Why Most Runners Train Everything Except Their Breathing
As runners, we spend hours thinking about training schedules, heart rate zones, nutrition, recovery, shoes, and race strategies. Yet there is one performance tool we use around 20,000 times a day that most of us never train: our breathing.
I know, because I used to be one of those runners.
For years, I breathed through my mouth while running, sleeping, working, and managing a demanding international career in Women’s Health. Stress had become my default setting, and my breathing reflected it.
What started as a search for stress reduction eventually changed the way I run, recover, and experience the trails.
Breathing Is More Than Oxygen
Most runners think breathing is simply about getting enough oxygen.
In reality, breathing influences your nervous system, focus, recovery, resilience, and how efficiently your body uses oxygen.
A functional breathing pattern is slow, light, deep, and driven by the diaphragm. Yet many runners breathe high in the chest, relying on accessory muscles in the neck and shoulders, especially when stress levels are elevated. Stabilization is even more important during trail running.
The result?
- A higher breathing rate
- Less efficiency
- More tension
- Reduced control during effort
Why I Train with Nasal Breathing
One of the biggest shifts in my own running came from learning to breathe through my nose.
Not because it is a magic solution.
Not because you should never breathe through your mouth.
But because nasal breathing teaches control.
It slows your breathing naturally, improves awareness, helps activate the diaphragm, and allows many runners to stay calmer and more relaxed during lower-intensity efforts.
For me, it became a practical tool to find flow on the trails. And to get there, surely, that wasn’t automatic for me. It was a retraining of my practice, and my brain.
Today I can spend hours trail running primarily with nasal breathing. Not because I am forcing it, but because my body has adapted.
When intensity increases, I may still use my mouth. The difference is that my breathing remains controlled instead of becoming chaotic.
Breathing as a Performance Tool
One of the simplest lessons I teach runners is this:
Your breathing can become your pacing coach.
If you cannot maintain comfortable nasal breathing during an easy run, there is a good chance you are running too hard.
Breathing provides immediate feedback that no watch or app can fully replace.
The more awareness you develop, the better you learn to regulate effort, energy, and recovery.
Finding Flow. Trail running is not just about speed.
It is about rhythm. Connection.
Presence. Nature.
For me, breathing is one of the fastest ways to access that state of flow where movement feels effortless and your mind becomes quiet.
The trails have taught me that performance and relaxation are not opposites.
Often, the greatest performance gains come when we learn to relax more deeply.
Perhaps it is time to train the one thing you have been doing since the day you were born.
Your breathing.
Also check https://www.trail-running.eu/