Anxiety!

[Fitternotfatter2020]

I ran week 1 a couple of times until I felt comfortable to start week 2, which I did tonight. Same route although longer tonight but same hills and I’m fairly proud to say I completed all but 1 90 seconds runs (the one I had to stop early was up a steep hill).

However the purpose to my post is my anxiety around running.

I become very anxious on my warm up walk which hinders my breathing! I already find it very difficult to control my breathing without panting.

Any tips of breathing would be much appreciated. Is it something that improves over time? Will it get better??

Thanks in advance 😀

[nowster Graduate]

Breathing. When you breathe, what bit of you goes in and out? Is it your upper chest or your lower chest/belly?

If it's the upper chest, you're not using all the capacity of your lungs.

health.harvard.edu/lung-hea...

I do a bit of singing, so I knew about this already.

[Fitternotfatter2020 in reply to nowster]

I definitely notice my belly going out when I’m breathing; I suppose it’s just an area to work on.

Thanks for the link though 🙂

[MontyMooDog Graduate]

I breathe in through my mouth and out through my mouth. For me with sinusitis or hay fever anything involving the nose is a waste of space as the hole is much smaller 😂😂 Try to belly breathe which involves dropping your diaphragm rather than just panting moving your chest in and out. Belly breathing lets you take in a lot more air.👍

As for the hills a good trick I found when I started was run up slowly as far as you can and if it gets too much just turn round and let gravity take over and run down. It's much easier that way😂😂 Good luck with your running and keep at it. The benefits are enormous...👍👍

[Fitternotfatter2020 in reply to MontyMooDog]

Thanks for the advice. Definitely going to keep at it ... already seeing results and feeling better 👍

[MontyMooDog Graduate in reply to Fitternotfatter2020]

👍💪😁

[Feltip Graduate]

It may be psychological, you're expecting to feel anxious so you do. I'm in no way doubting you btw, I understand how anxious you're probably feeling, but it might be a catch 22 situation.

I would hope as you progress through the program your confidence grows and you will naturally feel less anxious

Was there any need for you to repeat week 1?

Your panting, is that because you're struggling with the run or you are anxious? Maybe you are going too fast, slowly slowly, everyone says slow down.

If you completed it you are ready to move on. So many people on here tell me to trust the program, I am miss negative, and doubt myself and my capabilities until I found this forum. It's an incredibly positive place to be

People here will give you the encouragement you need to believe in yourself.

I hope you manage to over come this, maybe others will give better advice than I can, I'm only on week 4 !!

Good luck with your continued journey

[Fitternotfatter2020 in reply to Feltip]

I honestly think you’ve hit the nail on the head ... I think for the most part it’s definitely psychological.

I try to remain positive leading up to the warm up walk and throughout.

I only repeated week 1 for my own benefit tbh 😂

I’ll keep going!

Thanks for your advice.

Good luck on your journey!

[Feltip Graduate in reply to Fitternotfatter2020]

I would defo avoid the hills 🤣

[Irish-John Graduate]

I can't advise on breathing - my lungs are not in the best of shape so I always sound like a winded horse when I run - but a technique taught to me years ago to "calm the nerves and soothe the spirit" before taking on something is :

Look at three different things and name them.

Move three body parts.

Take three nice filling deep breaths and smile.

I hope this helps, it sure does for me

[Fitternotfatter2020 in reply to Irish-John]

I’ll try this on my next run on Thursday, Thanks!

[Maz1103 Graduate]

I still get anxious just before I run and I'm on w8r2. I wish I could stop but I have decided its just me and a little adrenaline is normal and makes you perform.!!

[Fitternotfatter2020 in reply to Maz1103]

Oh really? Well good on you for making it to W8!

[jadevictoria Graduate]

Try going a different route so you don’t know exactly when that 5 min walk is going to be up based on your location. I’m no good with breathing exercises they seems to make me panic more about breathing but you could try these as they work for a lot of other people. Once you get a bit further into the programme you’ll hopefully look forward to the running spells and not have the same anxiety building up.

Your lung capacity will improve so much too over the first 4 weeks so you might find this helps too.

In short, just keep at it!

Well done

[Blackberrypie Graduate]

Yoga is good for developing awareness of the breath -perhaps you could try doing something like Adrienne's warm up for runners to get yourself in a good headspace before you start your walk.