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In this podcast episode, the host, Anna Chittenden, talks about how she incorporated aspects of her freshman seminar class on music, meditation, memory, and mindfulness into her running experience. She focused on mindfulness, using the definition from Eric Harrison's book, and tried to elevate her running experience by being mindful of her thoughts and body sensations during her runs. She kept a journal to track her mindfulness and meditation practices and experimented with different techniques, such as focusing on body sensations and using breathing exercises. She also tried a body scan technique during a challenging workout. Overall, she found that incorporating mindfulness into her running helped her stay focused and improve her form. Hello, and welcome to the first episode of my new podcast, Mindful Miles. I'm your host, Anna Chittenden, and today we are going to explore how I incorporated different aspects of my freshman seminar class on music, meditation, memory, and mindfulness into my running experience, and how you may be able to as well. So it was just this constant cycle that was kind of being stretched out over an unnecessary period of time. So by March, my coach and I were like, okay, we just need to build up slow, just focus on yourself, very, very gradual increase in mileage, and joining back to work out. So I knew over the next couple months, I would be mostly doing solo efforts without the team, because my mileage was so small, and then workouts I'd be doing by myself, because my mileage was so small, and then workouts I'd be doing by myself, because I was just on a different plan than everyone else, as well as cross training, which is stationary biking, arc training, elliptical, swimming, any of those forms. And I was doing a lot of that to supplement for my mileage and keep up my fitness. So when I got the instructions for this project, I was really excited, because this is something I could use to try to elevate my running experience. And make these solo efforts just a little more fun and challenging for myself. But before we talk about the running part, we first have to establish what I really mean by mindfulness. Because there are many different definitions, but the definition I chose to guide my experiment was Eric Harrison's from his book, The Foundations of Mindfulness. He says, mindfulness means to focus on and elevate. Those were his words. Sounds simple, but it's really not. He complicates it a lot more. So he combines the Buddhist concept of sati, which means attention, and I'm going to pronounce this wrong, but sampajanya, which means judgment or evaluation. So sati, which is attention, and sampajanya, which means judgment or evaluation. And he combines these to illustrate that mindfulness is a repeated deep insight, which requires constant and powerful effort. This deep analysis can then be focused into four categories according to the Buddha. He suggested that we systematically contemplate our body sensations, emotions, states of mind, and thoughts, until we can do those contemplations consciously and under all conditions. And he also says that focusing on our actions will improve the outcomes. Focusing on the emotions helps us modulate them up and down and understand our deepest values. Focusing on states of mind helps us boost the good states and dissolve the bad ones, and focusing on thought and reflecting on how we think leads to the goal-directed, insightful thought that the Buddha valued so highly. Doing all of this will generally elevate your life experiences according to Harrison and according to the Buddha. So upon reading all of this, I was like, yeah, I want to elevate my life experiences, but let's first take a small step and try to elevate my running experience. So I took the ideas of this repeated deep insight, this to focus on and elevate, into running. So I knew logistics a lot. So then I started thinking about the logistics. And I knew about half or maybe even more of the week I would be running with the team, and I can't really practice this mindfulness and meditation with the team, because I want to be there presently and be able to talk to them. So I set a goal of trying to meditate and be mindful of my thoughts about three times a week. And overall, I was able to hit that goal of three times a week. I have a chart with my coach that keeps track of my whole training plan. So he gives me a chart of my training plan, and I have a chart with my coach that keeps track of my training plan. I have a chart with my coach that keeps track of my whole training plan. So he gives recommendations on the left. I give the amount of miles I ran that week, how many minutes of cross-training I did, what the workout splits were, my own personal comments on my run, just how I feel, or any comments I want to add, mostly for my personal feedback and then also to let my coach know. And then at the very rightmost column, it's labeled Mindfulness slash Meditation Journal. So the three solo efforts I did per week, I wrote down what I did for that mindfulness and how it made me feel, and if it was helpful or not. And within this journal, I tried to focus on at least one of the four categories I talked about earlier, that according to the Buddha, with repeated deep insight into each of them, will generally elevate your life experiences. So again, those were body sensations, emotions, states of mind, and thoughts. And I found definitely by far the easiest one to repeatedly analyze