Getting back on track

The worst of the winter weather is over. Enough, in any case, to convince me that I will not freeze to death if I try running. I started back up this week, running little gigs of about 10-15 minutes on Monday, Thursday, and Friday morning. This evening I ran 2.4 miles in 20 minutes.

I have often been perplexed by the controlled-breathing dilemma. Breath in through the nose, breath out through the mouth. That is what I have tried in the past when I want to control breath and keep the heart rate down. But it never works well enough. This time out I tried a pacing technique and it worked pretty well. Inhale through four steps and then exhale through four steps. Do both through the nose to help pace the breathing rate. At first you feel like you have to have more breath more often, but once you stick with it for just a little while it becomes pretty natural. I found that it is not only a good distracting tool, but the paced breathing really helps keep the heart rate down and preserves energy, instead of huffing and puffing the whole time, which is inevitably what i resort to. Try it - you might just find it a handy dandy tool. And you don't have to do four steps. Whichever is most comfortable. Just stick to whatever you decided.