New Year, New You?

Happy New Year!  It's time for “New Year, New You”resolutions.  But what does that really mean for us?  What needs to be ‘new’?

In the context of running, this usual means setting goals.  Often BIG goals!  Whether it’s a goal to run a bit faster, or a bit longer, or to even just start running, goal setting can serve as a way to focus our attention, helping us clarify steps which need to be taken, and creating a degree of accountability.  So why is it that so many people fail to follow through with their New Year’s goals?

We think it’s basically two-fold: first, it’s simple over-exuberance.  It’s really easy to get really excited about the “shiny new thing”, and attempting to put forth ‘maximum’ effort towards that goal.  While the intention is good, it’s the execution which sets them up for failure.  Big Goals are like training for a marathon — one can’t just start out by trying to set a PR (Personal Record) at the distance.  It takes months and months of focused, deliberate effort to build one’s mind and body up for such a grueling event.

Secondly, we think it’s an over-reliance on external metrics, like distance or pace, instead of focusing on internal metrics.  It’s understandable, of course!  Internal metrics — how it feels — can be messy.  Even relatively objective internal metrics like heart rate are subject to dozens of influences (heat, humidity, and/or illness, to name but a few).

So what’s the method to find the BEST way to create the New Me?  If you thought I was going to say Breath Running, you’re wrong.  Or at least not completely correct.  Let me explain…

The fact of the matter is there is NO SUCH THING as a “best way” to exercise.  Everybody is different.  We all have our own unique variables which determines what works well and what’s not effective, and all of those variables are variable.  What works well this year might not work well at all the following year.  This is the trap of the Shiny New Thing.

Ever hear of a Monkey Trap?  In regions which are pestered by aggressive monkeys who get into and steal and/or soil food stock and merchandise, there’s a never-ending game of  Catch the Monkey.  Eons ago, when coins became a staple form of currency, monkeys were enthralled with these shiny discs, and would grab them at every chance, even right out of people’s hands.  Catching these furry little thieves became a high priority.

The problem is, these monkeys are lightning quick, extremely clever, and are known to bite people.  So the people in the villages needed a clever way to trap the little beasts, a way that will allow them to subdue the monkey and then relocate it somewhere else.

Some extraordinarily astute person figured out that if they took a gourd — a relative of the pumpkin, but stretched long — and cut the top of the neck off, hollowed it out and let it dry, it became very hard.  Almost like porcelain.  The inner diameter of the neck was purposefully bored out to be *just* big enough for a coin to be dropped into the body of the gourd.  The gourd was securely tied up around its neck and tethered to a tree frequented by the monkeys.

Whether it was the wind or one of the monkeys, the gourd would get jostled, and the rattle of the coin inside would pique the curiosity of a monkey.  A peek inside revealed the irresistible shiny coin!  The monkey reaches in, grabs the coin, and… they’re trapped.  The coin in the palm of their hand makes their paw too large to come back through the neck of the gourd.  They’ll thrash about, scream, and do everything they can to pull their arm out of the gourd.  Everything, that is, except let go of the coin.

Call it greed.  Call it stupidity.  Call it whatever you want, but once a monkey has its paw on something it deems valuable or desirable, it Will Not Let Go. It will spend hours battling the intractable gourd, until it is spent with exhaustion.  That is when the human trapper comes by and scoops the monkey — gourd and all — into a sack, and then transfers it to a cage.  The humans can cut the gourd away and wrest the coin out of the drained monkey’s paw, and then send it far, far away, where it will no longer bother the villagers.

So what does this have to do with training?  Simply this: we at Breath Runner believe that far too many athletes trap themselves by grabbing onto that Shiny New gadget, program, and/or supplement, and proceed to needlessly thrash themselves to bits.  The mystical draw of the external metric completely overrides the awareness of the internal metrics, messy as they may be.    And they keep doing it to themselves.  They just won’t let go.

Herein is the secret to the Breath Runner Method: it’s NOT *the* thing.  It’s merely *a* thing; something available to use to bring those internal metrics into focus.  We’re certainly NOT saying that the external metrics don’t matter!  Of course they do!  But the fact is that they’re the icing on the cake.  If you want to make a better cake, you need better ingredients, and better technique to mix them all together, and then a knowledge of just how much heat to apply and for how long in order to get the best possible outcome.  It’s the deep interior of the cake which determines the overall success of the endeavor, and that’s an unknown until the cake gets served.

