March 2002

click here for January Runner's Corner

click here for February Runner's Corner

This is a new addition to our website - Runner's Corner!  Each month we'll offer a new article by Kitty Consolo, Ph.D.   Kitty is a veteran runner and exercise physiologist.  She has been running and racing since 1975, and has won over 400 road races ranging from the mile to the marathon and went to the first women's Olympic marathon trails in 1984. Kitty has a PR of 2:42.46 for the marathon and 35:02 for the 10km,  She now enjoys shorter races and masters running.

Enjoy, and please let us know your thoughts about the Runner's Corner!

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Spring Running: Time for Mind and Soul

By Kitty Consolo, Ph.D.  Runners Corner March article

In a few short weeks, Spring will arrive and the urge to up the training and get in great shape will surge as we succumb to spring fever.   However, it is also a time when one can become so focused on training, speed work, logging miles and living by the logbook that one can become unbalanced and forget the other reasons to run  -  for peace of mind and to sooth our soul.  I wrote a lot about training and physiology in January and February.

This month, I will take a bit of a different path but I guarantee you it is vital to the physical and will serve to renew you and keep you from reaching burnout, both mentally and physically. To illustrate this, let me first tell you about a friend who for years lived and  trained in Pittsburgh and was ecstatic to relocate to San Diego.  Good-bye to those awful winters, sub-zero wind chill runs and hello to beautiful year round training.  Such great weather though permitted more days for speed, more miles for long runs and before long my friend had let training and his logbook rule him.  By May, he was injured and stale.  Without the cold and inclement weather, he took no easy days, no days just to "run for fun" and went over that fine edge of training versus straining.  Thus let me teach you about the art of mindful running and its wonderful restorative powers for your mind and soul.

Mindful Running

Allow yourself at least 2 days a week, and more if you are over 40 years old, to just run for joy.  Experience your run by "being in the moment" which is one of the keys of "mindfulness."  This is a state of heightened self awareness of things like your breathing, your rhythm, your senses but is devoid of judgments and reactions.  It is a state of mind common to athletes achieving peak performance but also valuable to anyone attempting to live a full life.  Start easy and in a place where you are safe and not distracted from cars and outside forces.  Go through each of your senses.  Feel the ground beneath your feet, I often opt for a pine needle path or dirt trail.  Spring often brings great smells to focus on as well such as a warm spring rain, fresh flowers and pine needles in the sun.  Can you taste some of the things you smell?  Feel free to stop and look at something beautiful; a butterfly darting in a field , newborn animals, a rainbow.  Also touch a new leaf or flower that has just opened.  And listen to your breathing, observe yourself running, step by step.  If you find yourself starting to think of what you should be doing, tasks at home or work, gently bring yourself back to the moment  without judgments and putdowns and focus on your senses again.  For further instruction, you may wish to read Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living in which he describes several mindful techniques and has been successful in helping people live full lives despite pain, illnesses and stress.

On these mindful days, you may wish to leave your watch behind and take care not to put too much in your log book so as to avoid always having to live up to a goal.  If we fall short of our goal, we may forget to realize the simple joy and gift that our run was that day.  Days of just "running and being" as the late Dr. George Sheehan wrote about can restore our bodies as well as our minds and keep us on track for the lofty performance goals we may be setting as better weather for racing and running arrives.  There's much more to running that just training and racing, and adding time for your mind and soul will help you enjoy running and keep it balanced for years to come.  I think this has been one of my keys to continuing to run and race after 27 years!  Each day of running is a gift, anything else like a race is simply a little extra to appreciate but not the end all and be all.  Best wishes this spring and don't forget to smell and touch the flowers this spring as you run by!