Jay Johnson currently serves as the Middle Distance Coach for the University of Colorado, his alma mater, where he has coached for more than five years. In addition to his coaching responsibilities, Coach Jay directs the Boulder Running Camp, one of the premier high school running camps in the country, and develops training materials for athletes and coaches of all ages and levels. Each week, Jay will be answering the best training questions we receive from you! If you have a question you want answered, email CoachJay@nike.com

Coach Jay,

I am currently training for my first marathon. I am having a really hard time doing longer distances simply because of my breathing and mucus build up. I am trying to breath through my nose and exhale out my mouth. Should I be concentrating so much on my breathing? Do you think that something like breath right strips would help? Thanks so much!

Jamie

Jamie,

I think there is a good chance that you are worrying too much about your nose and your mouth and which is doing what during your running. To make things simple, try running with someone for 40-50 minutes and spend the first 15-20 minutes running so slow that you can carry on an animated, fully punctuated sentence. Then, from the 20-35 minute mark run a pace where you can talk in phrases, but not full sentences. This serves two purposes. First, you won’t be worried about your nose or mouth but simply running a steady pace while talking. Second, this pace roughly correlates to the pace that you could run for at least a 10k and probably a half marathon. Finally, I’ve heard several of the old Oregon runners who swear by the breathing method that Bill Bowerman taught them, yet I think for most people simply paying attention to how hard your running and how that impacts your breathing is enough multitasking. Good luck in your marathon

Jay,

I am 39 and am currently training for a marathon in hopes of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I am doing core strengthening exercises along with my running workouts. Should I also do exercises to strengthen my upper body? If so, what do you recommend?

Paul

Paul,

What a great goal Paul and I wish you the best in your qualifying efforts. The simple answer is no, yet with a couple of caveats. First, you definitely don’t need to do bicep curls as that exercise does not correlate to running; similarly, you can think of a myriad of other weight room exercises that fall into the same category, so be mindful of how the movement looks and if it doesn’t look like running then it might not be useful. That being said, lets make sure you and I are both talking about core strength in the same way since I would recommend you do a great deal of non-running, general strength work following your hard days, yet I want to make sure that when you say “core strengthening exercises” you and I are on the same page.

Imagine doing a push-up with a perfect line from your shoulder to your heel; your back would be perfectly straight and you’d really have to “engage your core” to hold that position. If you hold that position for 20 seconds and then do push-ups until failure, then resume the position for 20 more seconds you will have an upper body workout that is also a great core workout. While that example is really tough from a metabolic standpoint (it will be somewhat anaerobic), I like having athletes do that type of body mass/body weight work in the weight room following a long aerobic run, fartlek or tempo run because it is an anabolic stimulus (anabolic, meaning building up) and that’s a great way to end a hard day because the body is forced to release more human growth hormone, more testosterone, etc. than it normally would. While the fundamentals of becoming a better runner are years of aerobic development, I think we forget that those workouts are, at the basal level, catabolic (i.e. tearing down) and that it’s not a bad idea to do something anabolic, even if it doesn’t make perfect metabolic sense, following good, hard aerobic work.

….I digress. The key is that you don’t need to do upper body work, yet you probably need to broaden your definition of core. As my favorite blogger Vern Gambetta says, “Train movements, not muscles.” Body squats, push-ups, pull-ups and leg lifts from a pull-up bar are all core strengthening exercises in my mind and you’d be well served to incorporate them into your training.

Good luck and I sincerely wish you the best in your quest to qualify for Boston.

Jay

*Coach Jay’s advice is provided as general training information. Use at your own risk. Always consult with your own heath care provider for questions relating to your specific training and nutrition.