The Fitness Symphony

Recently, I've been starting to run regularly (weekly). Usually 5-6 miles, but my max has been 8 miles. One thing that I never do, is that I never listen to music on earphones while I am running. Most people don't understand this. They ask me how I can stand the boredom of running around and around a track and not be bored.

Yes, it is quite boring, but it isn't at the same time. When I run, I keep track of my breathing, and I pretty much just zone out the entire run. I've developed a breathing exercise while I am running. I time my breaths to my steps, and I spread out one breath cycle (in-out) to 6 steps, 3 for the inhale and 3 for the exhale. I find that this way, I don't huff and pant while running, but instead I am able to run almost the entire distance without breathing through my mouth once. While adopting this technique, I saw an improvement from 3 miles to 8 miles in a month. The day that I finished 8 miles without breathing through my mouth once, I was pretty undeniably proud of myself.

I find that music tends to interfere with this breathing pattern, so I don't listen to it. Instead, I hum songs in my head while I run, and time the music to my breathing and my steps...so I essentially act as my own MP3 player. My running song is Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto...usually only the 1st and 3rd movements since I can't remember the middle part of the 2nd movement.

Also something else that is interesting. While running around the track, I was quite fascinated by the pulsing of the rhythm of the sound inside the gym. Treadmills, stairsteppers, bikes, all whirring at different rates, but with a regular rhythm. The different echoes as the track curves around the gym make this quite a unique soundtrack. "Modern Music" being as it is, I can imagine that somebody can quite simply tape the sounds that one hears as they run around a track, and call it contemporary music.

With that said, I really don't understand the appeal of treadmills and ellipticals, when a physical track exists right there. Nor do I understand watching TV or reading books while you run / bike. When I run, I don't distract myself with other things. I let my mind remain as empty as possible, because it's really the only time that you can let your mind relax and take a break from constantly being bombarded with thoughts. In that way, I can run and not be bored...I simply stop thinking, instead of trying to find things to think about while I run around and around the track.

I'm so proud of the progress I've made in these 2 years, both for running and rock climbing. It just goes to show that the mind can conquer the body. Half marathon and 5.10 routes, I'm progressing towards you.

-FCDH