Tuesday, 18 August 2015
Post originally published at www.joy4running.wordpress.com
Written by Victoria Stanham
Most of my
non-running friends’ response to “Why don’t you run?” is something along the
lines of, “I love the idea of running… I just hate the actual running
itself.”
If we are all born
with the necessary hardware and software for the task... why is running
pleasurable only to a gifted few? Does it have to be this way? Can something be
done about it?
I believe it can...
and I have this great idea to share with you.
Just for clarity's
sake, I’m not going to teach you how to go “from couch to 5k”, nor give advice
on what shoes to buy, nor what training plan to follow, nor what to eat before
a run. All these topics have
already been exhaustively covered in other running-related
blogs out there.
My focus here is not
so much on the “externals” of running as in the “internals”. What you’ll get
from me is ideas on how to manage
your breath, body and mind so that they stop fighting each other and start
cooperating during
your runs.
What for?
Sheer running-bliss. No more, no less.
So what’s my running-mojo all about?
1.
Awareness and Use of
Breath. Enjoyment of running is
almost equivalent to your enjoyment of breathing. Do you enjoy breathing? Do
you like how you breathe? Do you enjoy breathing even when your heart-rate
speeds up? Or does it suddenly get all painful and out of control?
2.
Awareness and Use of
Mental Processes.Out of control breath
equals out of control mind… and vice-versa. Where does your mind wander off to
when you run? Is this what your train of thought looks like? Most exhaustion is rooted
in the out-of-control wandering mind; once you learn to bring it home to rest,
more energy becomes available to you.
3.
Awareness and Use of
Body Mechanics. The
body is the resting place for both breath and mind. But, if pain and strain
also reside there, you can’t blame breath and mind to try and go wandering
somewhere else. To master the biomechanics of running, body awareness has to
come first and excess effort must be let go.
Every complaint I’ve
ever heard about running from would-be runners can be traced back to the
downward spiral of a poor breathing pattern, fuelling an out-of-control mind, which
engenders poor body-mechanics, which in turn hinders the breath, which
exacerbates the mind, which tenses the body... ad infinitum.
The saddest part
is we are not even aware that this is going on, we’re only aware of the
discomfort and pain it causes to
a specific part of us. So before you decide to tinker with your breathing
pattern or your body-mechanics: STOP! You can’t
change what you don’t know is there.
My first tip is
this: Invest in heightening your awareness of
body, mind and breath. Above all, become aware of
how these
3 aspects are intimately related.
In future posts I’ll share some of the exercises that
have helped me enhance my own awareness of
these three areas and their interrelatedness. If you don't want to miss
them, just register your email to receive notifications of new posts directly
in your inbox.
Happy Running!
-Vicky
Tuesday, 11 August 2015
This blogpost was originally published in my running blog at www.joy4running.wordpress.com
It’s winter here
in Uruguay, and it’s difficult to start (or keep up) a running routine. No
matter how much I enjoy the actual running, and the post-running bliss,
stepping out into the cold and the wind is not always the most tempting
prospect.
This year,
however, I managed to keep the winter blues at bay. These arte the 4 keys I
used to stay on track:
1.
Having a Fixed Date with a Running
Group and/or Running Buddies
Nothing beats
keeping me on my toes than the support and encouragement of my new running
group: Trotamundos Running Uruguay , and arranging runs with my sister.
There’s something about keeping a commitment with someone else that makes
getting out the door easier.
Benefits:
·
fixed
days and times for runs means I don’t have to decide when to go out for a run (I like keeping superfluous decisions down
to a minimum, they use up too much precious energy)
·
the
camaraderie and fun energy of a group makes going out for a run more
motivating, even when I’m tired
2.
Registering for a Race
Joinging a
running group means I have 3 fixed running dates a week. This doesn’t mean I
don’t ‘skip’ training days anyways. Sometimes I’m tired after a long day of
work, or I’m just too lazy. The best solution: registering for a race that’s a
tiny bit challenging for me and that requires sticking to a training program.
With my sister we’ve set our sights on a sponsored 7k run in a month and a
half. I’ve gone a bit further and started courting the idea of running the Nike
Half Marathon in two months. Perhaps that’s crazy, but it gives me enough
motivation to lace up and step out.
Benefits:
·
extra
motivation not to skip training days
·
that
great feeling of building towards something, even if I don’t reach my goal
3.
Having a Training Plan
I get bored if I
always follow the same routine when I run. That’s why I like to have a varied
training plan. This also avoids me having to decide what to do when I’m out
running: it’s there on today’s plan.
