Whenever I start either a swim workout or a run, I find that I am almost completely breathless for the first minute or two.  I have always assumed this happens because, it takes a little while for my cardiovascular system to catch up with the sudden exertion of my muscles.

During training, this breathlessness really doesn’t impact anything, but during races it can really impact my swim.  This is especially the case, if I haven’t had chance to warm up properly.  It’s often tough to warm up at things like Ironman races, because there is a lot of standing around in line, waiting to get into the water.

I’m about half way through this book, and it is making some very interesting claims about how breathing and the level of carbon dioxide in your body, can influence athletic performance.  The book has you do what is called the BOLT test (a body oxygen level test).  It is a really simple test, where you hold your breath and see how long it takes for you to feel the first stresses of your body urging you to breathe.  The longer the time it takes for this feeling to occur, the higher your BOLT score.  The higher your BOLT score, the more your body is adapted to tolerate carbon dioxide, which leads to a higher VO2 Max.  The higher you get your VO2Max, the higher the level of performance you can achieve.

The book also gives a set of recommended breathing exercises and techniques to improve your BOLT score.  My BOLT score is very low.  This has me wondering if this is impacting my ability to avoid that breathless feeling, I mentioned above.  I am going to finish the book and then decide if I am going to try the techniques it recommends.  It might just be the key to having better swim starts in my races.