Experimenting

As I come back from my apparent stress fracture in my foot caused by a misstep on a tree branch, I have decided to do some experimenting. I've mentioned before that my heart rate races whenever I run regardless of speed, so I'm experimenting with going slowly enough to breathe only through my nose and see what happens.

I made it more than 1mile today (I forgot my Garmin so the 2 mins jog/1 min walk routine was a no-go.) before I needed to take a breath through the mouth. After a little more than a mile, I walked half a lap and then jogged another lap and a half.

The one thing I still don't understand is why I have so much trouble belly breathing when I run. It's like my diaphram is locked up. I can feel my shoulders rising sometimes when I am trying to "catch my breath" whenever I am exerting whether running or even at yoga. I know what breathing from the diaphram is, how it works, etc, but my body is just struggling. Maybe that's where the heart rate thing comes from. I'll keep working on it.

I'm getting the hang of breathing through my nose but it will take more time to go very far. It does force me to slow down. Don't know what that's doing to my heart rate since I'm not wearing a monitor -- at least not for a while.

I liked not having a watch on. No idea of total time or splits or anything except distance (if I remembered to keep track of the laps). It's going fine. My foot is just a tad tender (not painful) tonight so I think I'm good.

This experimenting is a bit of a challenge for me but a good one. I like trying to get my breathing more relaxed and work on ChiRunning basics like posture and relaxation. My plan is to run 3 or 4 times a week at the track for another 2 to 4 weeks with no watch and focusing only on posture, relaxation and breathing.