My feet follow my breath

I love the word Capri.  It sounds like a drink, and always makes me think of Audry Hepburn.  It's also Round Runner's best friend.  I'm so short that most exercise pants are too long and not feasibly hemmed, and most exercise shorts are either too short (hello thigh chafe) or so tight they make me feel like I am in a sausage casing.  I found great pair of capris at REI on clearance and I love them.  I  found that Nordstrom.com had them on sale 1/2 off, so I ordered 4 more pair.  My current bestest running capris in the whole world are Nike Dri-FIT Be Bold women's capris.  I hate the name.  They have several lines like Be Strong, and Be Fast, and Be True - because women are so limited we can only be one thing at a time!  Regardless of the ridiculous name, the pants fit and have just enough compression to reduce bubble butt bounce (bbb) and the fabric is so smooth that it seems to eliminate leg friction, so I am one happy runner.

Buoyed by my spectacular running pants I eagerly shuffled off to run this morning.  I love how Utah is still relatively cool in the mornings (55 - 75 degrees F) even in July.  I run along the Jordan River Parkway Trail which has a cooler micro-clime on the parts close to the river.  I did it barefoot and it felt great after my last run in shoes.  I'll have to see how my submerged left forefoot blister seems on Saturday - if it's visible I'll wear my shoes and grumble.

The other two pieces of running gear that I use and love are my metronome and my stopwatch.  I've read that the best running tempo is 180 beats per minute and tried to use my metronome to synchronize my feet and that seemed to work okay but I would loose the beat quite often.  I decided to slow the metronome down to 60 beats per minute and sync my feet with 1/3 the number of beats, and accidentally found what works for me.  I sync my breathing to the metronome - in on one beep and out on the next on a 60 beat setting so that I am breathing 30 times a minute, or one breath every two seconds.  I have found that as long as my breathing is rhythmic and stable my feet follow my breath.  That was the breakthrough for me in June that has made running vastly more enjoyable and even easier.  Focusing on my breath reminds me of Yoga, and makes running feel like meditation.  I'm calmer and happier when I finish than when I began. 

I use a dual timer stopwatch to tack my running time and my walking time.  I hit start once and don't reset the stopwatch until I have completed all of my intervals for the running session.  It's a little tough to keep my breath synced with the metronome when the 4 countdown beeps for my timer are going off to tell me its time to start or stop running, but that is a momentary problem that smooths out as soon as I transition to running or walking.

Today's run felt easy - it's time for me to up my game and move on to the next interval - running for 3 minutes 30 seconds and walking for 2 minutes for a total session time of 33 minutes.  I expect that my calves will feel tight the day after I up my interval intensity and that tightness won't go away until about the 3rd time I run at this new interval pace.