So if training is analogous to the ingredients, technique, and baking time of the proverbial cake, then race day is when we get “served up”.  How well we put together the pieces, how much attention we gave to each ingredient throughout the process, and how consistently we applied appropriate load over an appropriate amount of time, these are the factors which will determine our degree of success on race day.

So if there’s no “best” way, then what way is there which gives us this magical mixture of ingredients, skill, and foresight for us to find our New selves?  Obviously, we believe it has to do with syncing one’s breath to their cadence as a way to bring focus and order to those critically important internal metrics.   It’s so simple.  It’s so easy.  You don’t need a fancy high-tech watch, or an A.I. program, or crazy expensive supplements to make this work.  You just run, and pay attention to how you’re breathing.  It’s the polar opposite of the shiny things; it’s borderline dull.  And yet…

Take away all the shiny things to keep looking at, take away all the beeps and haptics, take away all the modern distractions until we’re left with nothing but our breath and footsteps, and what do we have?  Where is our mind?  Are we consumed with concerns for all the tasks we have waiting for us when we finish?  Are we feeling burdened with all of the things we should’ve/would’ve/could’ve?

**OR**, are we instead drawn into the rhythmic beauty of the moment?  Have we ventured into a realm of exercise-induced awareness, where our internal experience is harmoniously blending with our surroundings?  Are we experiencing mindfulness, our ability to be fully present and aware of where we are and what we’re doing, without being hyper-reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on?

Here’s where we think the Breath Runner Method gets really cool: whenever we bring a focused awareness to what we’re directly experiencing via our senses, we’re being mindful.  And there’s a growing body of research which shows that when we train our brain to be mindful, we’re actually remodeling the physical structure of our brain for more peace and positivity.

So if the goal is to re-create ourselves, then perhaps it’s time to let go of the shiny, noisy things, and start focusing on the deep interior.

The Breath Runner Method.  We think you’ll find it delicious!

The Shape of It All

Few people think about how their lungs work when they start running.  For instance, did you know that our lungs are of different sizes?  Our right lung is wider and shorter than the left, which is narrower and longer.  The right lung consists of three lobes, but the left only has two lobes.  Why?  Because the left lung has a deep “cardiac notch”; it needs to allow room for our heart.  The right lung also has two bronchi, whereas the left has but one bronchus.  As a result, the right lung has approximately 15% more capacity than the left.

Our lungs have the ability to hold and move a certain volume of air.  Our lung’s Total Volume is approximately 6 liters (roughly a gallon and a half) for heathy adults.  Note: that’s TOTAL volume; lungs filled absolutely to the max.  We almost never go there.  What’s more important to us is our Tidal Volume, the amount of air which can be inhaled and exhaled during one respiratory cycle.  Tidal Volume is variable based on whether we are at rest or at max capacity effort.  Vital Capacity is the term for the maximum amount of air one can expel after a maximum inhalation.  Notice the change in terminology - we’ve gone from volume to capacity.  In other words, we’ve gone from talking about how much the tank can hold to how efficient the engine is.

The average healthy adult at rest has a Tidal Volume that is around 10% of Vital Capacity, or approximately 500 ml per inspiration (~7 ml/kg of body mass).  In other words, we’ve gone from  being able to hold 1.5 gallons of air, to actually moving around about 7 tablespoons worth of air.  As we start exercising, our need for air exchange increases, and can go up to over 50% of our Vital Capacity.  But we’re still only talking about 4 or 5 cups of air per breath!  How is it possible to run fast with that small of an amount of air exchange?   It’s because of the other dynamic at play — Respiratory RATE.  At rest, an adult averages around 10 to 16 breaths per minute.  As effort ramps up, so does the pace of our breathing, and it can max out anywhere between 60 to 100 breaths per minute, depending on sex, size, and training status (big differences to be had between the average Age Grouper and the average Olympian, obviously).  So 5 cups of air 100 times a minute gets that Olympian around 120 liters (30 gallons) of air.  PER MINUTE.  No wonder they’re so fast!

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Too Many Chefs

Warning: Spoiler Alerts!

In the third season of the TV show The Bear, the fictionalized portrayal of the behind-the-scenes pressure-cooker (pun intended) of what it takes to operate in the highly competitive world of fine dining restaurants, there is talk of ‘haunting’.  It’s mostly portrayed as humorous, adolescence-level teasing and jump-scaring.  But not all haunting is so innocuous.

The nemesis of the show’s main character, Chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), is the asshole Chef David Fields (Joel McHale), the personification of every insecure person’s worst nightmare of a boss.  Domineering, intimidating, and (allegedly) too good at what they do to be questioned on their tactics.  For monsters like this, their currency is humiliation, and they are wealthy in that regard.  Doling out degradation and shame without regard to the impact they are having on the serfs within their fiefdom, their single-minded quest for perfection reeks havoc on all involved.

