun and a huge reminder of the BENEFITS of gradual progress.  This was my second half marathon, and my first time doing a road half. My first half was the indoor track palooza I did in January.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} The week leading up to New Bedford was a bit stressful since I was in my car A LOT. I do not do well in cars. My hips get tight, my head feels weird, and my mood suffers tremendously. The double whammy was that since I was driving around so much, I did much less running than I normally do. I might have done 20 miles all week, but I’m not sure since I don’t track my mileage.  It may have been even less.

Initially, I had my eye on New Bedford as a place to run a really fast time. Lots of competition and a great course provided the perfect ingredients for a great day. However, given the circumstances of extremely tight hips and glutes from the driving, I realized I needed to be smart.

Before the race I did as much loosening as I could, cycling through the Chi body looseners and doing some strides. By the time I lined up at the start I was slightly better but still feeling really tight. I realized I would need to take this race out very slow and see what happens from there. Trying to run a fast pace from the start would likely not end up pretty.

Thanks to some deep yoga breathing I was able to control my competitive emotions and take the race out EXTREMELY easy. I didn’t see the first mile marker but I did see the second and when I passed it read “13:00” meaning I was running 6:30 pace. I was behind people I routinely finish ahead of by several minutes. I slowly began working my way up being mindful to not waste energy weaving through the crowd. When a space opened up I went with it. If I got stuck behind a group, no problem…patience grasshopper etc…

During mile 3 there was a nice hill and I was able to move past a good amount of runners. As I crested the hill I could feel my hips and glutes starting to loosen up. I continued relaxing my way through it and increasing the pace ever so slightly. I went by the 10K mark at about 36:43. Once I hit 10K the race was spread out and I was passing people one at a time rather than passing the huge groups at the beginning. This was a tremendous amount of fun. The feeling of passing people vs. the feeling of being passed is very different.  I made it a point to enjoy the feeling of going by people, even though I was thinking my finishing time would not be that great.

At no point did I try to calculate what my finish time would be during the race. Doing math while running is a waste of energy! I was running purely on feel and using my competitors as inspiration to go faster.  Miles 8-11 were very windy since we were running right by the water. I didn’t let the wind get my spirits down though. I was feeling great and just kept doing what I could do to continue to go by people. A couple other runners tried tucking behind me as I passed them to let me absorb the wind for them, and since I’m not a huge fan of having my energy sucked out of me, I threw in a mini surge to get them off my back and that worked out well. These runners may have went out a bit too fast and at the stage of the race were just in survival mode. Since I went out super slow I wasn’t in survive mode I was in thrive mode. At mile 9 it felt like the race was just beginning for me.

We weaved our way back towards the downtown area and I started to pass some familiar faces. I started to get a little surprised because I knew the guys I was passing typically run pretty fast times. They usually run faster times than the time I thought I was going to end up with. Based on my perceived effort level throughout the race, if I crossed the line and didn’t see the time I probably would have guessed I ran about a 1:19, the same I ran in the indoor half marathon.

As I crossed the line the clock read 1:16:30. Take away about 30 seconds of that for the time it took me to cross the start line (I told you I started wayyy in the back) and I ended up with a time of 1:16:04, much faster than I thought I was running.

Easing into the race gradually allowed me to run fast without it being a huge shock to my body. During the last 4 miles and immediately after the race was the best I felt all week. Yes, that is correct, the best I felt all week was during and immediately after running a half marathon. When us Chi Runners say “pain free half marathon” or “pain free marathon” we aren’t kidding. And you can be fast! I ran probably 20 miles total the week leading up to this race and I don’t do workouts very often yet I still managed a 1:16 pain free half marathon.

After the race I went to teach Chi Running to a high school runner who is very fast (competes at the national level) and is now dealing with some shin pain. The point I kept making was that Chi Running is a DAILY PRACTICE. I might not run very much, or do workouts but I practice the Chi Running principles DAILY. I practice focus, breathing, body sensing, and relaxation every day. I think this is what allows me to show up to a race under-trained and still put up a solid performance. Simply knowing the information isn’t going to help your running, you need to APPLY IT and PUT IT INTO PRACTICE.

