Red Hook, NY - We are competing in a curious time. It seems as if the higher echelons of our sport are competing against the traditional paths. While one of our harriers going pro is still the outlier, our top female harrier this year is coming off of homeschooling through her middle school years. In addition, our top male harrier has been competing for the club team Rolling Thunder since he was eight years old. And finally, the state's next rising talent, has been running CYO meets for years, coached by her father.
So does this mean that High School coaching is dead? Not even close. But it does raise some questions. Questions that have been raised before, when another Home Schooled athlete was the talk of the town. In 2005, Josh McDougal captured just about all the long distance state records, culminating with a 8:48.11 for the 3200y, and a 14:07.55 for an on-track 5000m run. Now almost ten years later, the questions come back.
In 2005, one parent set out to answer those questions, submitting to TullyRunners an article entitled, "Josh McDougal is a Perfect Example of What is Wrong With High School Track." The parent's name was John Raucci, a father with two son's running for Red Hook High School. Over the next season, we will be re-releasing his original articles, which almost a decade later, prove fascinating. You can note, that some of the ideas are a bit dated, but some of the things are spot on, before they came to be the accepted standard. I hope you enjoy the article as much as we have.
Josh McDougal is a Perfect Example of What is Wrong With High School Track
by John Raucci
This will be the first in a series of smaller follow up articles to the primary article written in March/2005 entitled "Josh McDougal Is A Perfect Example Of What Is Wrong With High School Track". I am writing these follow ups in part due to the many sincere inquiries I have received in reference to the original article. I hope that they will serve to broaden the approach to running that I set out to present as well as deal with the practical matter of day-to-day training. In order to gain the most from these follow-ups, I would like to put forward a number of guidelines. First of all, it would be essential to first read and try to understand the primary article if you have not already done so. Secondly, as I will make training suggestions especially in this first follow up, I realize that they may not correspond to the kinds of training prescribed by a given coach for a given team at a given time. If that is the case, I recommend that runners follow the schedules put forth by coaches and not by me. Coaches are uniquely responsible for their athletes, and from my perspective, I would say that such a responsibility should not be violated. Any outside interference could lead to conflict and/or confusion, and that would certainly defeat the purpose of these articles. Thirdly, I would petition coaches to at least re-evaluate that which they consider to be ideal in terms of training and performance. We all work from a sense of what is best, and if we are mistaken in any way regarding the very best, the ideal, everything else we say or do will somehow be thrown off kilter. For example, strange as it may seem, it may not be ideal to stress a runner in order to improve performance. Stressing an athlete will certainly make he or she faster, but, in fact, it might be the alleviation of stress that takes a runner to his full potential. In another example, it may not be ideal for a High School sophomore young man to run a 4:10 mile. He may in fact be doing too much too soon, and his body may react with a vengeance in terms of thrusting him into a cycle of injuries. Finally, these articles should never be viewed as an attempt to help us produce champions now. Rather, they are an invitation to bring together the sport of running with the fullness of health. As my own children will attest, I have slowed the progress of their performance levels in the hopes that a future free from sickness and injury, would provide a foundation for the eventual realization of their athletic potential, along with a continuation of their unencumbered enjoyment of the sport.
This follow up will take on the practicalities of barefoot running, proper breathing in and out through the nose, and aerobic conditioning. As we approach summer, we are entering into somewhat of a gold mine of a training zone. A good summer's effort can bring about surges in the career of a runner. I want to express my appreciation to the runners of Red Hook and Rhinebeck who have helped me to understand running from an unusual perspective, as I have been able to observe them and their progress through our day-to-day efforts. I must confess that if I were to say anything about myself, it is simply that I am a student of running. I have learned much through trial and error, and expect to continue to do so. Please accept this presentation in such a light, and allow your own experience and research as well to guide you in your pursuit of excellence.
Part 1: If the Shoe Fits - Beware of It
Part 3: Breakdown or Breakthrough
Part 4: Eat a Lot – A Lot of What?
Part 5 : Mind and Body – For or Against One Another?
Part 6: Shoeless and Clueless
Darth Vader - The Master Breather
After the primary article was circulated, I quickly came to see how difficult it is for those in the running community to take on the challenge of breathing in and out through the nose. However, I have become convinced in no uncertain terms that such breathing is vital if we want to achieve our potential and maintain optimum health. There are difficulties with nasal breathing, but those difficulties arise only when we use competition as a parameter to judge various techniques. I have been working with this type of breathing now for three years and am well aware of the trauma associated with taking this style of breathing into competition. Many would say, "Why bother?" But if we rely upon the status quo, we will always be faced with the now entrenched problem of running and the associated injury and ill health, not to mention the overall drain upon human efficiency when breathing and heart rate fall into the patterns we often see before us.