and think about, and one I almost did automatically was body sensations, because running is a very physical activity. And sometimes all you can think about is just the pain that you're feeling during your run or anything like that. So you'll notice on a lot of the columns, it starts with body sensations. So that's when I either focused on one certain aspect of my stride, like striking with the heel, rolling forward to my big toe, and then activating my glute when I push off. And this is something I've been told to do by my trainer in PT from my injuries. And I could go into the logistics and physiology of that, but I won't, because that's not what this podcast is about. But generally I understood which way my muscles were having to move, and thought about that a lot during my runs. So many of the runs, I would say at least one to two times a week, I was contemplating this, and always analyzing it. To imagine this, I would literally be saying in my head, heel, big toe, glute, heel, big toe, glute, over and over and over again, in the whole run. Mentally, this passed the time, but it also helped me push past the fear of my shins hurting, and then getting a stress fracture or something like that. So mentally it was just something to hold on to, and something I could trust the process of healing and be patient in getting back. And most of the time when I was thinking about these body sensations, I was also imagining myself kind of in third person. So I wasn't in my own perspective. It was like I was floating outside my body, and I wasn't in my own body. So I was also imagining myself kind of in third person. So I wasn't in my own perspective. It was like I was floating outside my body, and trying to imagine how my foot looked striking the ground, how my hips looked, how my arms looked, everything in order to try to perfect my form and make it the most efficient it could be. Even in the cross-training, when I was focusing on body sensations, I was even focusing on good back posture. I slouched very easily on the bike, so I was trying to straighten my upper back and make sure that that looked good as well. I slouched very easily on the bike, so I was trying to straighten my upper back and make sure that that looked good as well. Focusing on this for 30 seconds at a time, easy enough, right? But 20 minutes on the arc trainer or on a four-mile run, where it's like 30-ish minutes, it's a long time to be focusing just on something so simple. But 20 minutes on the arc trainer or on a four-mile run, where it's like 30-ish minutes, it's a long time to be focusing just on something so simple. It was a mental challenge, but it was a good one. I think it helped me a lot, especially in workouts, as something I could just easily return to and focus on. In the next one, I'm not going to talk about each journal entry I made, since that's going to be way too much time. But another big mindfulness technique I used was our breathing. That was more meditation-focused. I tried to incorporate the meditations we've done in class into my easy runs. I started with two-second inhalations and two-second exhalations. On the inhalation, I tried to just breathe in through my nose, and then exhalations were through my mouth. This was such a challenge for me at first, because when I'm running, I only breathe through my mouth. I don't really use my nose that much. Definitely the first time I tried this on an easy run, my heart rate was like 20 beats higher than its average normally was. Which was kind of crazy, but that's just the difference it made. And then more with the breathing. And then there was also one cross-training session where I was on the bike. I tried in two, out two, and then every five minutes, I increased the exhale by one second. I think this was a 30-minute session in total. By the last set, I was doing inhale two seconds and exhale seven seconds. That was really difficult. I definitely had to lower the resistance when I was on the bike, because I was breathing really hard, and it was tough. But I think... And then one more meditation technique. Just the last one I used was the last one, and then one more meditation technique. The last one I thought was notable to mention was the body scan. And I tried this when it was a really hot day, and we were doing 16 400s on the track. And I knew I needed something to get me through the workout. I was actually with someone else, but we were going so fast that we couldn't really talk. So it was really like, it was just me and my mind. We couldn't really talk. So for every lap of the workout, I focused on a different part of my body, attempting to simulate the body scans we do in class to try to get my mind off how hot it was. So I started with the tippy top of my head, and instead of imagining a warm honey-like substance like we did in class, I imagined a cold, overflowing bag of ice being placed on my head. And then I kind of moved throughout the body with this, and then by the last lap, I imagined my shoes and socks were made of ice. That was an interesting one. But yeah, I don't know if the mental energy I expended thinking about this helped or hurt my workout. I still hit the times all right, but it was definitely mentally exhausting to think about this. So I don't know if I would be better off just running the workout normally, kind of just thinking random thoughts, or thinking even nothing, or focusing on this. But it was definitely a challenge. And then for the mindfulness side, I had a lot of workouts this year that had a lot