Well, Wednesday is High Intensity Training day. I usually do some intervals on the recumbent bike or some sprints on the treadmill. However, it was such a perfect day I decided to head to High Park to run up and down a steep hill. After a 10 minute light jog to warm up, I walked down the north-end hill. At the bottom I turned around and sprinted as fast as I could to the top. I did this 5 times. I felt way better than after a treadmill run.
Now here's the interesting part...
I'm reading "What Comes First, Cardio or Weights?" by Alex Hutchinson. Buy the book here. And here's a link to his blog Sweat Science.
In both his book and on his blog, Hutchinson talks about breathing patterns and stride rate. Here's the short version: We have a 'locomotory system' and a 'respiratory system'. When they are in sync, we are more efficient at our activity. This means we breath in and out at some ratio of our stride (if we are running or walking), or stroke etc. On my first sprint I found I was breathing with a 4:1 ratio i.e. Breath out on right stride, then left, right, left, breath on right. On the next 2 sprints I tried breathing with a different frequency and it made the run extremely difficult. In fact on the 2:1 sprint I felt like I was hyperventilating. On the 4th climb I decided to go back to my preferred 4:1 frequency, however, I reversed the breathing so I breathed out on my left stride. While this was easier then climb 2 and 3, it was still hard work. Perhaps I was just tired? The last climb I relaxed and found myself back to my original 4:1 and the climb was easier again.
Interesting...
