Breathing.. (potentially silly question)

[nrbone]

Hey everyone,

Despite fear of sounding the most basic person to ever have run, I wanted to ask your tips for how to breathe whilst running 🙈.

Since a 2 week break over Xmas I have done 5 runs now, and all but one of them seem to have left me really struggling to breathe after such a short distance and I feel as though I have to stop. It feels like my lungs don't open deeply enough for the breath I need to take.

I don't feel particularly heavy in my legs or other limbs, so I do feel I can cover more mileage if the lungs catch up. I just feel like I can't get enough oxygen in.

This isn't something I've really noticed before, but now I've noticed my breathing I think I'm subconsciously focusing on it and making it a bigger deal than it is.

Do any of you have any techniques for breathing during running?

Thanks so much ☺️

N xxx

[Grannyhugs Graduate10]

Sorry to hear you are struggling. You may have a bit of a cold lingering, hopefully you haven’t been exposed to COVID. Or simply a bit blocked up having been indoors more through winter. My suggestion is that you need to give yourself a chance to build back up in potentially colder weather by aiming to run considerably slower than should be your normal speed. Ensure your chest is protected from cold without over heating the rest of you. Take care and happy running 🤗

[Hidden]

I've borrowed this off the couch to five k pages by IannodaTruffe you may find it helpful 👍

healthunlocked.com/couchto5...

[Sparkey5000 60minGraduate in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for tagging this....great reading

[IannodaTruffe Graduate10]

I discovered in my first couple of years that after a break, pacing was always an issue.....I always went too fast, to the extent that many of my pbs came after a break of a week or more.

Try slowing down.

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate]

I’ve found especially with the colder air that the toxic ten makes me breathless to start with so start really slow then when my breathing is comfortable i can speed up with no problems

[Maz1103 Graduate10]

I would say try not to overthink it and breathe as normally as possible. When I tried to concentrate and count steps etc my breathing became panicky. At about week 5 I suddenly realised I hadn't thought about it and it became easier. Your body will do what it needs to and if you are too breathless slow down to recover. Good luck!!

[nowster Graduate10]

One thing you might like to try is to empty your lungs more on the out breath.

But in general, just breathe normally and don't overthink it.

[61Lady Graduate10]

Similar thing happened to me and the more focussed I was on breathing the more anxious I got. Certainly for me I have a bad habit of setting off too quickly and that obviously compounds the problem so now I aim for the first 5 mins to be the slowest I can go without walking - sounds daft but If I concentrate on going very, very slowly I don’t think about breathing at all and then I gradually up the pace.I’m a very novice runner but this method worked for me.

Good luck and hope whatever you do works.

[nrbone]

Thanks so much everyone for your advice, this is so much appreciated. From reading through these I suspect it's a mixture of starting off too quickly and the cold weather. I'll give your link a read now IannodaTruffe - thank you 🙏🏼