The Perfect Breath

Posted by Christine on Jan 15, 2010 in Blog, Running, Training | 3 comments

Last week I posted a thoughtful article about techniques for soothing sensitive kids, written by one of my regular contributors who is a clinical psychologist.  My favorite take away from that article was using The Perfect Breath — “breathe in for a count of 3, hold briefly at the top, then breathe out for a count of 3″ — to calm down kids (or yourself!).

Since I don’t run with music, and since sometimes running is a struggle for me, I concentrate a lot on breathing — drawing good breaths, breathing into tension areas or cramps, etc. Today, I worked on applying The Perfect Breath to my running — breathing at a pace of counting to 3 in and then counting to 3 out (I don’t hold at the top) and aligning my foot falls to the breath pattern. So, breathe in for 3 steps, breathe out for 3 steps.

I think regimenting my breathing this way helped me be more mindful so as not push to panting (e.g., for speed) when I should just be building up mileage. For example, if I got to a hard part of the run (a hill, general fatigue, etc.), I kept up the breathing pattern with my footfalls — it meant I slowed down my pace until my body could catch up, and then I resumed my regular pace once my body recovered. It meant I could press on further because I wasn’t totally winded.

It felt immensely good to breathe steadily, not pant. And what do you know, I think it helped me hit a milestone: 5 miles in 53:53 today. I ran all the way around a lake!