If you are having irritation from smoke or exhaust or dust or things, you might consider a mask.. http://www.respro.com has some cool ones meant for sports like cycling where you do a lot of breathing in an urban setting. They don't look 'medical', but give a lot of protection against pollution and stuff. Pretty hip.

peace,
sam

Interesting thread, my problem is that I run out of lungs long before running out of legs. Today I did a nice 10 mile track thats mostly downhill going in but it's a dead end so you have a nasty 10 mile mostly uphill to get back out, I usually stop & walk up at 4 or 5 of the steepest bits because I run out of lungs but today I only stopped twice, what I did different was to focus on exhaling fast and deep then inhaling fast and deep throught both mouth and nose using the ribcage and diaphragm muscles, but after inhaling deeply I held my breath for just a fraction of a second. Because of the faster exhale & inhale I found that the rate at which I was breathing was the same even after holding each breath just a little. I have no idea if this technique has any scientific validity whatsoever, but I read an article the other day about how your lungs exchange gasses during each breath and so I'm sort of trying to give the lungs a chance to get the air in deeper and once in there a chance to do its gas exchange thing more thoroughly, if that makes any sense.

So, what is a good training technique to improve your aerobic capacity? I'd love to have more lungpower to get more out of the legs.....

Training techniques:
best I have used have been the yoga breathing techniques, however,

learn to sing or play a wind instrument or

buy one of those breath exercise things they sell in yoga magazines or

breathe thru a straw, in and out, plug your nose so you don't cheat (it's harder than you might think...)

but I would recommend the yoga breathing again, because it is so much better than the other ideas.

Don't walk up the hills! :)

Or if you must walk, at least carry the bike instead of rolling it.

What I'm trying to say is--all worthwhile "training tips" boil down to: work harder!

I don't disagree with you... and beleive me, I do push myself hard. Two weeks ago my (very aerobically fit) friend and I went out to a hilly area to specifically work on hillclimbing, I pushed myself to the point where my breakfast came up, then I kept going - I'm serious about getting some aerobic fitness back. What I didn't mention is that I quit a 3/4 packet per day smoking habit about 2 months ago. Smoking is my one and only regret in life, but it's time to pay the price I suppose.

Cheers,
Gab

Sounds like you're doing great!

I quit smoking about 3 years ago (2 pks/day for 30 years!) I didn't notice big improvements until about 4 months after quitting, then slow improvement that continues. How soon after eating breakfast did you do your hill climbing workout?

Thanks for the encouragement and congrats for kicking the habit and making it stick. It's good to know that the effort will lead to improved performance along the way. I think I did the technicolored yawn about 90 minutes after brekky, about 45 minutes into the hard work. Didn't let it worry me tho, I just kept going. Next time I'll allow a bit more time between a meal and a hard workout.

May interject something I learned when I was taking courses to get my SCUBA C-card. if you take longer breaths, pause briefly before exhaling and take your time to exhale, you will get will maintain a higher blood O2 level, and will take in less air (good for urban riding, a good scuba diver can make a tank last well over an hour and a half, I was only at 45 minutes last time I did a dive, that was about 5 or 6 years ago)

I saw this link last fall and after reading through their website have been playing with the technique ...usually on climbs. It basically strikes me as yoga breathing with some twist.
http://www.breathplay.com/

I like it ... I think it slows your breathing rythem down a little when you are at your max and as someone else mentioned that gets more O2 in your blood as your lungs have more time to extract the O2. I also think there is a mental aspect there that takes your mind off your suffering and makes you concentrate on something else. Whatever the reason I know I am less winded at the top of steep high exertion climbs when I do it.

I've been nose and mouth breathing since I started cycling a year and a half ago mainly 'cause that's how I was taught in Physical Ed a long time ago. But I was struggling a bit with my breathing, not getting enough oxigen I guess, mostly on climbs and when riding in the aero position (TT bars), yesterday I tried something completely different, by accident, and voila!. It was very cold yesterday 32F and my nose was running like mofo, so I started inhaling and exhaling through my mouth, it was "efen" incredible man, I got into this sweet rythim and my probs were gone.

I want to do the whole nose thing, but in the summer I get allergies and it gets pretty plugged. Now that it's winter, I can breathe through my nose a bit more, but under heavy exertions I cannot get enough air in unless I breathe through my mouth for a bit. When I get back to a steady-state, I can return to nose-breathing.

I am blessed with a high performance intake (big nose), big combustion chambers (lungs), and large exhaust (mouth).

Even going up the hill, I keep a deep, strong, breathing rithm.

That is probably a good idea for someone that has not had the opportunity to learn the breathing techniques that are taught in athletic training.

I whistle while I go on the easy parts, so to have a measure of exertion rather than looking at the heart monitor all the time. If I cannot wistle it means that I am going too hard on flats.

Mind you that I am not a racer. :)

you just reminded me that breath control was why i started singing on my commutes. joie de vivre, sure. but originally i'd just pick a song that needed some measured timing and some holding of notes as i started up that damned bridge.

it helped me to stay on top of my oxygen debt, and stay in an exertion range that didn't get out of control. it kind of got me used to functioning in the aerobic zone, if that makes sense. like how you get used to functioning in the slightly-buzzed zone when you first discover beer :D

you have to time a song or it doesn't sound right; that helps me to time my riding and just generally stay aware of how hard i'm pushing myself. otherwise i can get myself all the way out of breath without really noticing it. and of course, the thing about singing on a bike is that by the time anyone starts to point and laugh they're behind you, so you don't care.