It’s no secret that I love to read and my nightstand is usually overflowing with at least one running book, one spiritual or informational book and one book that allows you to stop thinking completely! I used to even consistently provide you with book reviews, but sometimes all I really wanted to say was “Read. It good.” and I thought that probably wasn’t the best way to help any author.
Running on Air: The Revolutionary Way to Run Better by Breathing Smarter I wanted to share with you because this is something totally different. For all the running and training books I have read over the last 10 years this is the first one to provide a program for your breathing…and probably not for the reasons that you think!
This book is for you if:
- You often get side stitches
- You often get injured
- You want to curb exercise induced asthma
- You want to run faster with less effort << cool it’s for me!
- You want to learn how to pace yourself
CLIFF NOTES OF THE BOOK
Running creates stress on the muscles and joints. The impact during exhale is the greatest force on your body.
Most of us exhale on the same side throughout our entire run causing repetitive stress.
Budd provides a LOT of science, details and technique to help you correct this. Once you correct your breathing you can run faster with less effort.
Provides a plan teaching you to run by effort (not your watch) to get faster.
Does it work?
I have been testing out this technique for about 10 days now. It’s hard. I fully understand the logic so I want to figure it out, which I think is a key factor in why you must read the book before trying the technique.
I say it’s hard because I was having the sensation of hyperventilating each time I tried it. After a short call with Budd, we came to two conclusions:
A. I am either inhaling too deeply
B. All my years of swimming may have trained me to breathe a little different
After our call I went out to test this theory and I could see that he may just have been right about breathing too deeply. I do think some of that comes from taking deep breathes during yoga and now meditation, but that isn’t quite what your body needs while running!
When I am hitting the breathing correctly that my speed naturally increases.
Throughout the book he provides a number of examples of runners in different phases of their career and how this technique helped them to recover from injury, get faster or simply enjoy running a lot more.
Using it for injuries? He shares some great stories of people reducing injuries, but also some interesting things like if you are recovering some say a sprained ankle or a specific one sided body injury that requires a reduction of impact you can shift your breathing for a few weeks to always land on the other side!
Who is the author Budd Coates? Ahh nobody major, just a guy who made it to the Olympic Marathon Trials four times, a 2:13 marathon finisher and the senior director of Employee Fitness and Health at Rodale, Inc. All right so he might have some experience in this field.
The book actually comes out on April 9th and I’m excited to have a few copies to give away to some of the Spring Challenge participants! You can pre-order it now on Amazon (affiliate) if this sounds interesting to you it’s currently discounted to $9.99 which will increase later to $16.99 I’ve been told.
Does this sound like a technique you would be willing to try?
Follow up: My results after using this technique for awhile, plus some additional tips for how to implement it without going crazy.
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Gratitude Journal
March 14
I am grateful for being open to new possibilities everyday and learning when to say no…but even better when to follow my gut and say yes!
Disclaimer: This book was provided to me for free by Runner’s World. All time spent reading, trying these techniques and opinions were voluntarily provided by me.
