How to Improve Running Economy and Running Speed

By Patrick McKeown
How to Improve Running Economy and Running Speed

Running economy is one of the most important and most overlooked factors in distance running performance. Among runners with similar VO2 max scores, it helps explain why some run faster than others over middle and long distances. And research suggests breathing training may help, alongside your normal running.

This article explains what running economy is, why it matters, and how breath hold training and the Oxygen Advantage method may support your running.

What Is Running Economy?

Running economy is essential if you want to run faster, further and more freely.

It represents:

  • The energy demand of running at any given submaximal speed
  • The metabolic cost of running
  • Your steady-state oxygen consumption at a given speed

It is especially relevant over distance. The less oxygen your body uses at a given pace, the better your running economy.

Running economy varies significantly between individuals, just like other performance stats such as VO2 max, anaerobic threshold and speed at VO2 max. One study found a 30% difference between trained runners with similar VO2 max scores.

If your running economy is already good, it can always be better. If you are a novice runner, improving exercise economy can give you a powerful new focus for your training.

How to Increase Running Economy

Small gains in running economy can add up. For a 4:30:00 marathon runner, even a 1% improvement in running economy could translate to roughly 3 minutes off the finish time, which is significant for any endurance runner.

Running experts suggest everything from diet to active muscle volume, stride rate, elastic energy and strength training, to carbon-fibre-soled shoes. Even the flexibility or stiffness of your ankle joints might play a role.

We have already looked at hematocrit, lactic acid and EPO levels in our science series. Common tips include increasing your mileage and reducing body mass.

Muscle composition is important too. The proportion of slow-twitch and fast-twitch skeletal muscle fibres. Slow-twitch muscles are fatigue-resistant and aerobic, supporting endurance activities. Fast-twitch muscles are used for quick, powerful activities like weightlifting and sprinting.

But most athletes miss an obvious area: breathing. Breath hold exercises that create an altitude-like stress and reduced breathing drills have been linked to better running and swimming economy in some studies. Breathing itself costs energy, so breathing more efficiently can reduce the overall cost of running.

How to Increase Running Speed and Stamina

During exercise, muscles need more oxygen for energy. You can think of this as your oxygen cost. At the same time, a moving body produces more carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide and acidity help the haemoglobin in red blood cells release oxygen to the muscles.

As you run harder, you breathe harder and faster. This is driven by several signals working together, including your brain's motor commands, feedback from working muscles, and chemical feedback from rising CO2 and acidity. During heavy, sustained efforts, your breathing muscles can become tired. Fatiguing breathing muscles can trigger a reflex that reduces blood flow to the legs, adding to leg fatigue and the sense of effort, so you have to slow down.

If you breathe more efficiently and correct a breathing pattern disorder, your respiratory muscles may not need to work so hard, and running can feel more controlled.

Running economy is about the oxygen cost of running at a given pace, while aerobic capacity and oxygen-carrying capacity set your upper limit. Both matter for performance. In an interview for Runners' World, Dr. John Dickson, Head of the Respiratory Clinic at the University of Kent, says:

"One way to shock the body into producing more red blood cells is by training at altitude... but research shows this can take two to three weeks to take effect. That is fine for elite athletes who ship out to high-altitude training camps for months on end, but not so practical for the rest of us."

How to Increase Oxygen Levels While Running

You can do this the hard way or the easy way.

The hard way:

Run more miles every week. Elite runners cover a massive mileage. But to boost running economy by running more, most of your run must be easy. You already have to be quite fit for this to work.

This is also a challenge because of injury and overtraining. If you have a naturally competitive nature, it can be hard to know when to stop. And if you need to scale back for a week or two, your aerobic capacity will drop.

The easy way:

Scientists have reported better running economy in athletes who practice reduced breathing. This included breath holds to replicate intermittent hypoxic/hypercapnic training (IHHT).

Possible benefits of breath hold and reduced breathing training include:

  • Breathe lighter during running
  • Breathe slower
  • Stronger breathing muscles
  • Greater comfort with air hunger and breathlessness
  • A way to add a training stimulus without adding mileage

Dr. Dickson is right. High altitude training has real benefits. Oxygen Advantage IHHT exercises are not the same as living or training at altitude, but they offer a practical way to add a hypoxic and hypercapnic training stimulus at sea level. Research on their effects on running economy and performance is promising but still limited.

You can track your breathing with your BOLT score. BOLT measures how quickly you feel the first clear urge to breathe during a comfortable breath hold. It is useful for tracking your own progress, but it is not a predictor of running performance. A 2024 study in highly trained athletes found no link between BOLT and VO2 max or anaerobic performance (Kowalski et al., 2024). Learn more about how to breathe while running for a step-by-step guide to integrating nasal breathing into your training.

Note: Strong breath holds are not suitable for everyone. Avoid them if you have a heart condition, high or low blood pressure, epilepsy, or another serious medical condition, or if you are pregnant, unless cleared by your doctor. Never practice them in or under water.

Research: Breath Training and Running Economy

Research on breath hold and reduced breathing training for running economy is still emerging, and most studies are small. Here are two examples.

Study 1: Controlled-Frequency Breathing and Running Economy

Eighteen swimmers (ten men, eight women) were assigned to two groups. The first group was required to take only two breaths per length and the second group seven breaths.

Researchers found that running economy improved by 6% in the group that performed reduced breathing during swimming. This was a small study in swimmers, so the results need confirming in runners.

Lavin KM, Guenette JA, Smoliga JM, Zavorsky GS. Controlled-frequency breath swimming improves swimming performance and running economy. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. 2013 Oct 24.

Study 2: Breath Holding on Exhalation and Middle-Distance Race Times

Breath holding was practiced over six weeks by 15 middle-distance runners (600 to 3000m). Runners participated in official athletics competition before and after.

  • Group 1 (normal breathing): +0.03% improvement to time
  • Group 2 (15 to 20 minutes of breath holding on exhalation, once per week): +1.27% improvement to time
  • Group 3 (15 to 20 minutes of breath holding on exhalation, twice per week): +1.33% improvement to time

All runners who trained with breath holding twice a week improved their performance over distances from 1200 to 3000 metres. The average velocity improvement was 1.33%.

This study is reported in a book rather than a peer-reviewed journal, and the groups were very small, so the results should be treated as preliminary.

Fortier E, Nadeau. Peterborough, Canada. Cited in: Hypoventilation Training by Xavier Woorons, Paris 13 University.

Improve Your Running Economy with Oxygen Advantage

The Oxygen Advantage method, developed by Patrick McKeown, provides a structured, science-based system for improving breathing efficiency through breathing retraining. It replaces unnecessary over-breathing and mouth breathing with light, slow, nasal breathing at easy and moderate paces, and uses breath hold exercises to add an altitude-like training stimulus at sea level.

The aim is better breathing efficiency, less breathlessness, stronger breathing muscles, and more control on the run, without adding extra miles. Results vary between runners, and breathing is one part of performance alongside training, strength and recovery.

Why not try the OA method for yourself, check out our online breathing course, become a certified breathwork instructor, or find an Oxygen Advantage instructor near you.