of reps in them. So it was just a lot of counting to do. And normally I rely on my teammates to just count them for me. But since I was alone, I was able to do a lot of reps. So it was just a lot of counting to do. And normally I rely on my teammates to just count them for me. But since I was alone, I was having to count to like 20, because there were 20 kind of reps in this fart lick. And it was definitely difficult. And I'm really bad at counting. And I'm really bad at counting. So I knew I needed to try to find a way to somehow count this and make it into a little challenge for myself. So one of the things we talked about in class on counting and knowing where you are in a piece, especially in like the 3x3 piece we learned. So one of the things, so I thought I would try to use one of the memory techniques we learned in class. And one of them, one of the memory techniques we learned in class. And I remember, one of the memory techniques we learned in class. One of the memory techniques we learned in class. So, so I used the pile of rocks. And so I used the pile of rocks. And since I have 20 of these reps to do, I split it into two, I split it into two sets of 10. So I, so I imagined 10 rocks on my left. And then every time I would complete a rep, I would imagine picking up that rock slowly, moving it across to my right, and placing it down in a new pile to the right. And by rep 9, I would lose the last one and all of them would be on the right. And surprisingly, it actually worked. I was, surprisingly it actually worked. And I'm very bad at counting, so I was very happy that it worked, because I looked on my watch after the fact and I had exactly 20 reps. So I was very happy with that. And lastly, around about week two, I realized that not only running is automatically a form of meditation, but also that there are other forms of meditation as well. And lastly, around about week two, I realized that not only running is automatically a form of meditation, but also the PT exercises I was having to do, but also the physical therapy exercises I was having to do for my various injuries. For my various injuries. Because as you're doing them, you're really focusing on how is this foot moving or how is this muscle activating. And you're really concentrating every single rep. And you do this over and over and over again. And at this time, I was doing PT exercises about three times a week. That was my routine. But the month before, I was having to do it every day. And I didn't realize just how meditative it is, because I'm not thinking about anything else in that moment. All I'm thinking about is trying to balance, trying to activate this thing, everything like that. Everything like that. And then there was one session, I believe, the last session of the first week. So that was on April 13th. I did an easy run. Oh, no. I did, that was on. And then the last one that I thought was notable was the, and then the last one I thought was notable to mention was my session on April 13th. And I just did an easy run. I didn't do any sort of mindfulness in there. But then I had a 40-minute cross-training session on the Arc Trainer, in which the first 20 minutes I did body sensations, so everything I was talking about before. But then the last 20 minutes, I just did a 30-minute cross-training session on everything I was talking about before. But then the last 20 minutes, I tried to contemplate my thoughts and states of mind, which were, I think, the third and fourth categories that I mentioned, which I think were the third and fourth categories that the Buddha mentioned, and then the last 20 minutes, I spent contemplating my thoughts and states of mind, which I think were the third and fourth categories that the Buddha mentioned. And then the last 20 minutes, I spent contemplating my thoughts and states of mind, which I think were the third and fourth categories that the Buddha mentioned. So in this, I really just tried to pay attention to where my thoughts go automatically. And this was a lot harder because I wanted to be thinking naturally, but I also needed to be observing those naturally occurring thoughts. And then the last 20 minutes, I spent contemplating my thoughts and states of mind, which were those naturally occurring thoughts. So many of the thoughts I noticed were just really about interactions I had that day with other people or what the people around me at the moment were doing. Those were most of them, and then the others I noticed were kind of just about the future, what I had to do the next day or the next hour or something I was stressed about, like an upcoming test or anything like that. But I noticed this was a lot harder to do while I was exercising because I think me personally, I automatically think more about the body sensations because what I'm doing is such a physical activity. I think what my breathing is like. I think how tired my legs feel or if they feel good, how good they feel or anything like that, or soreness or trying to focus on my form. I automatically go towards those. And then I think most of my contemplation of my thoughts or feelings or emotions from the day occur at the end of the day while I'm trying to fall asleep or while I'm having dinner with my friends, things like that. So I think it's really situational, how easy it is for you to contemplate something. How easy it is for you to contemplate something. But I think definitely that's something I want to work on in the future is being able to more reflect on my runs, reflect on my