One Man's Fitness Fitness Adventures and Musings

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

What happened to the train?

When I started running I was quite a bit heavier than I am today. I was in fact almost 300 pounds, that was not a good time. I also remember as a novice runner wondering a lot about my breathing. I think that this was mostly due to it being so labored. It is in fact tough to move that much weight at a quick pace. I could hear my breath and so I was concerned with contolling it. I thought about the way I should breathe. Should it be shallow or deep, should it be through the nose or the mouth. I was a mess, but I was a mess without the running so I was really just trying to control the mess. I eventually found a rhythm and just got used to the noise I made while I was running. For the record I breathe through the mouth and to the mid to lower chest area, it works for me.

As a runner I was a bit of a freight train. I was big, took a bit of time to get up to speed, and made a lot of noise. I think I got used to this image of myself as a runner and sort of got comfortable with it. Choo, Choo! That was me chugging through the parks on my self made rails, never going very fast but being a a pretty big object with a good head of steam I was fine. I made some strides in my weight loss and sort of lost that freight train look. I didn't realize that my breath noise has disappeared until recently. As I said I used to labor but I don't do that now. I am not sure when this changed but it has. When my mp3 ran out of juice the other day I ran without it and I noticed that I could not hear my breathing like I used to.

It was odd. I had sort of come to expect that part of my running included the heavy breathing. Like an obscene phone call but without the sleazy underpinnings. So I am not sure what to make of it. I guess I am happy to have made progress but I am no longer a freight train, I just don't have the sound effects. I guess I am an Electric Bus. :)

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