Benefits:
·
keeping
things interesting and moderately challenging
·
keeping
the weight-loss benefits (it’s been proven that doing always the same run, at
the same pace completely undermines weight-loss goals)
·
not
having to think “what should I do today?”
4.
Setting up for Success
There are thousands of little, simple things I
can do to make it easier for me not to skip a run due to plain laziness. The ones that work best for me are: a) leaving my running clothes ready to jump
into (either by my bed for a morning run, or in a bag if I’m doing a
post-work run), b) writing in my running
dates in my agenda, so as to avoid scheduling other stuff at the same time,
and c) training near my house, (this one I learned the hard way, after
joining a club once that required a half hour commute to come and go).
Benefits:
·
elminating excuses and
obstacles
·
prioritizing
my runs over other activities
What are your
keys to keep the motivation going?
Let me know in
the comments below… I can always use more advice in this area.
Happy Running!
-Vicky
Monday, 3 August 2015
This post was originally published in my new running and Alexander Technique blogsite, at www.joy4running.wordpress.com
Every time I
took up running in the past it lasted me for no more than a month. My main
reason for taking up this particular form of torture was fairly
straightforward: I wanted to lose weight and I’d read that running burned far
more calories than walking.
So, for a
few weeks, I would drag myself onto the Rambla a couple of times a week
for a 30 minute torture session of walk-run-walk. Although I enjoyed the
post-workout feeling of accomplishment, I hated every minute of going through
the actual ordeal of putting one foot in front of the other as I gasped for
breath and ached all over. This needless suffering was the main reason I would
start skipping sessions on any semi-justifiable excuse.
The more I
skipped, the harder it was to break the inertia the next time. Eventually some
silly injury or nagging pain would keep me off the road for a couple of weeks
straight and that was the end of my running spree. The mere thought of having
to build up my endurance once again until 20 continuous minutes of jogging
didn’t feel like a death march was a sure motivation killer.
I decided
running was not for me. When the running craze hit Uruguay I congratulated
myself for not being one of those self-torturing crazies on the Rambla, with
the pained expressions, heavy footfalls and heaving breaths.
I had also
decided I didn’t need running. Having
found Pilates (which made me fall head over heels in love with movement for the
first time) and the Alexander Technique (which got me hooked into understanding
and thus moving how nature intended) I considered my movement needs more than
adequately met. And so it was for several years.
But the
funny thing is that Pilates and Alexander Technique made me so comfortable in
my own body they inched me ever closer to enjoying all the movement possibilities
available to a human being… and running is just the natural evolution of
walking.
So when my
sister, who used to be a running-hater too, started training for and completed
her first 5k race, I decided to give running another chance. To my pleasant and
ecstatic surprise I didn’t hate it AT ALL, I actually LOVED it. My training in
Pilates and Alexander Technique had made me an extremely efficient exerciser; I
had more endurance than seemed possible for someone who’d shunned cardio for years.
What’s even better, I discovered that even if I skipped a couple of weeks of
running, I could jump right back on track without feeling I had lost much
training.
Seeing that
running comes so easily and joyfully for me now, my sister has asked me what
the trick is. It’s not so much a trick but a set of organizing principles that
allow body and mind to be better coordinated. This results in the ability to
maintain good form and a deep breathing pattern even at times of great physical
exertion. The best part is we’ve discovered these principles can be taught and
learned fairly easily, so she’s improved her running too!
I’m writing
this blog to document my approach to running, in the hopes that it can help you
too. My sister will be the one keeping me real with what works and what
doesn’t. I’ll be sharing all my tips and
secrets which meet her one basic criteria for a run: take no more than 30
minutes.
Please, if
you are at all interested in enjoying running, leave a comment, ask a question,
suggest a topic for investigation. If you tell me what’s keeping you from
enjoying your runs, or what’s keeping you from running altogether, I’ll do my
best to figure out a way to get you a step closer to lacing on your running
shoes.
Happy
Running!
-Vicky
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
Nearly 10
years after finishing my university degree in theatre in the USA, I am putting
myself once again through the 4-year-plus ordeal of acquiring a second degree,
in a completely unrelated field, here in Uruguay (physiotherapy).
In that 10
year span I wasn’t idle either. From 2009 to 2011 I put myself through three
years of Alexander Technique teacher training and got certified in Pilates
Method.
Hence, I know a
thing or two about being a student… and what it does to you. I am also prone to
forget what I know if I don’t remind myself about it.
