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I’ve been using the 3 / 2 breathing pattern since having a taster session of your technique. I like it, but, when I want to up the pace, I also like to count strides to keep my cadence up. I can’t marry up the 3 / 2 and the counting (I’m obviously not up to simple mental arithmetic when I run). Any ideas?
ReplyHi Francesca. Two things come to mind on this one. First, maybe counting isn’t the way to go, maybe you need a song in 3/2 meter to run to. Sting is always a good source of songs in interesting meters, for example. But the other thought is this: I’m not sure increasing your cadence and keeping it there is your best way of running faster. Increasing your cadence to accelerate to your new speed and then lengthening your stride to stay there while dropping back down to your usual cadence is a better strategy. If you just move your face forward more this will all happen automatically… give that a try and see how it works for you.
ReplyHi Jae,
I really enjoy your posts. Thank you! For a couple of years I have been practicing nose breathing while running and it has been good. Also I tend to count my footfalls in groups of three figuring about three per second is around the cadence I want. In my quest to learn more about nose breathing I found Patrick McKeown, who writes about the Buteyko breathing method. It has been used for treating asthma, but more recently for improving performance in sports. Patrick McKeown just came out with a new book called “The Oxygen Advantage” that I am about half way through right now. It is already helping my running, allowing me to control my breathing and even it out and get more oxygen to my muscles. I think this book is really onto something and has more information than I have been able to find in other places all in one place. I hope you consider checking it out and maybe even doing an interview or something with Patrick.
Thank you again for your great posts!
Scott
Thanks for the tip, Scott. I have mixed feelings about nose breathing when running, since closing your mouth reduces your ability to move your face forward. Still working on that one, though, and could use more information, so I’ll check out the book.
ReplyFootfalls and Breathing pattern did not really occur to me until you talked about it in the CAP. My first try was difficult. I figured out why. The reason is that I was trying to adjust the footfall to the breathing. There is significant mass in your leg and it does not do well trying to adjust. The easy way is to adjust the breathing to your footfalls. I have not tried the mantra but I think that must help keep the focus on the breath and not changing the footfall rate. In any case, it is interesting to change from an odd number to even number and during the even number footfalls, change the exhale from side to side. What runners do during running is really interesting. Thanks for everything Jae. Tom
ReplyGreat to hear from you, Tom, and glad you’ve sorted it out! BTW it’s an odd number of footfalls per breathing cycle that should result in alternating which foot you breathe out on…
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