Unfortunately, the kitchen is not the only place thugs like these can be found.  Headline-making stories of abusive coaches in all manner of sports are disappointingly commonplace.  The damage these individuals inflict — often while deludedly thinking that in order to prepare their athletes for the rigors of competition, they’re doing The Right Thing by being ‘tough’ on their athletes — can not be underestimated.  These “experts of their realm” talk of things like Excellence, Commitment, and Dedication, but in reality, they are just inflicting emotional and/or psychological harm on their athletes, often with life-long reverberations.

© 2024 Mark Remy / Laurelhurst Media, Portland, OR. All Rights Reserved.

A common refrain quoted by ‘experts’ from all domains, from sports to industry and beyond, is: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”  The message is obvious: the more criteria, parameters, and other such specifications one can measure, the more accurately and positively one can manage, and by extension, improve.  This quote is usually attributed to Peter Drucker, a management consultant, educator, and author, whose work is considered bedrock to many of the philosophical foundations of modern management theory.  There’s just one problem: according to the Drucker Institute, he never said that.

Nevertheless, that quote has taken on mythological stature within management — and often sports — circles.  Other versions have expounded on the concept, such as the decreed ‘Pearson's Law’: "That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially." (attributed to British mathematician and biostatistician Karl Pearson).  Another version: "When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates." (attributed to American religious leader and author Thomas S. Monson).  For many coaches, the hidden mantra of ‘More Is Better’ is pervasive and unassailable.

Interestingly, the so-called “Drucker quote” actually comes from Dr. W. Edwards Deming, an economist, industrial engineer, management consultant, statistician, and writer.  Initially educated as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical physics, he helped develop sampling techniques still used today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  But there’s a problem with this ‘quote’ as well: it’s not what he said, either.  Or, more accurately, it’s only part of what he said.

The actual full quote of Dr. Deming reads: “It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.”

Whoa, wait — WHAT?!  Plot twist!!

Far from extolling the virtues of numerical supremacy, Dr. Deming was, in reality, offering a contraversion of reliance upon data for data’s sake, especially when human beings are involved in the equation.

Similar to the fervent management philosophies which work so well on paper, yet often lead to unintended, sometimes even horrific, consequences, the sporting world is resplendent with tales of superhuman efforts invoked to overcome the most arduous challenges, a seemingly never-ending chorus of experts, elite athletes and coaches glorifying The Grind, and, of course, a $100 billion a year fitness industry dedicated to selling you the latest, greatest products, techniques, and guidance to get you the best version of you you can possibly achieve, in the shortest amount of time possible.  While we all love to hear the tales of excellence achieved — and who doesn’t want a way to make our own personal journey towards Top Performance easier and/or better? — for many, these adumbrate drill instructors simply impose feelings of inadequacy and/or incompetence.

But what if the Evil Coach isn’t a coach at all?  What if instead it’s a mindless device, strapped to your wrist?  These miracles of miniaturization, incessantly recording and chronicling accelerometer data, tracking satellite positions, and numerous other metrics, are cycling the never-ending reams of 1’s and 0’s through a black box compilation of analytical computations, designed to assign values to the various angle vectors and velocity patterns we create with our movements.  They can track our heart rates by the micro-second, our sleep patterns by phase duration, our daily wanderings by the centimeter.  By virtue of their speed-of-light processing capabilities and pre-programmed algebraic formulas, they give us preternaturally precise valuations of not just what we’ve done, but quite judgmentally, deign to tell us just how well they think we’ve done it.  Have we ever stopped to consider that nobody really knows what all these minuscule micro-computers are actually measuring?  That there is no standard of what gets measured, nor how the data gets calculated?  That these digital oracles are giving static and definitive values to what are actually and naturally rather imprecise and mercurial states of affairs?

One study identified 423 unique fitness tracking devices from 132 different brands.

“The wearable landscape is in constant change. New devices and brands are released every year, promising improved measurements and user experience. At the same time, other brands disappear from the consumer market for various reasons. Advances in device quality offer new opportunities for research. However, only a few well-established brands are frequently used in research projects, and even less are thoroughly validated.”