 
Some data from the race for the number crunchers (I don’t wear a watch so I only have a few data points)

2 mile split – 13:00

10K split – 36:43

Finish time – 1:16:04

]]><![CDATA[WARNING: Sunny Days Shown To Cause Running Injuries]]>Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:34:22 -0800http://www.sisuprojectyoga.com/1/post/2012/03/warning-sunny-days-shown-to-cause-running-injuries.htmlRecently we’ve had a few days of beautiful weather. One day was what I would consider to be “perfect” weather. During this time of year it is important to remember a key Chi Running principle: GRADUAL PROGRESS.

Just because the weather all of a sudden got nice does not mean your fitness has improved (sorry).
I’m writing this post because I know people get very excited around this time and will head out the door and run three times as long as their recent longest run. They will run this long run about 1-2 minutes per mile faster than what they have been running for a pace through the winter. Then, in an amazing display of cognitive dissonance, they will declare the run an awesome “easy” run. Then they will ponder why their hamstrings are hurting and will list any reason other than tripling the distance of their long run in one day.

It’s great to get outside and enjoy the outdoors and I’m glad people are eager to do so. The problem is the tradeoff. One really long run on that first really nice day might cost you a few runs in the near future since you will likely do some damage by not following gradual progress. Some people are ok with this. It's like eating a really bad food or drinking a bunch of alcohol. It feels great when you are doing

Instead of getting over-excited about the weather and tripling your weekly mileage in one day, consider asking yourself what you can do to attain the fitness required to do the runs you desire. Ask yourself if this is a reasonable and sustainable approach. If you need help, ask a coach or post a comment below.

Enjoy the nice weather and be smart.

]]><![CDATA[The Principles of Natural Running - Video]]>Wed, 07 Mar 2012 06:04:13 -0800http://www.sisuprojectyoga.com/1/post/2012/03/the-principles-of-natural-running-video.htmlCheck out this great video from Dr. Mark Cucuzella.
   
]]><![CDATA[Smuttynose Palooza Indoor Half Marathon]]>Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:35:33 -0800http://www.sisuprojectyoga.com/1/post/2012/01/smuttynose-palooza-indoor-half-marathon.html Over the weekend I competed in the smuttynose palooza indoor half marathon. Yes, you read that correctly, *indoor* half marathon. I saw this race advertised online a while back and thought it would be a nice opportunity to make my debut at the half-marathon distance. Despite having run two full marathons, I have never raced a half, until this weekend.

I didn’t train specifically for this race, I Just did what I normally do which is a lot of slow running, a little fast running, and a good amount of core strength and yoga.  I was mainly using the race to get an idea of where my fitness might be.

I got to the race nice and early so I could check out the track and watch the half-marathon relay. This would give me somewhat of an idea of what to expect in my race. I did some barefoot walking and very slow running and body looseners to make sure I was nice and loose when the race started. Although I was not really concerned about time, I did do a little math to figure out various lap splits. The track is about 300 meters, and it is about 5.2 laps per mile. In other words, it is not a normal length track so any numbers I am used to hearing would mean nothing in this race. I basically did this to make sure I wasn’t running too fast in the early stages of the race.

We lined up casually at the start and before I knew it, someone had already said “go” so off I went. I started out nice and relaxed and slower than I thought I should. This was again, to make sure I didn’t start off too fast. I figured coming off three track meets running shorter, faster races might have me going out too fast for a 13.1 mile race, so I made sure to take it extra easy in the first mile. During that mile there was a group of three guys about 10 meters ahead of me.

After the first mile I was feeling settled in and very good so I took the lead and didn’t look back. From there it was about 60 laps going around and around and around. I held my pace pretty consistently, with my fastest miles being mile 9 and 10. Luckily I didn’t get bored in the race. Quite the contrary – I was engaged and excited the whole way. There was music blaring and a great announcer that would call out split times and make comments. It was cool to be the leader and have the announcer say my name as I completed lap, after lap, after lap (68 total laps!)