I cannot say how many times I have attended track meets and listened to coaches screaming at the top of their lungs to runners – "Drop your arms, don't tighten up, hold your head up," etc. etc. I have yet to hear any coach yelling out – "Watch your breathing, don't hyperventilate, or slow your heart rate." (I think my own heart would stop if I heard such language as the latter directed at the runners). It is believed that 10% of our energy during performance is devoted to respiration. If we are really serious about efficiency when we run, how can we neglect or worse yet ignore the matter of efficiency in respiration? Suppose we could take that 10% and drop it to 5%. Would we not then be able to devote another 5% of our energy resources to the running muscles giving us additional power and strength?
If we ask our runners to emulate the great athletes who make the impossible look effortless and the unimaginable, ordinary, how can we not push our runners towards the achievement of true, proper and peaceful mode of respiration? Running efficiency begins with breathing efficiency, and breathing efficiency begins with a correct understanding of human respiration. Proper breathing is done in and out through the nose, slowly and deeply and engaging the diaphragm, even amidst strenuous activity. An accomplished nasal breather will breathe 1/3 as many breaths as a mouth breather even in competition, and his heart rate will drop allowing for a gradually fuller exchange between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lungs. I have yet to see any physiological evidence to the contrary.
If we fall into the trap of allowing competition to color our viewpoint as to what is proper in terms of training and performance, we will never come to appreciate the human body, a creation of infinite complexity as well as infinite simplicity. It's our engine, and if taken care of, it will carry us faster and further than we can dream. We should center our attention upon human potential and not upon this or that competition. If human potential is achieved, competition will be taken care of, maybe not in the moment, but eventually. The body does best when its components relate to one another in harmony, and not under duress. And harmony can never be achieved without true and proper respiration, which is always controlled, rhythmic, harmonious, and gradual.
So how do we change the pattern of our breathing from the mouth to the nose? We must begin by simply training at levels, which can be sustained by nasal breathing alone. We have to slow our paces down significantly at first. If at any time during training we feel we have to go back to the mouth, we just decrease our effort to what the nasal breathing can handle. At first we will feel like we are suffocating, and we will be uncomfortable. Within a few days, we should begin to adapt to at least where we can train at basic levels. In a short time, we will feel an increased level of energy, less fatigue, and easier bouts with recovery. In Red Hook, it took about two weeks before we could once again feel comfortable in training. The key is to persist. Ideally, someone should be repeating to you over and over, "Breathe through the nose." If there is no one to do that, come to Red Hook and train with us, and I can repeat those words for you until you get sick of hearing them. But you will be a better runner, and a far healthier individual. If you can persist, you will be shocked at how well you find yourself performing while breathing in and out through the nose. Summertime is the ideal period to make such a transition. Racing season is over for a while, and there is no pressure to perform. Such a transition can never be made during times of heavy competition.
As with barefoot running, we should change our breathing pattern not just in training but in life. We should be conscious of how we breathe at all times maintaining slow nasal breathing in our day to day living, even in moments of stress. We should catch ourselves if we go to the mouth. Like in barefoot running, we have to begin using physiological apparatus that had been lying dormant. We have to use our nose in a fundamental way. By doing so, we will open up sinus passages and other pathways for air that were sleeping for years. As the nasal apparatus strengthens, we will deliver greater amounts of oxygen to our lungs with each breath. We should never be thwarted by nasal blockages or the like. They should straighten themselves out with consistent use of the nose in breathing in and out.
Taking nasal breathing into competition requires a certain kind of patience accompanied by an outlook towards the long term. Does a nasal breather improve in terms of his performance in races? Absolutely, you will improve. However, the rate of that improvement will be somewhat slower than if you were to continue to breathe through the mouth. Naturally, just the thought of slower improvement can be quite shocking in a culture consumed by the thinking that winning is everything. On the other hand, the improvement is extremely steady and consistent. There are no dramatic breakthroughs, but that seems to be balanced by the fact that I have yet to observe any periods of stagnancy. Progress is gradual and continual. And the progress is real progress because the body is so much more able to adapt to a training regimen that promotes ease as opposed to stress. Eliminating stress through breathing helps the body to relish its gains and want to hold onto them. In addition, nasal breathing lends itself to aerobic activity, and such activity is so much more valuable in terms of real gains. It is the basis of all performance, and the foundation of all progress.
Where competition calls for anaerobic energy, performance levels will show their most marked decrease, but the decrease though apparent, is not large. I have noticed in the case of my son David a 1% performance loss in an 800-meter race, a 3% loss in a mile and a 5% to 6% loss in a two-mile. This amounts to about 2 seconds in an 800-meter, 6 to 8 seconds in a mile, and close to 20 seconds in a two-mile. The performance decrease is due to a slight oxygen deficiency. The reason why performance loss seems to increase with distance is because, as physiological studies indicate, we all possess one amount of anaerobic energy regardless of the distance, and that energy for a nasal breather is apparently easier to spread out over a shorter distance than over a longer one. On the other hand, Cross Country races, which are primarily aerobic, may not be affected at all or are perhaps even enhanced by the nasal breathing. In the fall of 2004, Dyestat posted David as one of six male runners in the nation to run under 15 minutes in a High School Invitational 5K Cross Country race.
