Jules reviewed ChiRunning by Danny Dreyer
Review of 'ChiRunning' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I'd like to give this book two stars for the writing, five stars for the technique itself, so I'm going to compromise on four.
Danny Dreyer is definitely on to something with his emphasis on form over externally imposed speed goals, and it's so refreshing to read a book that acknowledges running is something you can do because it's fun, not something you do to prove something or win something or self-flagellation to lose weight. And I found it very helpful that instead of just giving pointers on form the book teaches practical techniques to make sure you follow them, using a mirror to learn to be aware of the position of your body, setting a timer to "check in" every five minutes. I've tried using some of the techniques on my usual run and even though I'm not very good at it yet it has made a noticeable difference …
I'd like to give this book two stars for the writing, five stars for the technique itself, so I'm going to compromise on four.
Danny Dreyer is definitely on to something with his emphasis on form over externally imposed speed goals, and it's so refreshing to read a book that acknowledges running is something you can do because it's fun, not something you do to prove something or win something or self-flagellation to lose weight. And I found it very helpful that instead of just giving pointers on form the book teaches practical techniques to make sure you follow them, using a mirror to learn to be aware of the position of your body, setting a timer to "check in" every five minutes. I've tried using some of the techniques on my usual run and even though I'm not very good at it yet it has made a noticeable difference to how tired I feel at the end.
Unfortunately, the writing is terrible - there's a lot of repetition, a lot of pseudo-science and quite a lot of it is padded out with folksy anecdotes and testimonials that don't really add anything to the text. The actual technique isn't discussed until chapter four, with chapters 1-3 being about the author's philosophy, and unfortunately you can't really skip those as they are important to understand some of the terminology used in the practical chapters.
I also didn't like the chapter on nutrition, which took as a starting point the basic advice to eat a balanced diet, nothing new there, but then took a sharp turn into pseudoscience with advice to eat organic food because it contains more chi. And I was quite unimpressed with his repeated assertion that running hungry is fine because no one has ever starved to death running - while I'm sure they haven't I have fainted on a run after skipping breakfast, so I don't think I'll be following this piece of advice.
All in all, definitely worth a read but be prepared to wade through a lot of dross to get to the good stuff. And a warning: this is not a book to read on public transport, as you may get some rather odd looks when practicing the pelvic tilt exercises on a station platform.