Breathing While Running With The @runningproject 10km Training Plan

A nice pic of me running in Las Vagas in April this year

Welcome to Week 3 of our 10km Training Plan. We've been starting off each of our posts going into further details on the Jack Daniels Run Formula and how we can incorporate it with our training. The Daniels Run Formula discusses something that I have not seen much discussion on and thats how you breath while you run and breathing rhythms. It seems like something which should come naturally but looks like there is a lot more to it, so I thought it would be a good time to discuss this before we get to week 3 of our training plan.

Click here if you're interested In Weeks One or Week Two of our 10km Training Plans

Breathing While Running

Daniels' stresses its important to understand how you breathe and how it should feel while you're running. The first thing he mentions that blew my mind is the fact that
"the breathing discomfort that is sometimes assoceated with exercising hard is not due to a lack of oxygen in your lungs. The feeling of wanting to breathe harder is caused by an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in your lungs."

When the body senses an increase above the normal amounts of carbon dioxide, you breathe harder to get rid of the excess carbon dioxide. So its the increase in carbon dioxide and not a drop in oxygen that causes you to breath harder. If your body got to the point where it did not have enough oxygen, you would not start to breath heavier, but instead you would simply pass out due to the lack of oxygen to the brain.

Breathing While Running

Included in Chapter 3: Training Principles and Running Technique of Jack Danials Running Formula

When you run, this usually falls in the same rhythm with your stride rate. FOr example, when running easy, you may breathe in every three steps, and breathe out for three steps. When increasing the pace, you may then turn to breathing in and out every two steps, which is also referred to as 2-2 breathing rhythm. Most accomplished runners will use 2-2 breathing rhythm with Daniels' recommending you use this rhythm during in practice and competition.

With each breath, you take in a certain amount of oxygen, and it you are using a 4-4 or 3-3 rhythm, each breath will bring in a large amount of oxygen, but you are taking less breaths per minute. A quicker breathe rate will see less air passed through the lungs with each breath but a 2-2 breathing rhythm fits the need of giving you the most effective way of reducing carbon dyoxide buildlup, and increasing the oxygen content of the air in your lungs.

Finding Your Breathing Rhythm

If you are qurious to know what is the best breathing rhythm you could perform a quick test to see which is the most comfortable to use. Find a running track or 400m loop and start by running 5 laps. On the first lap run with 4-4 breathe rate, then 3-3 for the second, then 2-2 for the third, then 1-1 for the fourth and lastly back to 4-4 for the last. Most people will usually find 2-2 rhythm the most confortable, but remember in the later stages of a race you may need to do what every you can, including changing your breathe rate to get you through to the finish line.

So without further delay, let's show you how we will be tweaking our next training week of our training plan.

Week 3 Adding More Work

With out second week of the plan, we moved into phase 3 of our plan and this week will build on last weeks training. You should be starting to feel better on your longer runs at the start of the week, with your repeats and threshold sessions improving your fitness and strength. Your training will be similar to our previous week with a slight increase across all quality sessions.

Beginner 10km Plan - Week 2(17.4km Total)

Quality Session Day 1
6km run at approx 7 minutes 20 seconds per kilometer(11 minutes 40 seconds per mile).

Quality Session Day 2
(6.5km Total)
1km warm up at an easy pace
6 x 400 meter Repeats at 2 minute and 19 seconds per repeat, with 400 meters easy jog to recover
700m light jog as a cool down

Quality Session Day 3
(4.9km Total)
1km Warm up at an easy pace
5 x 500 Threshold runs at 6 minute and 32 seconds per kilometer pace or about 3 minutes 15 seconds per repeat. Jog for 200 meters after each repeat.
1km cool down at an easy pace

Intermediate 10km Plan - Week 2(23.8km Total)

Quality Session Day 1
9km run at approx 6 minutes 40 seconds per kilometre(10 minutes 45 seconds per mile).

Quality Session Day 2
(8.0km Total)
1km warm up at an easy pace
8 x 400 meter Repeats at 1 minute and 57 seconds per repeat, with 400 meters easy jog to recover
600m light jog as a cool down

Quality Session Day 3
(6.8km Total)
1km Warm up at an easy pace
8 x 500 Threshold runs at 5 minute and 33 seconds per kilometer pace or about 2 minutes 30 seconds per repeat. Jog for 200 meters after each repeat.
1km cool down at an easy pace

Note:
Don't be afraid to take a break during your long run at the start of the week. If you are feeling preasure to run the full distance non stop, maybe plan one or two water breaks during the run.
Recovery Days should only be run if the runner is feeling good and could repeat this weeks Quality Session Day 1 or perform some cross training for 30 to 50 minutes.

Paces taken from the Jack Daniels Running Caluclator at:
https://runsmartproject.com/calculator/

Beginner Plan

This is for someone aiming to finish between 1 hour and an 1 hour and 10 minutes. This person should still have some running behind them and hopefully able to complete a 5km run without stopping.

Intermediate Training Plan

This is for someone who has been constantly running for more about 6 months and aiming to finish a 10km run in between 50 minutes and 1 hour. They should hopefully have run one or two 10km races and should be able to run 10km without stopping.

For our next post we are going to start with a discussion on stride rate for distance running before we then set up our last week of phase 3 in our 10km training plan.

Now over two years ago, a pic of me running Ironman New Zealand

About the Author
Hey I'm Vince, an Aussie living in New Zealand, trying my best to make the most of the time I have. I work as a Software Engineer but love to run and all aspects of it, including geeking out on the latest science to help get the most out of my body.

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