My main focus for the race was staying super relaxed, especially in my face, neck and shoulders. This focus seemed to work well, as I felt smooth for the entire time. I can see some differences in the video from my left and right side. Always something to work on...

There were 60 people in the race and I began lapping people somewhat early on, but this wasn’t a bother, it was actually nice to give and receive encouragement from the other runners.


I ended up finishing up in about 1:19 for my half marathon debut which is fine for this point of my training. After I finished the race I grabbed a seat and had some coconut water with a scoop of recovery accelerator. One of my favorite things in the world is the feeling of good nutrition moving through the body after a solid effort. Despite having run 13+ miles at right around 6 minute mile pace, I felt similar to how I feel after any other track race. It really didn’t feel like I had “raced” at all, and this is good news as it indicates I had a lot more in the tank. It will be interesting to see how much I can bring the time down once I run a half marathon on the roads.

Overall, the smuttynose palooza indoor half marathon was a great experience. The race was well run, plenty of food and beer, easy registration and check in process etc. The other great thing was the chip system which allowed each lap to be tracked by computer. It was great to get updates on how far along in the race I was. Some people told me I was crazy for doing an indoor half marathon but the truth is – it’s cold and I would rather race inside where it’s warm then outside in single digit temperatures.

BUT DOESN’T THE TRACK WRECK YOUR BODY?

Some people expressed concern that running 68 laps on an indoor track would wreck my body. I’m sure the constant left turns caused a little bit of imbalance in my body but I don’t think it’s a really big deal. The day after the race I ran very slow for about 2 hours and afterwards I felt fine. No harm done from the track.  Next up is another track meet where I will once again be running the 3,000 meter.
]]><![CDATA[My Prophecy To Tom Brady]]>Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:13:39 -0800http://www.sisuprojectyoga.com/1/post/2012/01/my-prophecy-to-tom-brady.htmlOne of the coolest things that has ever happened to me is the time I met Tom Brady and prophesized his heroics after Drew Bledsoe got injured. 

This is a completely true story and I have a credible witness who will vouch for me.
I met Tom his rookie year at training camp before he had ever taken a snap in the NFL.  As the players finished practice and began walking to the locker room my buddy D-train started yelling to Brady asking him to come over to us. D-train was a Michigan fan and Brady played for Michigan, so thus, D-train was a Brady fan. Eventually D-train got his attention by yelling “come sign my hat, it’s a Michigan hat.”

When Tom heard that D-train had a Michigan hat, he ran right over, realizing we were sincere fans and not just some annoying hecklers. So now Tom Brady is standing with us, talking about football. Of course, none of us knew at the time we were talking to a future sports legend.

Or did we?

So Tom is talking to us and he is kind of quiet and reserved.  As we were talking I somewhat randomly and rudely say, “so are you ready for Bledsoe to go down and step in and be the hero?”


I realize now the question is pretty rude and no athlete wants to be put in a position of imagining a scenario where a teammate gets injured Of course, Brady gave the best answer you could imagine. It’s the same answer he continues to give to this day to 90% of the questions the media asks him. He is practicing, studying, working hard, and ready to contribute to the team in any way he can. 

The point here isn’t my terrible journalist skills, it’s that what I said to Tom Brady his rookie year is exactly what happened! See above video of the Bledsoe injury, and below evidence of Tom Brady's heroics in the Super Bowl.
I sometimes wonder if Brady ever remembers that random encounter with the four of us characters.  As the season unfolded and the Patriots won the super bowl, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I had prophesized it all to Brady. At first I felt a little bad for making such a stupid comment but after it actually happened I had no other choice but to think it was very cool that I told him Bledsoe would get hurt and that he would be the hero. 

Since then I’ve tried to think of other prophecies but it never works. I think there is something about trying too hard and it not working. When I had the Brady prophecy I was just in the flow, goofing off and it just came out of my mouth. 

