Critical Discovery in my Running

Ran two loops of Duke Forest trail. Very hilly, like the Duke 1/2 course. Overall workout: 146 avg hr / 162 max. Nice thing about the trail, is no power lines to mess up my hr numbers!

I made a critical discovery today!

First half, I listened to Depeche Mode’s Playing the Angel CD. Nice melancholy music to try and tap into my yoga running groove. Worked well. Had trouble keeping fast feet AND a relaxed yoga feeling.

At the half way point, I remembered a 180 beats per minute metronome mp3 file that I made a long time ago. I set that to repeat on my player, and started running again, trying to keep that tempo with my feet. It’s hard to keep that fast beat! I kept thinking ‘Why’? Why is this so hard? Then it hit me! When I run, I breathe in tempo with my feet. Fast hard breathing makes my heart rate go up and it all feels, well, hard. So, I focused on mentally disconnecting my feet and arms from my body. My feet and arms were spinning along fast like the wheels on a train, but my upper body was in a relaxed yoga state, breathing easy, along for the ride like the car of the train. This was a great mental exercise. I kept it up for a good 20 minutes, then I got bored with the tic-toc of the metronome beat. So, I switched to the fast tempo of my Tool ‘Lateralus’ CD. I continued with the mental strategy of separating my body from my arms and legs. Change is hard, but good.

At the end of the 2nd lap, I was pretty mentally fatigued and my mind began to wander. Wham, I tripped and hit the ground. My knee and elbow got a little banged up, but nothing that will set me back.

Download the mp3 file here…