Control your breathing...

So I've never considered myself to be in good cardiovascular shape, the fastest I've ever run a mile was 6:45 and that was my freshman year in high school and I remember that was the hardest I had ever worked for anything.
 
Well its 7 years later and I've never been a fan of running. I've never been able to run for miles at a time. Its usually a hard mile and I'm dying.
 
But last night I decided to give it one more go. This time I wasn't going to run for distance I was going to try to jog for 30 minutes. No stopping no walking, 30 minutes. My strategy was to control my pace and breathing. 
 
Someone told me that breathing normally, when your body thought you needed to breathe was going to put me behind. I know that my body is going to need more oxygen so i should start breathing a few seconds before I needed to. So I focused on my breathing, I started breathing deeply before I needed to and I would take one deep breath one normal and so on.
 
About .5 miles in I felt great, I was doing alright, breathing was normal. I could have stopped and been slightly winded, but not hands on knees wait for me while I lay here winded. I could have carried on a conversation with someone! About a mile in, still strong, still great. I controlled my pace, both up and down hills. If I noticed that I was going fast I would slow down. Breathing went on. By 1.5 miles I was feeling it, but at 1.5 I was going up a 45 degree hill and my legs were starting to get tired. After I was at the top I was back to good. My breathing slowed down and I was back to good. At 2 miles I was pretty close to my house and I was encouraged. At 2.2 miles I was done, winded legs were tired but I could have kept going.
 
I ran 2.2 miles. I've never been able to do that. And in comparison to when I consider myself in what was "the best shape of my life" I couldn't have done that. And I'm in terrible shape compared to then. I mean strength wise I'm about the same, but I haven't ran or played any kind of sport in ~5 months.
 
I controlled my breathing, I never knew it made that much of a difference. And last night I actually liked running. Haha fat kids dont like running! Needless to say I'm going out again tonight.
 
I know my time was reallllllllllly slow but I've got to start somewhere right.

Gin Rummy: Simply because you don't have evidence that something does exist does not mean you have evidence of something that doesn't exist.(from the boondocks)

IMO controlled breathing is the most important aspect of cardio, after stretching of course

yah controlled breathing is very important when running long distance.   Keeping count will help alot...breath in for 3 steps on your right foot and then breath out for two steps.  Only count when your right foot strikes the ground.  A navy seal friend of mine suggested this to me and it has really improved my edurance when running.

I was amazed. I ran a mile early in the day and after my right hamstring started to get sore so i decided to take last night off. It feels like I strained it. I think I did it while stretching because I was so loose and I felt strangely light, it was wierd. But I think I may have stretched too far and not realized it. I need to come up with some sort of stretching routine.

Gin Rummy: Simply because you don't have evidence that something does exist does not mean you have evidence of something that doesn't exist.(from the boondocks)

Controlled breathing is great for pain management as well.  Controlled breathing is a type of meditation itself, and it is used extensively in transcendental meditation as well.

"In the wild, there is no health care. In the wild, health care is, 'Ow, I hurt my leg. I can't run. A lion eats me and I'm dead.' Well, I'm not dead. I'm the lion, you're dead."