Get Miles Away

You may not feel like it but, chances are, you’re probably running too fast.

Sometimes, the reason that you’re so knackered by the end of your run is that you’ve pushed yourself too much. Distance and speed can of course be tracked and calculated (if you’ve mapped it out previously using GoogleMaps or use a running tracker similar), but often runners don’t bother. They know their distance, and then run. They either struggle, or they don’t. If they do struggle, then they’ve probably been running faster than they should.

It’s far better to slowly but surely increase the distance you run, and running too fast will only hinder this progress and, more than likely, but a damper on your confidence because you feel like the distance you’re attempting is too much for you.

So, slowing down can be a huge benefit, but how can you make yourself actually do it?

Don’t Listen To Music

Woah, so here’s a contentious issue! I will cover running and music in more detail at some stage, but all I want to say here is that if you are wanting to slow your running down, then listening to music is not going to help at all.

The energetic, beat-heavy music that you most of you who run to music (I don’t, for the record) will be listening to, that’s great for upping your energy and motivation, but the beat will get into your head and subsequently into your legs and you will find it very hard to slow your running pace down.

Unless you listen to some Slowdive, I guess.

Pay Attention To Your Breathing

To run, you need to breathe well. You need to get that oxygen into your lungs and into that blood pumping round your body, and get rid of all that nasty waste carbon dioxide. A steady breathing ratio is important, and focusing on it can be an excellent way to make sure your form and running flow is maintained, as well as to make sure you don’t run too fast.

Count along with your steps as you run. A good, steady breathing ratio is 4:4 – inhale for four strides, then exhale for four. If you find that your lungs want to do their thing quicker than that, then instead of letting them, slow down. Keep to that 4:4 ratio. This is a great way of making sure you keep the pace steady and stop your pace creeping up and up when you don’t want it to.

I will be discussing breathing ratios in more detail sometime soon. Running, breathing and maths – you can’t wait, right?

Pay Attention To Your Heart Rate

Confession time: I have a heart-rate monitor, and I still haven’t got around to using it. This is really bad because a) it was a gift, and b) monitoring your heart rate is an incredibly powerful way of knowing your body, what it is capable of and how much you can push it.

Simply put, knowing you average heart rate while running, and then maintaining it, is the best way to slow down and run at a steady pace. Being able to check how hard your heart is working while you run allows you to not overwork it.

Just… Pay Attention!

In summary, these three things basically boil down to pay more attention to what your body is telling you. This will help you to run at a pace which is natural to you. Of course that pace will improve with training, and sometimes you are going to want to push it and give your heart and body a good work out. But for your general or long runs, you don’t want to overdo it. Hopefully, I have helped you slow down and make those runs just a little easier.

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Do you run too fast? How did you learn to recognise it, and slow down? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Nikos Koutoulas, EwoodBlue and Kevin Wagner.

Three 2-mile runs under my belt this week, and no pain to speak of. I’m really pleased with my start on the road to recovery. While I was out running yesterday, I got to thinking about one of the most important things for a runner to have: discipline.

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Mind & Body

When running, and especially when you are injured or returning from injury, discipline as a runner is so important. It is one of those things that proves just how much running is a endeavour of the mind as much as it is of the body. In fact, probably even more so. You can always train your muscles to be bigger and stronger, and your breathing to be better and your stamina to increase, but mastering your mind can be a lot harder.

Over the coming weeks I will be covering some of the things that I think it takes to be a runner. The way I see it, there are essentially four types of discipline:

The Discipline To Not Run

This seems like a strange one, but in the context of my current injury struggles it should make sense to you. A big part of running can be, unfortunately, dealing with injury. When you’re a runner, you just want to run. So treating your injury right, and refraining from running when you know you would like to, is so important.

If you have an injury, don’t run. I know it can be frustrating – I found it almost unbearable at times not to be able to go out for a run over the five weeks I was injured – but you must resist the urge. You’re only going to make things worse for yourself.

Not running doesn’t mean not being active. Two awesome things you can do while you’re injured are swimming, because of the zero-impact workout it gives you, and core exercises . These are exercises which work the core muscles of your body, like your abs, stomach, lower back and hips. I’ll be covering core exercises sometime soon.

The Discipline To Run

When you get out running, you need to keep at it. This is the type of discipline that keeps people running week in, week out. It is the same whether it is making you stick to that training schedule, getting you out three times a week, or whether it’s getting you to keep putting one foot in front of the other, mile after mile, when you’re feeling the pain and want to stop. But you keep going.

This also includes the discipline to run the right amount. Especially when returning from injury, you don’t want to do too much, too soon. Next week I will be writing a blog post about how much you should build up your weekly mileage.

The Discipline To Slow Down

One of my biggest problems when I run is that I tend to run too fast. I find myself struggling far more than I should do, so I’m knackered when I finish my run, and that puts me off from increasing my mileage, which is what I was in the middle of doing when my shin splints got to their worst and forced me to stop.

Sure, running quickly might get you a good time, which will put a smile on your face. But if you’re not in a race, really, who cares what time you did in training? What you should be going for is increasing your distance. And the way to do that, is to run slower.

Look out in the next few weeks for my tips on how to make yourself slow down.

The Discipline To Stop

The last discipline of running, is the discipline to stop. I mentioned this earlier in the week, but it bears repeating. If you feel pain, stop.

I didn’t, a couple of months ago, and that’s why I found myself injured and unable to run for five weeks. If I had stopped and took care of my shin splints in the first place, I would have been able to continue (while taking it easy, of course) and returned to full running training almost immediately.

I know when you’re running, and it’s feeling good, the last thing you want to do is stop. But if it’s only your mind that is feeling good, and your body sends a shout of pain your way, the best thing you can do is listen to it.

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Images courtesy of jeep-people and lucianvenutian.

Today is such a beautiful autumnal day. I woke up, opened my curtains, and the desire to run totally hit me.

The air was fresh, cool, and crisp. The sun was shining with the wonderful soft, pale yellow light that (in my opinion, anyway) is so much beautiful than the sun in summer. There are leaves on the ground now, and the trees are that brilliant combination of colours, where some of the green is left but there is also oranges, yellows, reds, purples, browns, of almost infinite shades.

Today is the kind of day that makes me want to ignore my injury. It’s so frustrating. But I mustn’t.

Experiencing The Seasons

What this weather (and this frustration) puts me in mind of, is that running is an amazing way to experience the world around us, in particular the environment (be it natural or man-made), the weather and the seasons.

Over the past couple of years, seasons in Britain have been, well… a little screwed. They have often seemed to blend into one another, or display classic seasonal traits at the wrong time of year. Such as the week or so of “summer” we recently experienced at the end of September. I know people in other countries don’t have the odd, changeable weather and dodgy seasons that we do, but wherever you are, running is one of the best ways to get out there and experience those seasons. Yes, even on a horrible wet and windy winters day.

Autumn

Getting back to today though, if I could get out for a run I would be able to feel that fresh breeze dry the sweat on my body. I could taste that slightly thinning, crisp air as I breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. I could run through the leaves that have fallen so far, and look at the gorgeous changing colours around me.

Ahh, writing this is only frustrating me more. I hope I’ve made my point!

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What’s your favourite season? Why do you enjoy running in it? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Image courtesy of Ruthanne Reid.