Overall, the Brady Prophecy is one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me. I was a freshman in college when the Patriots won their first Super Bowl, so needless to say there was tons of debauchery, willying out, and general tomfoolery. In other words, it was something I won’t soon forget.
]]><![CDATA[Olympic Trials This Weekend – Why Nobody Cares]]>Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:50:06 -0800http://www.sisuprojectyoga.com/1/post/2012/01/olympic-trials-this-weekend-why-nobody-cares.html The Olympic marathon trials are being held this Saturday in Houston Texas. This is the race that will decide the 3 Women and 3 Men who will go on to represent the U.S.A. in the Olympic games. Most people I’ve spoken with either don’t know or don’t care about the upcoming race. This is especially interesting because I work for a running shoe company. So how does the biggest race in 4 years go completely unnoticed?

The lack of interest in competitive running is a direct result of the complete failure of the USATF to market the sport in an effective way. Track is hardly televised and when it is, the broadcast is absolutely horrendous. Uninformed announcers, cutting to commercial break at critical moments of a race…it’s pretty much a how to guide on how NOT to run a successful broadcast. Compare a track broadcast to an NFL, NBA or MLB game and you will see what I’m talking about.

Another problem with distance running is that having swagger or any personality is discouraged and in many cases will land you a DQ. Do they think this will make the sport more popular?

Compare this to something people are actually excited about like the NFL playoffs. I live in New England so the big talk this week is about New England quarterback Tom Brady taking on the Denver Broncos rookie QB Tim Tebow. Tebow is constantly mocked in the media for being outspoken about his religious beliefs. This type of discussion keeps people interested in the game, even if they have never played football in their lives. It doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree with Tebow and his religious beliefs, the point is – it’s this type of controversy that keeps people coming back for me. This is also interesting because the favorite to win the Olympic trials, Ryan Hall, is also mocked for his religious beliefs, only you wouldn’t know it unless you visit a running specific website, and even there you will have to check the message board as the main articles will rarely touch the subject.

Why? Simple. The marketing machine behind running in the U.S. is 100% focused on getting you to participate in a race and 0% focused on getting you to watch a race. I’m not saying this is a bad thing as It encourages people to get active and be participants so that’s good. It would be extremely difficult to charge a spectator fee for a marathon, but it’s easy to charge a participant fee. That’s why all of the marketing efforts go towards getting people to run the race, not watch the race.

It seems to make sense until you realize that marketing the top runners would, in itself encourage more people to run. How many kids pick up a basketball because they want to be like Lebron James? How many kids pick up a football because they want to be like Tom Brady? The marketing folks at the NBA and NFL fully understand that by hyping up the best athletes they will create a tremendous amount of interest in the sport itself. That’s why Tom Brady and Lebron James are swimming in cash, yet Nick Symmonds has to sell ad space on twitter.

Another challenge is the way the seasons are set up, in the sense that in running there really is no professional “season” to speak of. People get attached to the NFL, NBA and MLB because they can follow “their” team and “their” players over the course of a season. The excitement builds, growing stronger in the playoffs and reaches a pinnacle in the championship game or series. In track and road races there are a bunch of random races, some of them have “championship” attached to the name, some have “classic” but nothing really gels together to form a cohesive season. There aren’t even really teams. Sure there are grassroots running clubs that do a great job on the local scene fostering competition. I’m not saying nobody is trying here, just that the main organizations have been a complete failure in generating interest in the sport of running at the elite level. No teams, no interesting characters, no storylines and no trash talk.

Not that there is anything wrong with that. I don’t care that nobody cares about running. This post is not meant to be a rant on why anybody “should” care about running. I just find it fascinating that running is so popular in other parts of the world but not here in the U.S.

I’ve brought this up with people before and most people are under the impression that running is not popular because it’s boring. I don’t think that’s the reason. If broadcast correctly a track meet is incredibly exciting. 5,000 meter on the track going around, cut to pole vaulter trying to clear some gargantuan height, cut to long jumper flying through the air, back to the 5,000m with a lap to go. Definitely more exciting than golf and people watch that. Golf has characters that people either love, or love to hate. That’s what keeps them watching.

