ChiRunning® Instruction in Northern California!

After 4 years teaching and living in the great white north, I have returned to California in the summer of 2008 to live. to work, and to teach ChiRunning. I have helped over 400 runners find new life in their running through this remarkable technique.

Early Days

From about the age of 10, I have had a love affair with running that continues to this day. From the earliest days of city and provincial track meets in Canada, to later establishing a career in Silicon Valley California and running for exercise and fitness, I could always count on my time on the road to keep my crazy pace of life in check.

Embracing Distance Running

After more than a decade of running exclusively quick 5-8 K routes, I met these strange people that called themselves "distance runners". The goal, they explained, was to slow down (gasp!), find a rhythm, and run unfathomable distance like 15K, 25K, and even 42.2K or longer. Only people on TV run that far I said, but still they persisted. Their strange and beautiful tales convinced me to give it a try, however, I foolishly insisted on adapting my short route form (ie. too fast) to longer distances and fatigue, soreness and minor injuries were constant ongoing problems.

"Finding" ChiRunning®

Larry with Chris Griffin (master instructor) and Danny Dreyer founder of ChiRunning.

In the spring of 2000, I was wavering in my commitment to longer distances. I liked the meditative aspect of running for longer periods of time, but my body was always sore, I was having foot blister problems, and my ankles and knees were clearly rebelling. Just then, a friend told me about a new way of running designed for ultimate efficiency over long distances. The founder, Danny Dreyer, was an ultra-marathoner, and in training for various 50 and 100 mile runs had spent countless hours study and practicing running efficiency. He was now traveling around the San Francisco Bay Area teaching others what he had learned.

There is an old saying that when the student is ready, the teacher will come, and finding Danny and ChiRunning was just what I needed at that point in my life and in my running. I took the ChiRunning basics course in 2000 and never looked back. It got me over the hump and helped me improve my distance form, and let go of my ego's need for speed. I can see now that running has always been my personal mind/body practice, but I really couldn't see it until I found ChiRunning and took up distance and trail running.

As so often happen, when I gave up speed in favor of working on form, I ended up getting faster. Life's like that, isn't it? I went on to run countless training miles, fartleks, tempo runs, hill runs and completed several marathons, all injury free, consistently improving in form and efficiency.

I don't run a lot of organized events, but I have completed multiple marathons, most recently the Avenue of the Giants where I placed 3rd in my age group. It is a special experience if you haven't run it.

ChiRunning® Instruction

In 2005, I became certified to teach ChiRunning and have since taught over 400 people how to apply this form to their running technique. My goal is to share the thrills I have experienced in my own 7 year transformation with ChiRunning to help others enjoy greater running efficiency, reduced injuries and generally more joy expressed in the process.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with you, whether you are a brand new runner looking to stay in shape, an experienced competitive athlete, or most likely, someone in between.