With that in
mind, I am putting those nuggets of wisdom in writing. These are my 5 key reminders for psychophysical survival and enjoyment
as a student. They have carried me through 15 years of studying in
different countries and settings (both public and private), through different
approaches to learning, in different group sizes and with widely varying
resources. They count for both long training courses to short one-hour lessons,
and everything in between.
1. Find your “deep why” to channel your energy and drive you on.
Your “deep
why” is your dharma, your calling, that thing that sets your soul on fire. Being
a student is tough, especially when you also juggle a working-life and
family-life. When the going gets really hard it’s tempting to just call it
quits. Your “deep why” will carry you through those rough patches.
2. Make peace with how things are to husband your energy and keep you sane.
Learning situations are never ideal; one or several factors are usually not up to standard. Be clear about
what you want to get out of this learning situation, why you chose the institution, teacher, venue (or whatever), and use that clarity to
separate the chaff from the straw. Once in the learning situation don’t waste
energy in pursuits that don’t fulfill your deep why (like complaining that
things are not ideal).
3. Know your habitual
patterns to avoid wasting energy and losing track of your true goal.
We all have
student-personas. Different learning scenarios (study groups, exams,
one-on-ones, etc.) will trigger full psychophysical reactions and you might
find yourself acting like a high-school adolescent all over again. Know
yourself and be prepared to inhibit your desire to “be cool”, or "be perfect", (or whatever) and
direct your energy towards actions that truly fulfill your deep why.
4. Empty your glass
that you might taste your teacher’s wine.
If you’ve
been around for a while you’re probably already full of your own ideas about
how things are (or should be). But if you’re so full of your own wine, you’ll
never get a taste of your neighbour’s. So, regardless of how much you think you
know about the subject, don’t fight the teacher (unless, of course, they are
directly attacking you). After all, it’s you who chose to learn from them. So
be humble and listen to their point of view. Try to understand what frame of
thought they come from, why and how it works when it works, and how it relates
to your way of thinking about it.
5. Involve yourself
psychophysically that you might make your own synthesis.
Learning is
simultaneously a sensual, emotional, social and mental pursuit. To get the most
out of your learning bring your whole self into the matter, immerse yourself
psychophysically and socially. And after full immersion take time to create
your own synthesis, force yourself to elaborate your map of the subject matter.
Only then will it become an integral part of you.
Sunday, 29 March 2015
For the most
part we are unaware of what a brilliant balancing act it was and still is for
our species to achieve the upright stance.
In non-existent
“ideal” conditions the normal situation would be to be light, free, and unaware
that we are, in fact, living, moving, breathing, 24/7 balancing acts whose
stability is constantly being threatened, lost and efficiently, eutonically
recovered. In ideal conditions all response option would be open to us always,
so we’d be free to choose according to circumstances.
But life
falls short of ideal. Although we all come with the same basic fabric design, we
are born neither perfectly symmetrical, nor perfectly balanced, nor perfectly
ambidextrous.
As we choose, like and prefer some options over others, using
what works and gets results fast, we pull and twist the threads of our basic
design slightly askew to accommodate our tastes. This makes choosing the same
option easier the next time around, till we don’t have to “consciously choose”
anymore: we can reset to relative “neutral” while the fabric is still young and
elastic, but our favourite choice has becomes “preset”.
The more we
choose the same paths over and over, the more they become a part of who we
believe we are, who we “feel” we are.
Eventually the choice becomes “us”, it gets recorded in the very grain of our
fabric. All the habitual twists, the stretches and pulls, the contractions and
rigidities become fixed. As our fabric ages and elasticity is lost, it becomes
harder and harder to reset to “neutral” and to choose and hold a different set
of twists and stretches on the fabric.
As we become
convinced that the twisted and stretched fabric is in effect our “neutral” and
“natural” basic design, all “other” possible options fade from our awareness.
As they fade from our awareness they become temporarily “lost” in that
ineffable place that has become for us the “unknown”. There they will lie
dormant until we choose to set out on the quest to re-awaken our potential, to
map-out the unknown.
The
“unknowable” will remain forever hidden from our human senses. But the
“unknown” will be forever there, waiting for us to map it and thus reclaim our
supreme inheritance.
Thursday, 19 March 2015
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Beginnings
are tough for me. I’m all about order, but beginnings tend to be for me all
about chaos.
Most of the
chaos stems from the fact that I haven’t fully closed the previous actions. I’m
dragging the dregs of yesterday into today and tomorrow, and getting them all
jumbled up with the new stuff that wants to emerge.
What to do
about it?
