Week 2 completed

[Martin_Rose]

Hi all, I have just completed week 2, I did it ok, but my breathing is rubbish, any tips would be great, thanks.

[Hidden]

So oldfloss always says to make sure you are kissing the ground (with your feet of course) as sometimes as new runners we bound around like Thumper the rabbit, if you don't know who he is, sorry very old Disney reference there. But you waste an awful lot of energy and puff by thumping and not kissing. Also try not to stress about it, I found breathing patterns really difficult early on and I think it's because we all overthink it. It will synch in time, but slow down if it feels too laboured and you're concerned. My coach Mr Smooth says to time your breathing to a count of 4.

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate in reply to Hidden]

You are lovely... ! I went out for my first post IC run/walk yesterday and I really id kiss the ground with my feet!

[Hidden in reply to Oldfloss]

So that's good then that you follow your own advice! Welcome back to the land of kissing feet

[Martin_Rose Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Jan.

[Hidden]

Depends what you mean by rubbish. I rapidly ignored advice about counting and so many steps per breath. Generally if you haven't turned blue your breathing is fine. If you mean gasping for breath then you are running too fast. Slow down and it will sort itself out. It is not possible to run too slow for this programme. But it is possible to run too fast.

[Martin_Rose Graduate in reply to Hidden]

Thanks, I think I do need to slow down.

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

Just breathe.. that is it. The moment we overthink it, it goes pear-shaped... ! Like blinking..think about it and you do it non-stop! ( bet you are blinking fast now:))

Slow and steady, land lightly and try to relax...it is hard to do,but it is the way Think about the run, look around and just breathe...

[Martin_Rose Graduate in reply to Oldfloss]

Thanks, I'm looking forward to week 3 following your advice.

[RebeccaSK Graduate]

I think the key is not to worry about it too much. When I first started I could barely breathe but I really couldn't run any slower than I already was. At some point it just clicked and it became more natural. I know that, for me at least, so much of it is psychological. I make sure that in my five minute warm up (which I still do even though I've graduated) I would concentrate on taking good, deep breaths. As I'm running if I start to get anxious then I make a concerted effort to pull my shoulders up and back, opening the chest and breathing freely and deeply. I also worked to do other exercise to build up my cardiovascular strength and capacity - I chose spinning but you could choose anything that gets your heart rate up. I chose to spin on my "rest days". There will be those that disagree but I wouldn't read too many articles on breathing technique - it's just another thing to worry about. It WILL get easier and feel more natural, I promise.

[Martin_Rose Graduate]

Brilliant, thanks Rebecca, I will try something on my rest days.

[PeggyMc]

I have asthma, so I could tell you to breathe like an asthmatic, but that doesn't help much. with me I think part of the reason my breathing has been better than I thought is because I concentrate on the fact that my legs hurt so much. Seriously though I did read somewhere on here to take in two breaths instead of one and that will help. I personally suck on inhalers before I go out, just to be safe