runs, not just my body sensations, my emotions, my thoughts, and states of mind. And then lastly, just some reflection about the project as a whole. Did it help? Yes, I think mentally it very much did help me get back into running, find out more about running, and more easily be able to do these solo efforts without feeling kind of left out from the team. Because it was something I was doing generally just for fun. And it really made me realize how much of a meditation running actually is and how mindful a lot of runners are. Because much of the stuff that I do, I do it for fun. Because much of the stuff, much of the meditation and mindfulness we learned in this class, I already kind of did in running. I just didn't know I did it already. So, yeah, that was kind of cool to find out. And a new way of looking at running that I didn't realize I was doing. And then which methods worked the best for me? Definitely body sensations. I already automatically did that. So just being hyper-aware of activating certain muscles, it's just, I think it's ingrained in me. I'm also really interested in PT's. So, I'm going to be doing a lot of PT's. I'm going to be doing a lot of PT's. I'm going to be doing a lot of PT's. I'm also really interested in PT's. So, I think it's something my mind automatically shifts toward and is passionate about. And then the memory techniques definitely helped me. And then the memory techniques definitely helped me. I am more easily able to count things now, which sounds stupid. Which sounds stupid, but it's true. Which sounds stupid, but it's true. And the breathing was definitely helpful as well. I don't know if there was a... And then the breathing was interesting as well. I don't know if I really improved. I don't know if it really improved anything about my fitness. But it definitely is a technique mentally of just getting through a run. If you're really not feeling it, that's just something you can kind of go back to and focus on. Or if it's really cold and it's snowing outside and you really don't want to be outside, just breathing and focusing on that instead of all the other bad things can really help you get through a run. And then do I think it's possible to achieve sattisambhajanya in running or enlightenment in running? And then do I think it's possible to achieve sattisambhajanya in running or enlightenment in running? I don't think it's possible for anyone to achieve full enlightenment and to understand every single thing about your body and your running and your thoughts. I think it's a big task, and I don't know if there's an exact cutoff to complete understanding of that. But I do think it would be very... But I do want to get close to that. But I do want to get close to that. And in just these four weeks, I've learned so much about running that I didn't know before. And just these past four weeks of practicing it, I learned so much about running I didn't know before. So... Didn't know before. Didn't know before. So I think with more time, with more mindful efforts, I could definitely learn a lot more and discover a lot more about myself. And then how... And then how this experiment could maybe be done better. I would definitely spend more time on it. I only did four weeks, but even a summer or a whole year would be good if I have the time. And I definitely will, if I have the time. And then also analyzing metrics more closely, just concrete things like maybe heart rate. I analyze that a little bit, but not really in depth. And then maybe pace, other metrics like that. And then will I use this in the future? And then will I use this in the future? Yes, I definitely think I will. I think I'm already automatically using these techniques in my running. And also, I just think it would be great in every aspect of running, but especially in racing situations. Being able to control your emotions better is great because lots of people... ...is great because lots of people definitely freak out before races, or even during a race they let negative self-talk get to them. And it's also helpful for refocusing your mind. If you're running a 10K on the track, so many loops, you still need to be locked in. You still need to be locked in and constantly putting out effort. But that's 30 to 40 minutes. That's an extended period of time. So training your mind to be contemplating something for that long, or just focused on one thing for that long, I think is very useful. And could help you stay very focused for that extended period of time. So, in conclusion, I was very happy with this project. It definitely helped me mentally get back onto... It definitely helped me get mentally back on track and to running. So, in conclusion, I learned a lot in just these four weeks, and it helped me mentally get back onto running very well. Physically, I'm not so sure. I think I would have to measure things more specifically. But I think I learned a lot. And it helped me mentally get back onto running very well. Physically, I'm not so sure. I think I would have to measure things more specifically. I think I would have to measure things more closely. But mentally, I know I will carry these ideas with me for the rest of my running career. And just how much... For the rest of my running career, and just how much I found out about running and the sport. Thank you for listening to this episode of Mindful Miles. I'm your host, Anna Chittenden, and happy running. Thank you for listening to this episode of Mindful Miles. I'm your host, Anna Chittenden, and happy running.