The gym I chose lined the treadmills along the window facing our town’s main road. During the day, this made it nice to people-watch those passing by while I completed my runs. At night, it acted like a mirror for me to see the entire gym behind and beside me going about their workouts. What I started to notice, in particular, were the runners next to me. There were the huffer-and-puffers (like me initially) who you could hear breathing across the gym barely managing to stay on the treadmill. There were the distracted phone users who exercised their fingers harder than the rest of their body. And then there were these runners, two I can recall vividly, who ran for what seemed like forever, holding fast paces, and breathing like they were on an easy walk. I wanted to run and breathe like that.
So I researched how to breathe properly while running. I used this video made by The Run Experience called How To Run And Breathe Properly:
It made all of the difference for me. It took practice to get it down and I came back to the video a few times. But I began to see a huge difference in my endurance of the paces I could maintain and in my ability to recover faster in between intervals.
After a couple of months staying steady with my running, I started to notice some pain in one of my shins combined with lower back discomfort. I had researched a lot before I started running to avoid injury, but was clearly still not doing something right. Thankfully, this video (put out by the creators of the exercise guide I was following) by Kelly and Lauren of Sissfit got me back on track: 3 Common HIIT Running Mistakes And How To Fix Them
Although I had been conscious not to heel strike all along, I made a focused effort to eliminate even the tiniest heel strike. I adjusted my hips, relaxed my shoulders and thought about how my arms moved. I decided to focus more on my form and not so much on the guides for a few weeks until I could correct relieve my pain.
Those weeks I dedicated to practicing breathing and working on my form were by far some of the best investments I made in my running. And I believe it helped contribute to why I enjoy running so much. I can’t tell you how often I have heard from others that they don’t enjoy running because they get side aches, back aches, shin discomfort or can’t seem to breathe. I get it, I used to be one of those people! But with a little research and some time dedicated to FINE-TUNING, I elevated my running experience.
Part 4 coming… “Often when you think you're at the end of something, you're at the beginning of something else."