 In fact, people watch tons of boring crap on t.v. so I really don’t think that is the reason. I can guarantee that if someone put on a track meet with famous athletes from other sports people would watch and enjoy it. Imagine a few top NFL running backs up against a few NBA guards in a 100 or 200. Sprinkle some track athletes in there and you have tons of trash talking and excitement.

Basically, people will watch whatever has the best marketing, the best storylines, the best charecters, and the most personal meaning for them. This is another reason the NFL, NBA, and MLB have completely obliterated the USATF in the marketing department. I live near Boston so I’m a Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots and Bruins fan. How could I not be a fan of the BOSTON Celtics when I live in Boston? Yet in running we have a bunch of random runners running for random teams that nobody has any personal connection to whatsoever.

This post might seem harsh but consider this: The upcoming Olympic trials race is not being televised. There isn’t even a live internet stream. So even the 1,000 or so people who might actually be interested in watching the race can’t do so unless they travel to the event. It’s hard to build interest in the sport when the biggest race in 4 years isn’t even covered. Oh well, at least the Patriots are playing that day and that broadcast shouldn’t be hard to find. I’m sure any business with a T.V. will have the game playing. And to be clear, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I’m saying kudos to the NFL for doing a great job marketing and providing exceptional entertainment value to the fans.

What are your thoughts? Am I missing something? Why has interest in the sport of running declined so rapidly while participation in the activity has increased?

]]><![CDATA[Why I love Kripalu Yoga + Recent Race Updates]]>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:31:20 -0800http://www.sisuprojectyoga.com/1/post/2012/01/why-i-love-kripalu-yoga-recent-race-updates.html Some thoughts about Gurus, Kripalu Yoga, Chi Running and my recent race recap at the end:

Last week I had a wonderful experience teaching a Chi Running and Kripalu Yoga retreat at the Kripalu center in western MA. The reason I love Kripalu yoga is the same reason I love Chi Running...

Both approaches are a non-dogmatic inquiry based approach led by a community of people seeking to grow their understanding through experiments and experience.

This is very different than traditional yoga and running methods which rely very heavily on gurus telling people what they should and shouldn’t do. People generally recognize yoga as being guru based, but are a bit confused when I tell them running is not much different. Allow me to explain.

Once a distance runner enters high school they can expect most of their runs to be completely planned by a coach. This coach is most likely following the plan of either Arthur Lydiard or Jack Daniels, both of whom are regarded as top running coaches, and rightfully so. You can go on message boards and read the debates on which guru system is better, Daniels or Lydiard. There is very little emphasis on running by feel. Everything is structured. Everything is planned often months or even years in advance. Yet, somehow the runners miss the fact that they are blindly following the guru without much room for personal experimentation.

The huge irony here is that the same community that worships Lydiard and/or Daniels as their guru will criticize Chi Running for being a guru based system when actually the opposite is true. There is a reason the author titled the book “Chi Running” and not “Danny Dreyer’s running method.” It’s because he is trying to remove the guru system and offer the option of a run by feel method.  I’ve met at least 60 Chi Running instructors and all of them encourage personal experimentation, finding what works for the individual, and avoidance of cookie cutter training systems. This is in sharp contrast to the number of track coaches who have told me I *need* to do high mileage, or I *need* to do 400 meter repeats, or I *need* to do this, that and the other thing. Luckily, none of my own track coaches have had this approach, I’ve just had to hear it from other coaches in the community. I even hear it from other runners who have no credentials as a coach and have few, if any results to back up what they are saying.

Chi Running was not the first approach to talk about running by feel, but it has certainly had the largest impact. For many, running by feel is a scary concept.

Wait…you mean I should actually pay attention to the crazy stuff that’s happening in my body when I run? Forget that, just tell me how far and fast to go and I will throw on the headphones and grind my way through it.

The concept of a guru was once a huge subject at the Kripalu center. Kripalu started out as a guru based community, with Swami Kripalu as the guru, Amrit Desai as his main pupil, and a few dozen other students rounding out the close knit community. After Swami Kripalu passed on, Amrit Desai became the main guru. He was loved by the students and revered to the highest degree.

