Running would have to be the most highly endorsed exercise of 10:10 Wellness.  Its accessibility, simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and health-effectiveness are unmatched.  While those are all logical reasons to run, the left brain has its favorite reasons.  Some of your best thinking, creating, and stress relieving will occur when you're deep into a run. With the exception of the extremely overweight and chronically injured, virtually all of us can run.

While running is undoubtedly the best bang for our exercise buck, it doesn't come without consequences - namely injuries.  Any accomplished runner could likely share a list of their nagging injuries and times they had to stop running due to those injuries.  As a result too many of us give up one of the best fat-burning, cardio-building, HDL-increasing, stress-reducing activities on the planet.  It requires virtually no equipment, relatively little time, it can be done solo or in a group, and with enough training, it can bring you to some breathtaking venues to create lasting memories.

One of our "strong suggestions" to our running friends is to incorporate a somewhat unorthodox running gait or style.  Traditionally we run with a heel toe form.  This method creates tremendous forces on our joints that over time can lead to overuse injuries.  To compensate, shoe companies design "cushioned" trainers to offset the shock of impact.

A better solution is to adopt a form where we land on the balls of our our feet with a slightly bent knee.  This is known by some as the Pose Method and more recently as Chi Running which teaches us to incorporate and rely on our core muscles along with a foot strike similar to Pose.  Using these techniques, combined with a few supplements (like Joint Matrix) to preserve our joint function, we have the foundation for a life-long running habit.  So while there's very little technique involved in running, one of these methods should be a constant guide for you in your pursuit of running happiness.

Whether your running goal is to go 1 mile or 1 marathon, all training runs should more or less fall into one of three categories:

The Tempo run.  Probably the most common of our weekly endeavors, the tempo run is a constant pace run ideally sandwiched between a slow warm up and cool down. The pace can range from pretty mellow, like 70-75% of our maximum heart rate (MHR), to an aggressive "lactate threshold" pace up to 85+% of MHR. 

The Interval run.  Also referred to as speed work, intervals are variable length segments combined into a workout.  Often run on a quarter mile track, intervals require that we run at a faster pace followed by a recovery period.  The purpose of intervals is to increase our speed in our selected race distance, and intervals would not be necessary for the novice or first timer.

The LSD run.  Short for "long, slow, distance" this is the run that best prepares us to go the distance. The pace is slow enough (60-70% of MHR) that we can hold a pretty decent conversation as we plod along.  The LSD run is most often associated with the marathon  or half marathon though it can also be an important component of shorter race training programs.

Stay tuned as we add links to the left for different training programs.

Chris, George, Jocelyn, and Alex before the start of the 2008 Sarasota Marathon and Half Marathon.