Running On Air

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.  ~Friedrich Nietzsche    


What is it like to fly? Flying is something that I've always put together with running. The two have always gone hand in hand for me. Running, I've always thought is the human version of flight. Luckily I got my chance to try my hand at running on air yesterday. 

Besides being the best physical therapist in the world, my physical therapist has one other thing to offer that most do not. An alter-g treadmill. The alter-G is an anti-gravity treadmill developed my NASA scientists to mimic running in a zero gravity situation. No joke. 

  

In preperation to run on this treadmill my therapist had me put on what I like to call the bike tutu. The basic construction looks like a pair of bike shorts...spandex that came down to a little above my knee. Around the waistband however is a circular piece of fabric, making it appear that I am wearing some sort of biking short/running skirt hybrid. In other words, if Lady Gaga were to write a song about athletics...she would wear this outfit for a concert. 


Next you step onto the treadmill. You raise the "enclosure" to your waist and zip it to the bike short tutu. Press start, and gravity starts to disappear. How it works is that the treadmill weighs you as the chamber fills with air. 


After this you start running. The machine starts out at 100 (i.e. 100% of your body weight) and  from  there you can press the + or - button to choose what weight you want to run at. The lower the percentage the more the chamber inflates. The air pressure lifts you off the ground to match the weight you selected. Pick your speed and you're good to go. 


But what does it really feel like to run in zero gravity? It's weird. It took me a solid 15 minutes to get used to. Because you're not pounding like you usually do when you run you really have to concentrate on your foot plant. I found myself having to think about putting my feet on the surface of the treadmill. A lot of this was due to the fact that I legitimately felt like I could just lift up my feet and float away. Yes...that it how weightless it feels. The closest thing I can equate it to is aqua-jogging....but without the resistance of the water...plus your feet are making contact with solid ground. 


I only ran two miles on it for the first time. Though the Alter-G provides the same amount of cardio that regular running does, without the pavement pounding your body isn't stressed nearly as much as it is with normal running. So besides the intial "noodle legs" feeling your legs aren't half as taxed as they would be with a  regular run. 


Getting off may have been the hardest part. Remember when you were a little kid and you played the game where you jumped on a giant trampoline and then you got off and felt how strange it was to jump on solid ground again? That is the final feeling of the anti-gravity treadmill. In everything I read no one ever described what it was like to get off of the treadmill. It's a terrible feeling really. Coming down from running in the clouds is never easy. The first few steps that I took my legs felt like lead. When the anti-gravity chamber released I was pretty convinced that I would sink into the ground. 


I'm so thankful for the opportunity to run pain free. I realize that actually finding an anti-gravity treadmill is next to impossible. Finding an anti-gravity treadmill and not having to second mortgage your house to find the money to run on it (most charge $15/half an hour for use)-that IS impossible. I can't believe that I was the .001% of the population who found a physical therapist who happens to have an Alter-G. Maybe the entire world isn't working against my love of running after all?

So here's to running on air until I can run again for real.