90 Day Running Reset: Day 20
Almost a third of the way through. The results that I’m seeing are just now starting to make themselves obvious. Between breathing and drills though they are definitely there. Here’s a recap of the last 10 days-ish.
Friday May 26, 2023
One hour run in HR zone 2-3. For me that is anywhere from 155bpm to 167bpm. The first 30 minutes was breathing in through the nose and out through the nose. The last 30 minutes was in through the nose and out through the mouth. I didn’t feel fatigue in my legs or chest, but the run was pretty easy anyway. Good practice though for integrating more nose breathing into running. Also, I think doing this makes me look angry.
Sunday May 28, 2023
Very hilly trail run. In “The Oxygen Advantage”, McKeown talks about how a simple way to think of breathing is that mouths are for eating and noses are for breathing. The mouth should only be used for breathing in extreme circumstances. So today I was in through the nose and out through the mouth on the up and down hills, and then nose only in the flats. This was a similar run to one from the 10 day recap. Except much easier. I’m not fighting my body anymore, and I can feel my diaphragm working a little easier now. This is a great example of how doing this type of nose breathing work at every point in the day helps when the efforts get hard.
Monday May 28, 2023
Murph. About 1 hour and 10 minutes wearing 20lbs. You can check out the workout here. Completely destroyed.
Wednesday May 30, 2023
Rolling hill trail run. I’m noticing more consistent times up and down less aggressive hills. I’m running some segments more quickly. I attribute this to both the cadence work that I’m doing, and my legs being less fatigued because they are getting the correct amount of oxygen. So my efforts seem a little lower, but because they are consistent my segment times are quicker.
Other things…
I’m not getting sore from doing Rock Lobster drills anymore. I’m upping the time after this 30 day block to doing the song twice. The goal is to eventually do all of my running at 180 cadence. There’s a looooooong way to go with that, but this is where it starts.
I’ve felt like I’ve had a head cold for a couple of days now. This is supposed to be typical after you start doing some of the things in TOA, so I’m not concerned. It’s the body leveling out. It comes and goes throughout the day, but hasn’t gone away yet.
Recap
Rock Lobster drills seem to be paying off, and they are easier to do now
Body is adapting to nose breathing more quickly than expected, and is providing less fatigue when running
The Murph is hard
These incremental improvements are starting to pay off after 20 days. It’s not much, but it is progress