Top Tips To Stay Chatty

Colin and Anne suggest some top tips to help you run Chatty and talk about how to become a ‘feeling based’ runner.

If you don’t know what speed or pace you are running at you are on a ‘rocky road to nowhere’. Many people run along out of breath thinking that this is how it should be. They spend most of their time running in the ‘middle ground’, not Chatty and not Sparkly but stuck in between.  Running in this ‘middle ground’ simply makes them tired and they can’t manage to do the volume of training needed to improve their running.

Follow our top tips to stay Chatty and keep out of the ‘middle ground’.

• Make sure you can talk comfortably in full sentences while you are running. You may not find this easy if you are running on your own, but find time to talk to yourself when no one else is around.
• Check in with your breathing every couple of minutes. Is it becoming more rapid? Can you feel a sharp intake of breath? Are your shoulders rising up and down more rapidly? If so, slow the pace.
• If you are struggling to answer these questions whilst you are running, do the ‘stop test’. Stop briefly and check your breathing and shoulder movement. If you are slightly out of breath, or you can feel your shoulders rising up and down, that is the signal to slow your pace when you set off again.  
• Become a ‘feeling based’ runner. Tune into your body and listen to what it’s telling you. Runners that improve the most have this down to a fine art.  If you are tired and your legs are heavy slow the pace and be kind to your body.
• Don’t listen to Jiminy Cricket on your shoulder who is telling you that running gently is no good for you or that you need to push on and speed up. Have faith that Chatty running works.

Give Chatty running a try. Mark on your calendar or in your training diary six weeks ahead and see how much you improve in this time. If you stick to Chatty running over six weeks you’ll be amazed by the results.

Find out why Chatty running is so good for you here.