Running (healthily) again

After my posterior tibial tendonitis injury in 2009, 2010 was a year of recovery for me.  I ran less than 400km that year, and every run was accompanied by pain and the fear that it would flare up again.

2011 was another year of slow recovery, but things finally picked up towards the end of last year when I managed to match my half marathon PB (which I set in 2009) at the Penang Bridge marathon.

Then came the disaster that was the Singapore Marathon, where I screwed up my hydration and threw up at km 10.  I didn't recover after that and finished in a total of 6 hours by walking most of the way.

Finally, in 2012 I was able to run almost injury free, and have hit almost 750km to date.
But through all this, I believe the one thing that really helped was improving my running form, specifically how  Chi Running teaches it.  It wasn't easy to get the hang of it at first, but once the basic concepts are grasped, running felt more effortless, more natural and flowing, a bit like tai chi, you might say.

Of course, changing running form is not for everyone, if you have been running pain free all this while then there is no point in taking the risk to change your running form.  But the ideas shared in Chi Running make a lot of sense and it may be worthwhile checking out their Youtube videos to find out more.

By the way, I'm not affiliated in any way to the Chi Running folks, just sharing my personal experience :)

Here's one Youtube video on heel striking: