Jae Gruenke Feldenkrais Practitioner…Ep143 with Women's Running Stories

03/09/23 • 65 min

In this special collaboration with Women's Running Stories, we talk to Jae Gruenke, Feldenkrais practitioner, running form expert, and founder of The Balance Runner.

Jae Gruenke is known as “the wise woman of running” and has helped runners from beginner to Olympian relieve pain and improve their performance; she specializes in helping runners whose problems have persisted despite medical treatment.

Jae’s interest in running technique was sparked when, as a professional dancer, she was asked to perform choreography that included sustained running in large, outdoor environments. Frustrated by how difficult and uncomfortable running felt, she began to study running technique and use the Feldenkrais Professional Training Program she was enrolled in as a laboratory to discover how to coordinate her movements so that running felt comfortable, easy, and enjoyable.

Eventually, realizing she’d come to prefer running to dancing, and also that the changes in movement that had made the difference to her running were not being taught, discussed, or researched elsewhere, she retired from dancing and launched The Balanced Runner. Jae has been a member of the Feldenkrais Guild of North America since 1999 and the United Kingdom since 2011 and was an ACE-certified personal trainer from 1999-2012.

She graduated from Williams College in 1992 where she majored in literary studies and cross-enrolled at Bennington College to study modern dance. Working as a professional dancer from 1992-2003, she performed with a number of New York City-based companies, and at the time of her retirement from dance in 2003 she was a senior company member of Sarah Skaggs Dance.

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In this special collaboration with Women's Running Stories, we talk to Jae Gruenke, Feldenkrais practitioner, running form expert, and founder of The Balance Runner.

Join Hear Her Sports Patreon https://www.patreon.com/hearhersports

Find all episodes http://www.hearhersports.com/

Find Hear Her Sports on all social @hearhersports

Find Jae Gruenke at https://www.balancedrunner.com/

Find Women’s Running Stories at https://womensrunningstories.com/

Find Women’s Running Stories on IG at https://www.instagram.com/womensrunningstories/

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Previous Episode

Kristen Bourne US Ski Team Cross Country D-Team Coach…Ep142

Kristen Bourne has coached cross country skiing at the collegiate and professional level for the past three years. She was the assistant coach at The College of Saint Scholastica for two years where she was a 2021 Women’s Sports Foundation Tara VanDerveer Fellow. During the summer, she was an assistant coach with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project professional team in Vermont. Prior to coaching, she skied for Northern Michigan University for five years, qualifying for the NCAA Championships three-times and representing the United States at the World Junior Championships and U23 World Championships in 2015 and 2016. After college, she moved to Oslo, Norway where she skied full-time and was an intern at the Norwegian School of Sports Science. Currently, Kristen is the US Ski Cross Country D-Team coach at US Ski and Snowboard, overseeing the top junior and U23 athletes in the US as well as traveling full-time on the World Cup supporting all national team athletes. She is also a graduate student at the College of Saint Scholastica studying Exercise Physiology. When Kristen is not working or studying, she can be found hanging out with her dogs and spending time outdoors with her friends and family.

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Next Episode

Kelsey Pfendler Great Pacific Race with Hericane Rowing…Ep144

Since she was 18 years old, Kelsey Phendler has been working on water and in boats of all kinds. She’s been a professional Grand Canyon Boatman and River Guide for ten years, where she rows boats loaded with gear and passengers along 226-mile trips in every weather condition imaginable from spring through fall. Kelsey also currently pilots motorboats for the United States Geological Survey fish study group. She is now preparing to row from San Francisco to Hawaii with her Hericane Rowing teammates in the Great Pacific Race. This race will certainly be a huge challenge, but Kelsey is no stranger to the perseverance needed to smile in the face of physical and environmental adversity so she’s looking forward to this year of planning and preparation. Working with a strong group of women is exactly where Kelsey thrives. She believes training to break the Women's Ocean Rowing World Record alongside her strong teammates Sierra Myers and sisters Jennifer and Kristen Hofer will be a deeply transformational experience. They all share that same dream!

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