For those of you who are by now turned off by the mere suggestion of a breathing pattern that might cause performance loss, take heart! A slight performance loss, especially for elite high school runners, may be just what the doctor ordered if we examine everything from the perspective of health and well-being. In addition, a nasal breather is forced to pay a deep attention to all aspects of racing in detail. His or her pacing must be ideal, especially in terms of negative splits, so as not to enhance the oxygen deficit. He or she must adjust racing patterns in accordance with atmospheric conditions. For example, some weather patterns allow for less oxygen in the atmosphere. Even winds might disrupt atmospheric oxygen content by blowing up such as pollen into the air, and displacing the normal quantities of oxygen, and nitrogen etc. Such conditions affect all runners, but most ignore these kinds of details that might make or break a race. For myself, the issue of performance loss has become a challenge. It drove me to find natural and healthy ways to supplement the runners’ oxygen intake to get it to optimum levels. Breathe Right Nasal Strips open wide the nostrils. Also, certain breathing exercises just prior to competition can saturate the blood with additional oxygen. Likewise, we, who breathe nasally, find ourselves forced to bolster aerobic power such that anaerobic energy will be called upon less and less, even in short races. By the end of this year's track season, we had chopped out a significant chunk of that performance loss which perhaps helped Red Hook to its best showing ever at a New York State Meet. I should like to take up the issue of nasal breathing and performance in greater detail in subsequent writing.
It was at the end of May when I stood on the track at Red Hook with coaches Greg Rafferty and Fred Pavlich. The kids were doing their final so-called hard workout prior to the State Meet - 8X200's in 30 seconds, interspersed by 2X400's in 58 seconds. (I am happy to say that Interval workouts are few and far in between at Red Hook, but this was one of them). As David was on his last 400, Coach Pavlich, a former track star, long time successful New Paltz High School Running Coach, and now in addition Bard College Cross Country Coach, turned towards me as he gazed at David gracefully finishing up his last 400. He remarked that in all his years as a coach, he has never seen anyone reach the level that David reached without getting an injury. He went on to add that the barefoot running, the nasal breathing, and the emphasis on long easy runs as opposed to short stressful intervals were all part of a package. You cannot just pick and choose among them he went on to say. They all work together so very well. He concluded that David should have a great future ahead of him. It was about the best thing I as a parent could hear, and a testimony to the way we approached the sport.
Finally, what is what we might call a proper breath? For that I want to turn to John Douillard's "Mind, Body, And Sport" to what he terms Darth Vader Breathing. Follow his steps below, and you will breathe as you should. John Douillard wrote the following:
Step 1: Inhale normally through the nose. At first, do not take a large breath. It will be easy to master this technique with shallow breaths in the beginning.
Step 2: During the exhale, breathe out only through the nose. As you exhale, constrict the throat slightly, as if you were lightly snoring. The sound should be a little like Darth Vader. You will notice that in normal nose breathing you can feel the air coming through the nostrils, similar to the feeling you get when you blow your nose. In this technique, you will feel a sensation in your upper throat; it doesn't feel as if the air is moving through your nostrils at all. Of course this is just an illusion; your mouth is closed, and there is simply no other way out!
Step 3: Try making this sound during the nasal exhale, without contracting your abdominal muscles. Go ahead and do it now. If you are doing the Darth Vader breathing correctly, you will find it impossible to make that sound without slightly contracting your stomach muscles.
Step 4: If you're not sure you've got it right, try it this way: Instead of focusing on exhaling through your nose and constricting your throat, think about squeezing the air out from your tummy by tightening your stomach muscles. You will find that the tighter you make your stomach during the exhale, the more pronounced the Darth Vader resonant sound will be.
Step 5: If you're still not sure, take out a pair of sunglasses and blow on them, with your mouth open, as if to fog them up for cleaning. You will make a HAAA sound that comes from inside your throat rather than your mouth. Now, close your mouth and make the same glass-fogging sound, but through your nose. The only slight difference is that, instead of just a short glass-fogging burst, I want you to carry that HAAA sound throughout the exhale. The same breath that cleans your glasses with the mouth open will mimic Darth Vader with the mouth closed.
Step 6: Now that you have mastered making this sound with a shallow breath, begin to increase the size of the breath, ensuring a quality, resonant, Darth Vader sound! Keep increasing the depth of the breath until you are taking in every last bit of air and squeezing out every last bit. Practice this as much as possible while sitting or walking, because the better you make this sound now with a deep maximal breath, the easier it will be to apply to your exercise program.