Thursday Speed Development Session With James – “The Pace Dictator”

10 March 2021 - By James Montgomery

No, not me! Although those of you that have run with me in the past may have heard me banging on about pacing and breathing. This time-based session is aimed at focusing the runner on the connection between breathing and pace, while giving a good aerobic workout. Your breathing pattern will dictate your pace.

How often have you found, particularly on a long run that your breathing becomes a little ragged? Maybe you’re breathing from your chest and only utilising a fraction of your lung capacity. Do you suffer bouts of breathlessness, even “panic” breathing and/or hyperventilation? Maybe you simply haven’t given breathing any real thought, since it’s what we all do every day anyway and you simply press “Start” on your stopwatch the moment you step out of your door?

In this session, you will be using your breathing pattern to dictate your pace, the timing is only there to give an upper limit to each “effort” so you can measure how well you are pacing.

You are going to do two sets of two reps for each time interval; first going down from 2 x 3 minutes to 2 x 2 minutes to 2 x 1 minute to 2 x 30 seconds. After a 2 minute recovery, you will then reverse the time intervals starting with 2 x 30 seconds then 2 x 1 minute, 2 x 2 minutes and finally 2 x 3 minutes.

This will be best done on an out-and-back basis, preferably on a flatish route and in ideal conditions you would aim to end the second of each time interval, i.e. the return leg, at exactly the same point at which you started the out leg (the British weather might have something to say about the conditions this Thursday, though) this is a reasonable indicator of your pacing. You will need to make a mental note of where you finish the out leg to restart at the same point. The between-rep recoveries are deliberately short and reducing with each shorter time interval, with the longest being 1 minute. You do have a 2 minutes recovery in between the two sets. You will not want to push too hard on any one leg and although the recoveries are not too long time to get cold, they are long enough that you should continue to move around in active recovery.

On completing the first set you will take a 2 minute recovery and you will now repeat the set in the opposite direction going up in time intervals starting with 2 x 30 seconds, 2 x 1 minute, 2 x 2 minutes and finally 2 x 3 minutes.

You will need to be well warmed up prior to starting, I have put some suggestions below.

Pointers for the Session:
Let your breathing dictate your pace. If you are running uphill or into the wind, you will need to run slower, don’t try to force the pace as you will upset your breathing pattern

It’s important that you breathe deeply from your belly, not from your chest, you can practice this at any time, not only when running

You shouldn’t be breathless at the end of each rep, but welcoming of the recovery all the same.

Don’t slump forward – run tall, imagining a piece of string tied to the top of your head pulling you up, you can’t breathe efficiently if you’re slumped forward or holding your chin down

Engage your core

Most will find a 3:3 pattern comfortable, that means 3 steps while breathing in and 3 steps while breathing out, faster runners may find a 2:2 pattern better, but only if you can maintain regular deep breathing and don’t forget the short recoveries

The more experienced might want to try a mixed pattern of 3:2, that is 3 steps breathing in, 2 steps breathing out. This means for every new breath in, you will be pushing off on the opposite leg from the previous breath. There are various debates about the pros and cons of this but that’s a different discussion.

For real control of your breathing, try a 4:4 or even 5:5 pattern, just don’t try to run too fast!

Don’t mix it up if this idea is new to you. Stay with the same pattern throughout the session. However, if you are more experienced, you might want to experiment with a different pattern between the “down” set and the “up” set, for example a 3:3 on the down set and a 2:2 on the up.

Only use your watch for time keeping

Pre-session Warm-Up

As with all sessions you need to be properly warmed up to get the most out of it.

Start with approximately 10 minutes of jogging, then, and similar to Becky’s go-tos from last week, with a few of my own:
Some skipping, pretending to reach up for those light bulbs. Walking lunges, heel flicks and high knees, hamstring stretches (Chicken sweeps). Then to get the heart revving, a favourite of mine is some squats. Go for 12, don’t bounce and rush them, rather controlled with the glutes and core engaged, inhale on the down, exhale on the up. A variation is the “Bootstrapper”, similar to the squat but holding onto your trainers, ankles or just below the knees, depending on your flexibility and then do a squat, this will also trigger your hamstrings into action and additionally help relieve any tightness you may have there – especially if you’ve been working from home all day!

The Session:
Set 1
3 minutes / 1 minute recovery
3 minutes / 1 minute recovery
2 minutes / 45 seconds recovery
2 minutes / 45 seconds recovery
1 minute / 30 seconds recovery
1 minute / 30 seconds recovery
30 seconds / 15 seconds recovery
30 seconds / 2 minutes recovery

Set 2
30 seconds / 15 seconds recovery
30 seconds / 15 seconds recovery
1 minute / 30 seconds recovery
1 minute / 30 seconds recovery
2 minutes / 45 seconds recovery
2 minutes / 45 seconds recovery
3 minutes / 1 minute recovery
3 minutes / Finish