Karen Smith,
A self-proclaimed long distance running junkie, Karen has completed 18 marathons, including Chicago, New York, The Marine Corps, Boston and of course Austin several times. As a coach for Rogue Training System, Karen has help to prepare others for the marathon journey and finds great joy in her runners’ accomplishments as well as her own. For Karen, each marathon and training season is like a new adventure in learning how to improve efficiency, eliminate problems, and how to have even more fun along the way.
In addition to being a runner and a coach, Karen is trained and certified in a number of areas including:
Acupuncture
- Karen is a graduate of the Academy of Oriental Medicine and licensed acupuncturist with a focus on Sports Medicine. Karen enjoys using both her running experience and medical training to help people solve and treat injury dilemmas as well as how to prevent sports injuries in the first place. As an acupuncturist focused on sports medicine, Karen most frequently treat injuries common to runners including: Plantar Fasciitis and other related heel pain symptoms, shin splints, knee pain, IT band syndrome, and low back and hip related running pain syndromes.
Chi Running®
- Karen is also a certified instructor in the Chi Running® Methodology and employs these techniques in her efforts to help her runners and patients treat and prevent injuries. Chi Running® is a revolutionary approach to running instruction focused on running with less effort, more efficiency and less injury.
Active Release Technique (ART)
- To add to her tools and abilities to solve athletic injury challenges, Karen has become certified in ART (Active Release Technique, lower extremity) a patented, state of the art soft tissue system/movement based technique that treats problems with muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia and nerves.
TP Massage Ball
- Additionally she is a certified instructor and advocate for the use of TP massage ball products as a way to teach runners, and triathletes to self-treat and prevent injuries by encouraging and enhancing the elasticity of the most used muscles in endurance sports.
Karen’s passion for running is contagious and she takes pride in the fact that she has convinced and assisted many in completing their first marathon and helped others find fun and satisfaction in running. This combination of holistic methodologies to treating, teaching and preaching, has provided a wonderful opportunity to connect with other people and make new friends. Karen enjoys coaching and helping others reach their goals whether it is the extreme of running a first marathon, the challenge of improving running performance and speed, or recreational running to contribute to a healthy happy life.
All procedures are performed by Karen Smith, a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist as well as a distance runner, coach and certified Chi Running instructor. Licensed acupuncturist in the State of Texas, License # AC00834