Breathing Rate

As I was sucking wind after cresting Corkscrew Hill one day, I was reminded of an excerpt from the Daniels' Running Formula on breathing rate. Usually, I try and ignore my breathing; the more attention I pay to breathing, the more nervous that I get that I'm not, which makes breathing more difficult... However, as ignoring it was no longer working, I decided to pay attention to my breathing rate.

What was it Jack Daniel's said? 2-2 is most efficient? Ok, breathe in for two strides, breathe out for two strides, breathe in for two strides... stop gasping and put your lips together! Withing ~30sec, I started to calm down and stopped struggling so much. Then I hit Cemetery Hill...

In any event, the 2-2 pattern allows for a substantial amount of air to be moved both into and out of your lungs. Although this is the "ideal" rate, there are times that it's ok to deviate from it:

• When you're really trying to push yourself (like at the end of a race), it's often necessary to switch to a 1-2 or 2-1 pattern (m-n where m is the number of steps for inhaling and n is the number of steps for exhaling). A 1-1 pattern results in too shallow a breath.
• On easy runs, a slower 3-3 rate may be used, and perhaps even a 4-4 (although the energy needed to maintain this rate doesn't pay off in the end).