Since the early 2000s, I've been training in silence and paying attention to my breathing. Synchronizing cadence with respiration is a reliable way to limit intensity when training and an ideal way to pace a race and produce the highest average speed.
Benefits of Cadence-Driven Respiration
Limit intensity when training.
The trick is to learn which rhythm works with which movement pattern. The real limiter is the duration of a breath cycle, but keeping track of that would be tedious. Thankfully, it's also unnecessary.
These are the rhythms that work for me and the intensities that they match up with:1
| Zone | Running (160-180 spm) | Striding (80-120 spm) |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 1 | 4-in-6-out | 2-in-3-out |
| Zone 2 | 4-4 | 2-2 |
| Zone 3 | 2-4 | 1-2 |
| Zone 4 | 2-2 | 1-1 |
| Zone 5 | Unsynchronized | Unsynchronized |
- "Striding" includes hiking and skimo training. It (probably) does not include most ski touring, because the gear is (ridiculously, unnecessarily) heavy and most people's cadence becomes slow and robotic at best.
- The running respiration zones can be often be split with odd numbered cycles. For example, Zone "2a" might be 4-4, while "2b" could be 3-4. "2b" is slightly higher in intensity, but not high enough to warrant "Zone 3".
Pace a race.
At an amateur level, almost every racer starts too fast. And shockingly, many repeat the error every race.
For events that are largely aerobic—anything over two minutes, and especially over four—records are usually set with nearly even splits. The first half is never a lot faster than the first.
To have almost-even splits, the athlete must start feeling that they could go faster, but must choose not to. They ignore the adrenalin, strength, power, and over-confidence they feel at the start. And a great way to make that happen is with breath control.
In a two-hour skimo race, the following pacing strategy has worked well for me:
- Always, always, always warm up. Skipping a warm up sabotages performance.
- Off the start line, 2-in, 2-out lets me go out decently fast but without going over my anaerobic threshold.2
- After 5-10 minutes—when I feel like I'm no longer at risk of going too fast too soon—I switch to 1-in, 2-out for a few minutes.3
- Once into a good rhythm, I switch to 1-in, 1-out for the majority of the race. From experience, I know that that rhythm is right at my anaerobic threshold. Climbs will be at the right intensity, while transitions and descents will offer a bit of a break.
- For the final ascent, I go as hard as possible and the 1-1 rhythm becomes impossible to maintain. At that point, I know that I'm over my anaerobic threshold (where synchronized breathing isn't possible), but I should be able to hold that pace until over the finish line.
Three Signs Your Pacing Strategy is Working
Once in a good rhythm, there are a few things that usually happen:
- Racers you always beat will be right beside you for the first few minutes. They eventually fade.
- You start to close gaps on the racers that started too fast (and are forced to slow down).
- You catch your usual cohort around the last third of the race and have a better ability to attack and defend.
- Do your own tests. Once you know your thresholds, try different percentages of them and see what breathing rhythms emerge.
- In a training context, 2-in, 2-out is about 95% of my anaerobic threshold. But at the beginning of a race, I suspect that it's slightly higher due to nerves pushing the pace.
- Depending on the (low) quality of the route-setting, the initial rhythm may have to be accelerated. A proper skimo course has two parallel skins tracks on every climb, but this is uncommon in North America. And if the race briefing doesn't state that slower racers have to step aside for faster—which they should—then a faster pace to the single skin track may be required.
