Chi Marathon: The Breakthrough Natural Running Program for a Pain-Free Half Marathon and Marathon Paperback – March 13, 2012

If there is one book on running to read then this is it. Chi Marathon doesn't deal with just how to run, what to do, not to do, and all the banal information that you find in every other marathon or endurance running book.Chi Marathon goes into detail of what every other running book misses and then some. From explaining and educating you of the importance of the technique phase to the conditioning phase and onto the event mastery phase, taper phase, post race phase and how to develop mindfully the mental edge to perform better. And much more besides.Danny Dreyer really excels in helping the reader understand the mastery of his creation of ChiRunning. You can feel in the words of this master piece book, his power of educating runners to be smart, runners, efficient runners, and of course, injury free runners.Danny Dreyer explains, educates you in all aspects on all levels of ChiRunning an endurance race. Everything you learn in this book can be used for running of all distances, wether you are a beginner or pro athlete. If you don't ChiRun then you will still learn a lot, in fact you will learn heaps from his book Chi Marathon.It is THE book of 2012, a reference that educates you instead of just talking to, or at you. You will come back to this book time and time again and always learn something new.Danny Dryer created ChiRunning back in the late 90's, before the current fad of minimalist running. Everything he said back in the late 90's has stood the test of time.ChiMarathon proves that Danny Dreyer is the master of original run efficiency technique that stands way above any other "new" run technique.If you buy this book you will not regret it. If you don't buy it then you will regret it. If you give it to someone as a pressie, don't be surprised that s/he will start to run faster through pure efficiency and cross the finish line injury free and with a smile!For the price it is a give away of a mine of reputable and practicable information that will have you running better, like never before.ChiRunning; its simple, its works, it makes plain sense!

I’m 43, I used this for my first marathon that was projected to be 4:10 based on a 5k in PERFECT conditions and flat ground. I thought I’d be closer to 4:25 or maybe 5:30 if I couldn’t fix my shin problems and had to run walk (I ended up with stress fractures after my last big race). Instead, I forgot about time and just followed this book religiously. Several years of shin pain disappeared on lesson 1 of chi running and never came back in 5 months. I would sometimes go play soccer the evenings of my long runs the recovery was so fast. My legs and muscles resculpted in a more balanced way based on the new running form it was amazing to watch. The warm-up looseners made sense, (I’ve done warm-ups for other plans that seem to be the same from plan to plan, but I didn’t understand how they helped and seemed perhaps a bit dangerous, chi running TOTALLY makes sense, everything has a purpose). For the marathon I just set my heart rate monitor as suggested in the book for the first 20 miles and ran in a relaxed way, I increased a bit for the last 6 miles because I had so much energy left, it felt weird to be passing people like crazy at the end. I was stunned when I got my official race time as 3:55:09! I was comfortably running the marathon at speed that had killed me in 10k in the past and I hadn’t even had to focus on speed at all during training, just mindful running. I’ve read every marathon training book in my library, this is the best so I bought it. It might be a hard to follow at times, but the information is solid gold and worth digging through for.

Good concepts, and explained well, but I think Chi Running may be a better option (have not read it yet). It's hard to simultaneously train for a marathon AND dramatically alter your running style. I couldn't always tell when I was doing the form focuses correctly. And when I did them incorrectly, I knew it after my long runs because it would result in an injury - e.g. to my lower back or hip.On the positive side, successfully completed the Boston Marathon and did apply some of the form focuses, like landing mid foot and keeping my lower legs and feet relaxed. And I have to say, this book has fundamentally changed my posture - not just when running but all day - sitting and standing.

First, please note that I have only read through half of the book. I am picking and choosing the chapters that pertain to my specific needs for my current training. Second, I have had the privilege of running with the author, Danny Dreyer, last summer in Asheville, NC. Third, I studied martial arts for 10 years when I was younger, so Tai Chi is something that I was familiar with and I am very interested in practicing in the near future. Many of the principles that Danny describes in his book come natural to me because of my martial arts background. Once you begin to incorporate these techniques into your running, you quickly recognize just how rational these tips are for improving your running efficiency and preventing injury. My breathing has improved. My endurance has improved. My discomfort (beyond 13 miles) has decreased. And my pace has dropped from 8:50 per mile to 8:30 per mile in less than one month. All with no injuries.

All women runners should consider this book's introduction, written by a famous British woman runner. She sets out why she just recently gave up competitive running, but has adapted CHI RUNNING for her own distance running. She speaks liltingly ofwhat pure joy she has in just fun running..... and will most likely never return to competitive running. She talks of the greatlikelihood of inevitable injury in competitive running, and her fun-running philosophy has a timely message for us MachoMales as well (guess which gender suffers by far the greater injuries). The book has deeper counsel from Danny Dreyer, the Master Chi Man . . . and from other experts as well.