In the proverbial blink of an eye, tasks like running, which for generations were recorded with a stop watch, marked down in a binder, and analyzed by a human who used the information to inform what they were experiencing (the runner) or seeing their own eyes (coach), seem to have been handed off to an omnipotent digital clairvoyant, ensorcelled within inanimate materials, whose pronouncements are absolute.  No longer, it seems, is it permissible to deviate from the stratagem these e-sorcerers proclaim as The Most Precise.  If anything, the scramble is to give even MORE power of prognosis to the cybernated prodigy: A.I.

There is undeniably a seductive appeal to the computational precision that these devices, apps, and programs offer.  Yet, for humans, this level of perfection can come with a heavy price. Perfectionists often set unrealistic and/or unattainable goals for themselves or others.  There is an unrelenting quest prove their self-worthiness by focusing on ‘exactness’, but in our tumultuous world of physical reality, they find it infuriatingly difficult, if not impossible, to get the pieces to fall into place.  The harder they try, the more their endeavors seems to crumble around them.  Their efforts, it seems to them, are never enough, and that can lead to the view that they’re ‘never good enough’.  These attitudes can lead to feelings of demoralization, low self-esteem, and possibly trigger serious compulsive behaviors, such as eating disorders or exercise addiction in those who are inclined towards those extremes.

Research has shown that certain app visualisations and/or feedback messages can unintentionally contribute to unhealthy behaviors, such as “chasing” metrics instead of simply noting trends.  One doctor stated that in clinical care, they “actively discouraged [people with eating disorders] from using those apps and various wrist monitors that count the steps and activity levels” as they can become triggering, sustaining the individual’s obsessional, restrictive, and rigid behaviors.   Another study found that while activity data from wearable devices may be a resource for self-care, the data may simultaneously constrain emotional well-being and could create uncertainty, fear, and anxiety in some.  And in yet another study, published in BJPsych Open, participants reported eight negative consequences of using a fitness app:

1. Fixation on numbers

2. Rigid diet

3. Obsession

4. App dependency

5. High sense of achievement

6. Extreme negative emotions

7. Motivation from ‘negative’ messages

8. Excess competition

Even if one is not themselves a perfectionist, being constantly compared to “perfect” achievements can be detrimental to one’s mental health.  A quote which, for us, succinctly summarizes the phenomena: “When you chew enough glass, you learn to like the taste of your own blood.”

So how do we break free of the tyranny of these digital demi-gods decrying unmet goals, invoking negative emotions, and inducing ceaseless rumination over What Might Have Been Had We Only Been Better?

As we at Breath Runner have said before, “Our bodies do not operate on Artificial Intelligence.  Our bodies utilize Analogue Intelligence!”  Especially for something like running, care must be taken to account for the non-statistical, enigmatic factors of body signals.  Not just signals from one’s legs or muscles; the full panoply of physical, mental and emotional signaling.  Learning to listen to our bodies, to operate within the actual, physical realities we are experiencing on the day, and to quiet our minds enough to be mindful; these are health-positive, proactive behaviors which will benefit us in lasting and valuable ways that extend far beyond just better running.

©️ Endurance Essentials by Gordo Byrn. All Rights Reserved.

To be clear, we at Breath Runner are not “anti-technology”.  Far from it — we have most of the digital toys, and use many of the cutting-edge analysis tools that are publicly available.  But we also understand the time and place such technology are appropriate, and acknowledge the technical limitation of many components, and the fact that there is as of yet no standardization, either in their design nor in the algorithms they use.  Yes, competition in the marketplace is a good thing, and the ability for unique, vibrant, and creative design is essential for progress.  But even among the most rabid of capitalists, certain realities cut through the noise.  As one A.I. startup founder told the Financial Times, “No industry can thrive without regulation in the long run. It’s mayhem.”

The Good News is that there IS a “technology” we have found which works, and works well, in all conditions, in all stages of training.  That technology is: syncing our breathing to our run cadence.  By using our body’s natural “computational” powerhouse, our brains and Central Nervous System (CNS), in conjunction with our body’s massive processing capacity, which is our ability to absorb and use oxygen and nutrients to power our activities, together in a synchronized fashion, we can harness the power of our innate Analogue Intelligence.  This allows us to meter our efforts, maximize our aerobic capabilities, and tap into our body’s natural ability to keep negative emotions at bay.  Combined with a comprehensive, polarized training plan, runners of all abilities can find new levels of health performance which will have benefits far from the trail.  Instead of the detrimental “No Pain, No Gain” idiocy, try “Avoid Unnecessary Pain for Realistic, Achievable Gains”!  You can still use your smart watch if you want.  You just don’t need to listen to the bots.

Visit Breath Runner for more information.