Ok so firstly my 5k time sucks lol. I’m a female and am trying to go sub 22 on wed for my 5k PR in a time trial. Today I did a tempo at close to my race paces and let me tell you it was hell. My breathing is the same problem. I just breathe so hard that I feel it effects my overall running quality and think i’m not gonna break sub 22 especially since the tempo today was horrible. Ive been running 30-35 mpw as of now and have done intervals and tempo training (around 7:30 pace for tempos, and 6:45 pace for 400 m intervals with 400m jogs in between) Whats some ways I can better my breathing during 5ks and PR attempts?
Intense breathing during 5k.
Training Advice/Discussion
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Get an asthma pump
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lmao thanks for your helpful answer
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Mileage will always help build lung and aerobic capacity. As well as training at your race pace with the goal of teaching yourself to relax your breathing. To oversimplify it, run more, and run relaxed. I hope that helped a little bit (I am a guy running about mid 17s in the 5k xc) Good luck.
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Is your breathing in a 2-2 rhythm with your footfalls when you are working hard? Or is it in another rhythm?
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AbbieD0920 wrote:
I’m a female and am trying to go sub 22 on wed for my 5k PR in a time trial. Today I did a tempo at close to my race paces and let me tell you it was hell.
Step 1: Cancel your plans for a time trial on Wednesday. Push it back by a week. A tempo run is a great workout, but two days before your time trial is far too little time to recover and gain any benefit from the work you put in.
AR's makes a good suggestion to spend some time working on running relaxed and comfortably at race pace. Start your time trial off at a somewhat more relaxed pace and then ramp up, rather than hyperventilating right off the line. And don't go into the time trial exhausted from a hard workout two days before. -
Hi thank you for your recommendations! The tempo today was very light only about 10 minutes at race pace with a 1 mile warm up and half a mile cool down so only around 3.4 miles were done. Do you still suggest not doing the trial on wed. my legs feel pretty ok right now i just rolled and massaged and didn’t have plans to do any hard runs the day before the trial, possibly just a 3 mile easy shake out run.
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Aspiring Runner wrote:
Mileage will always help build lung and aerobic capacity. As well as training at your race pace with the goal of teaching yourself to relax your breathing. To oversimplify it, run more, and run relaxed. I hope that helped a little bit (I am a guy running about mid 17s in the 5k xc) Good luck.
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Thank you sm! Would you suggest I bump up my current weekly mileage of 35mpw up to say 45-50mpw or keep it around the same and just incorporate more race pace tempos/fartleks/intervals as well as easy runs.
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I'd say 35-40 will get the job done with the right tempos and workouts. I do think the thing that will help you the most is patience, stay consistent and healthy and with patience/time, you can take a lot off of your PR.
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Sounds like your training paces are too fast. You shouldn’t be that out of breath on a tempo run. What’s your 5k PB?
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What about a powerbreathe?
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I should have probably asked these questions so. Do you do long runs, if so how far, often, and how fast? What's your 5k PR?
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It means that your breathing / aerobic capacity is lagging behind your leg strength and power to maintain a fast pace.
In other words - your VO2MAX is not that high. Believe it or not, there is a high genetic component to running and other endurance sports.
You could try switching to 100/200m sprints if you got great natural speed and enjoy the distances. Or work on getting your aerobic capacity up, by lots of training.
I started struggling with breathing once I got to a 19:00 5k, but still trained myself to a 15:55 5k (still breathing issues during all races, but more efficient and stronger).
So I think for you, long term, a time in the 18 minute/19 low range should be possible, but the breathing might always be the limiting factor. -
Yes I typically do long runs every week around 9-10 miles at an easy pace. My 5k currently is 22:45. So I really wanna go sub 22 minutes and I feel I possibly could but I would really have to push it and I have terrible runners blocks usually half way through the 5k. I’m trying to run negative spilts on wed so start out at 7:15 pace then move to 7 pace and last mile push out around a 6:40 pace. 7:15 pace feels pretty good for the first 5 minutes then everything starts going downhill after the 5 minutes when my breathing really picks up.
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Give the below article a try. I have a feeling that you'd know by now if it was athsma, but maybe that's another thing to consider. However it's worth thinking about your breathing strategy and doing a few self-assessments to see if you have disordered breathing.
https://www.therapeuticassociates.com/articles/breathing-disorders-impact-training-race-potential/
In terms of training, if you think you're undertrained in any way I would just try to focus on maintaining mileage but getting in lots of lower-level, easier aerobic running and maybe some basic speed like strides. Most training woes can be solved with focusing on those two areas first, especially with younger runners. -
AbbieD0920 wrote:
Yes I typically do long runs every week around 9-10 miles at an easy pace. My 5k currently is 22:45. So I really wanna go sub 22 minutes and I feel I possibly could but I would really have to push it and I have terrible runners blocks usually half way through the 5k. I’m trying to run negative spilts on wed so start out at 7:15 pace then move to 7 pace and last mile push out around a 6:40 pace. 7:15 pace feels pretty good for the first 5 minutes then everything starts going downhill after the 5 minutes when my breathing really picks up.
You won't be picking up speed like that. Even pace. -
Most of the assessments here are wrong. The breathing exercises are likely the best bet.
Sounds to me like you are experiencing a gradual increase in oxygen uptake, over time and your respiratory muscles take on more work as this happens.
As for the training, I'd suggest piling up more 400 reps in 1:48 -1:52 beginning a rep each 3'.
This will force you to adjust better to onset of high intensity exercise.
Running more will not necessary help, 35/week is certainly enough to get you to 22'. -
The problem with trying to achieve a set time on minimal mileage is that it becomes relatively much harder to do it. You're trying to scrape under the time with complex training.
If you just run more you'll probably run closer to 20 with much less complications. -
Should I run even paces or negative spilts? I’ve been recommended negative spilts but I wanna see other perspectives and if they’ve had more success with even paces or negative spilts.
