For a while I only ran using nasal breathing, and I could run up to about 168BPM that way, despite my zone 2 normally topping out at 150. And when I had a sniffle or allergies, assessing intensity was not cool… you can get quite good at breathing through two straws.
Does this mean you breath only into the nose and out of your mouth? Or in the nose and out of your nose? I try to at least breath in my nose and out my mouth but doing difficult training while breathing in and out my nose makes me feel like I might suffocate.
When I was doing exclusive nasal breathing runs, I was only breathing in and out through my nose.
Thank you, that’s intense.
Personally I find nasal breathing to be a poor indicator. As others said, I can get way above Z2 and still nasal breath. The talk test is better but also imperfect. For me, I train for general wellbeing and dont worry to much about it. But as a guideline I use a HR monitor, MAF, and talk test combined. Not perfect but works for me.
The way I understand is in and out through the nose.
I have maxed out my HR running while breathing exclusively through my nose in both directions. It's a skill that's not too hard to acquire, was wearing Breathe Right strip over my nose, which helps. Maybe it also helps drive my HR to the max as it is definitely extra work. HR was 179 and this was a few years ago so I was in my mid-60's at the time.