If I
followed my own advice, I would quit doing stuff about it. I would find a bit
of space on the floor to lie down on my back, with my head supported on a few
books and my knees up. If I did this every day, morning and evening, I’d be making
space for change to happen.
It’s hard to
believe that just lying down like that and doing nothing will make space for
things to sort themselves out. But it does. It’s a cascade of space creation: I
make space in my day to stop doing; that leads to making space to lie down;
lying down makes space in my body to release accumulated tension; as body
tension releases, mind tension lets go too and voilá! I have created space
in my mind.
It’s all about
space: time-space, environmental-space, body-space, mind-space.
There’s
absolutely nothing else required but to take the time to rest in that space. Time
itself will take care of the rest.
When I ask myself
to start a new action, I have to allow time before saying or doing anything
more. Why? Because as soon as I ask myself to do something, I start up my
habitual response to any order (in my case too many frantic thoughts and
thoughtless actions) and it takes a little time for me to realize this and to
stop.
And it’s
only when I have remembered and stopped, created space and given myself time, it’s
only when the dust of the previous actions has settled and the waves have
quieted in the mind-pool, that the next phase can operate.
What’s the
next phase? Listening, with my whole being, for a clear and true direction.
Tuesday, 13 January 2015
It’s difficult to change what we don’t know exists. To change we need to know “what” to change,
and for that we need to have an experience that contrasts with our habit: the experience of another possibility.
But
once we have that new experience, how to we make it into a new habit? In
general, the sole experience of a new possibility
does not establish the change. It is necessary to record in your brain
the new option as a stronger neurological connection than your old habit.
For
that we need three tools: desire, inhibition, and
memory.
The tool of desire moves
us to recreate the new experience,
even when it would be “easier and more comfortable” to indulge in our habit.
Change is destabilizing. Therefore we need to become familiar with this power
of “I want”: What do I want? Why do I want it? How do I achieve what I want?
What consequences would come with getting what I want?
The tool of inhibition
allows us to choose which actions to allow manifestation and which to deny said
permission. Inhibition is intrinsically linked to
desire, for it implies “saying no to” that which we don’t wish for anymore, and
being able to “say yes to” to the new wish. You need to know “what things” to
inhibit. Therefore we need to know: What elements make up my habit?
The tool of memory
allows us to remember what we want and what we don’t want when it really
matters. The ability to recruit your desire
and your power of inhibition to change your habits rests on your ability to
remember. F.M. Alexander once said that our greatest problem when it comes to
changing habits is that “we forget to remember.”
Remembering what we want
depends, above all, on 2 factors: the strength of our wish and external
conditions that help us to remember our wish.
How can I be more mindful of my wish throughout the day? How can I make it
easier for me to satisfy my wish instead of my habit?
To sum up, the first step to being
successful in changing habits is to become familiar with your three basic
tools: Desire, Inhibition and Memory.
Wednesday, 7 January 2015
To “think ourselves into movement” we first need
to clarify our thinking.
This means first stopping to give ourselves the chance to “say no”
(inhibit) to our habitual way of moving and reacting. This habitual way
is made up of our ongoing and ingrained tension patterns which make for an
inefficient “starting place” or “set point”.
So, after
recognizing the stimulus to action, you give yourself a little pause, some
space to stop your habitual reaction and really consider “how” you want to
respond.
What
you want is a better starting place; so you get your “primary movement” going. This “primary movement”, which concerns itself with
the dynamic relationship between head & spine, leaves you in the best possible conditions for any action: a dynamic
sense of poise and balance.
Still, you haven’t
yet gone anywhere. And it’s the getting going, and the continuing to go, in the
manner you decided that is the issue at stake here.
You’ve
got to get the primary movement going first. But then you need to keep it going
as you go into movement,
when your brain recognizes what you’re up to and wants to insert the old habit
of tension.
So how do
you keep the primary movement going during all subsequent movements? You need to use your mind: mindfulness of movement
and awareness of the body as a whole throughout all movements.
In Alexander jargon this is called: “keeping your primary directions going”. F.M. Alexander himself once said, “You think that the Alexander Technique is a physical thing; I
tell you it’s the most mental thing that’s ever been discovered.”
It’s
a persistent, continuous state of monitoring progress, of mindfulness of
movement and awareness of yourself and your relationship to inner and outer
space. You want to catch
yourself when the habit pricks up its ears, so you can let it go before it
completely takes over your system. Your persistent, continuous monitoring gives
the drive, the force, the energy to the new way.
This is how
you build a new “habit”.
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