Breathing is important. If you don’t breath, you’ll die. Did you know that? But what I’m talking about is controlled breathing. I use some controlled breathing techniques prior to meditation to help me relax, and the effects are quite astounding. I was curious to see what kind of techniques runners use to help them go through the paces.

Ehow.com had some good tips, here and here. I tried the four-stride technique laid out in the first example. It goes something like this:

1. Start by inhaling when your left foot first hits the ground.
2. Continue to inhale for two full strides, i.e., inhale at left, right, left, right, left, right…
3. When you left foot hits the ground again, start to exhale slowly for two full strides, i.e., exhale at left, right, left, right, left, right…
4. Lather, rinse, and repeat!

It worked out pretty good, though I found that I had to really concentrate on my breathing to keep a consistent pattern going. I also found myself screwing up the pattern quite a bit, or having to deliberately break the pattern to catch up on my breathing. Apparently, this is normal. Depending on your running conditions and experience (up hill, down hill, novice runner, etc…), this technique should be modified, and sometimes on the fly. Your strides change significantly when running up or down hill, so it goes without saying that your breathing patterns should change too.

I’m going to experiment with other techniques as I go. I’ll keep you posted.