Then a scandal broke where the students found out that Amrit Desai had been having sexual relations with some of the students. It really rattled the Kripalu community pretty hard. So what did the community do? Sweep it under the rug? Find a new guru? Force Amrit to repent for his wicked ways? No. They asked Amrit Desai to leave and then took a long hard look at the community and how best to move forward. What they decided was to eliminate the guru system completely and have a community of yogis that are all viewed equally. The learning seemed to grow exponentially as the community shifted from 1 teacher/30 students to 30 student-teachers. This is why I love Kripalu yoga. Kripalu is one of the first yoga systems to completely do away with having a guru, and shift the focus towards personal experimentation and experience.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t experts and teachers. I’ve had the good fortune of learning from many of the long time Kripalu residents and it is very clear to me that I have a lot I could learn from them. I love learning from experts. I get turned off when a guru starts telling me I *need* X in order for Y to happen.

One of the phrases we use in both the Chi and Kripalu communities is “nobody knows your body better than yourself.” In my teaching I have found that this comes as a bit of a shocker to many. People have seen so many experts (gurus) and have been bombarded with so much technical jargon they think said guru must know their body better than them. It is my belief that you know your body better than anyone else. Chi Running and Kripalu yoga are both approaches that aim to help you gain greater understanding of your body in a format that makes it easy to share your experiences with the group so everyone can learn and grow together.

Recent Race Recap:

Christmas Weekend I was back at BU for another indoor track meet. I started off with the 3K and felt very good. I was in a faster heat this week and had some guys to work with. I ended up running 9:15 which is a 10 second improvement over the previous week. I then attempted to race the mile and this did not go so well.  I was feeling good through 800 meters when someone decided to run right into my legs, trip me up and send me flying into the track. Not cool. I walked off the track shocked at what had just happened. I then walked over to one of the officials and asked if I could run the 800 just to get a second race in for the day. He graciously let me get into a heat of the 800 in which I ran a 2:10. I felt relaxed but definitely had to work a bit to run that speed. Overall it was a good day despite the fall in the mile.

New years eve I was again at BU for the last meet of the series. The 3K felt pretty similar to the previous week and I managed to cover the distance about 4 seconds faster than the week before. I was happy that I at least got faster but was a little surprised I was only 4 seconds faster. I then gave the mile another try and for whatever reason I just didn’t have it. I ran a 4:43 which felt easy, but I thought I could have run faster than that. I’m not sure exactly what went wrong but I think limited sleep due to a busy holiday schedule was the main culprit.

For my next event I’m stepping a bit outside the comfort zone and running a half marathon on an indoor track. I really do not know what to expect from this event and that’s a good thing! I’m entering the race totally open to whatever happens. At the very least it will be a nice opportunity to get in a solid run in a warm, dry climate in the middle of winter. At best it will be a great chance to run a fast time on the controlled setting of an indoor track. The track is about 300 meters, so bigger than a normal indoor track, smaller than an outdoor track. The race is limited to 60 participants, so it shouldn’t be *too* crowded, but I imagine it will be somewhat crowded. Honestly, I don’t know what to expect. Things could get very messy if people start lapping other runners. Luckily the race is chip timed and your name is displayed on a t.v. screen each time you complete a lap. This way, my lap and times are taken care so I don’t even have to calculate how many laps I have left. If the race gets really messy I am not planning on forcing anything and weaving around a bunch of runners to get a fast time. If it stays relatively clean I will attempt to open it up a bit and see how fast my fitness will allow me to cover the 13.1 mile distance.

]]><![CDATA[Merry Christmas From Mike The Can Man Mahon!]]>Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:04:14 -0800http://www.sisuprojectyoga.com/1/post/2011/12/merry-christmas-from-mike-the-can-man-mahon.htmlMike Mahon is a cross country legend. Mike and I are from the same town, Framingham, MA. Mike recently made a few Christmas carol videos that I wanted to share. Enjoy the videos and thanks to Mike Mahon for all you do for Cross Country!
And if that wasn't enough, here are a few more videos where I ask Mike his all time runners from the Mahon cup, Mike's facebook roster and Mike signing the national anthem.
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