Breathing & Running....

Curious to see answers to this.

I've been told if you can't talk when you're running you're going too fast, but I think that's silly. I would run a little slower and for shorter amounts of time and work up week by week--that's what I did and I'm doing really well. I got this FANTASTIC app on my ipod touch called "get running" that makes a running schedule to work you up to a 5k. It's great! I'm so much more fit now, I never thought it would be so effective.

Good luck, happy running

I've been battling the exact same issue. I'm not training for a half marathon, but I am trying to get into running (at least be able to do a 5K!), but I had a lot of problems with getting out of breath really quickly! I'd barely be able to do a mile at 5.0mph and then I'd need to walk. Here's what has really worked for me...

SLOW DOWN! Haha... seriously! I took the treadmill down to 4.2 or 4.3 mph and it was enough for a jog. And on my first attempt I ran for 20 minutes without stopping! The next time I did it, I ran for 25 minutes. Running at a slow pace is a good way to get your endurance up. Then gradually increase the speed once you have the endurance. If you're running outside, it's a bit harder to force yourself to slow down, but it's easy on the treadmill. I'm seeing great results, and I'm hoping I can work up to running a 5K doing it this way.

EDIT: Also, I'm only 5'2.5" with short legs, so that 4.3 mph might sound like a crawl to taller people. Just pick a speed that works for you. It might be faster or slower depending on your height and how comfortable you feel.

I didn't develop exercise induced asthma until I was 18 and I had been running long distance for track since the 7th grade (doing about 3 miles per day) but all of a sudden I couldn't breath anymore - went to the doctor and she gave me my first inhaler. I can definitely tell the difference if I don't use it, even during a work out video! This probably isn't your issue, but it was mine.

I have tried various techniques in the past....... for example breathing in for the count of 2 and then out for the count of 3 (you can also use strides to work out the timing), but the best thing I find now is firstly to slow down - if you're breathing very hard then you are likely working too hard, and secondly focus on your breathing and concentrate on keeping it slow and even.

Always try to run at a pace which means you can still hold a conversation without too much effort - I even do this if I am running on my own (I talk out loud to myself every now and again just to check that I am not pushing too hard). Another thing I would suggest is getting a decent heart rate monitor that can give you alerts based on your heart rate and then work out your correct training zone and stick to it.

Just on the training zone point, there is a general rule of thumb that you should use 220 minus your age as your maximum heart rate and then work out what 70% and 85% of this max is - that is roughly your aerobic training zone. I don't particularly like this method as I don't find it accurate enough - for example my maximum according to that formula should be 183bpm (making my aerobic zone 128 -> 156bpm).

The method that I prefer to use is one that I read in RunnersWorld a few years ago and that is you should find your individual max heart rate (found through interval training on a treadmill - more on that later) and your resting heart rate (i.e. first thing in the morning before you get out of bed) and then subtract the resting heart rate from the maximum - this gives you your personl 'working' heart rate range. Then you find 70% and 85% of this 'working' heart rate figure and add each value back to the resting heart rate figure - this is then your aerobic training zone. My values work out to be:

Maximum: 203bpm
Resting: 65bpm
'Working' range: 203 - 65 = 138

70% (of 138) = 97
85% (of 138) = 117

Aerobic zone:
Lower = (97 + 65) = 162
Upper = (117 + 65) = 182

As you can see this range is significantly higher than the 'rule of thumb' method and has proved a much more effective training zone for me.... If I go over the 182 value I find that I am really struggling to talk and breath properly.

To find your maximum the suggestion was to use a treadmill and after warming up you should run as hard as you can manage to 3 mins and then jog for 2 mins and the run as hard as you can manage for a further 2 mins - during the hard running sessions you should be getting close to your max (this is where I found mine, and then confirmed it by running as hard as I could at the end of one of my normal training runs one day).

WARNING: This is just my opinion based on something that I read in a Running magazine, obviously pushing your body that hard to find your maximum heart rate is not something that should be undertaken lightly. I would definitely suggest that any body thinking of using this approach should ensure that they have medical clearence from their doctor/physician first!

To be honest though the simplest method is the conversation one - never failed me yet Good luck

bump - i have this problem too. interested in the heart rate info from xanadu - thanks!

http://running.about.com/od/howtorun/f/breathing.htm

Went to the site and printed off what I needed, thank you much for the info.

xanadu38, thanks for the info! This may help me as well.