Don’t forget to breathe

Now that we are into the new year, the focus has turned toward preparing for the upcoming season. In a handful of weeks, the first races will be upon us. The change in focus has brought an increase in the intensity of the training load. The first time doing these harder intervals—VO2 and the like—is always a shock to the body.

As I did my first set of VO2 intervals, I found myself struggling. Red faced, panting and with a burning in the legs, I wondered where all my fitness had gone. Throughout the winter, I had been fairly consistent with my training, but here I was feeling like I hadn’t done anything. What was up?

Perhaps I was too hot riding indoors on the trainer? Overheating can definitely be a limiter to the quality of the work you can do indoors, but I was next to an open window with a fan blowing on me. Not the problem.

Too tired? Nope, not that either. My workload had been manageable, and our son is sleeping half decently through the night. Not fatigue.

What was the limiter making me feel like I couldn’t do the efforts? And it dawned on me that it was my breathing. I wasn’t breathing properly. Throughout the winter I hadn’t done any consistently long, hard efforts like this and in the process had forgotten how to breather properly. Breathe in, breathe out. How hard could it be?

In my first hard efforts, I found that I was breathing shallowly, just in my chest and not really expanding it fully. But when riding, breathing should be an active action—and not limited to your chest. When riding, you want to belly breathe.

When belly breathing, you want to allow your lungs to drop down into your belly, thereby expanding your lung capacity: the amount of oxygen you can get into your body with each breath. Being able to do this action under pressure while riding takes some practice off the bike. A great exercise is a mini-meditation session while lying on your back. Put your hands on your belly button and imagine breathing in and out of your hands. It is a case of letting your diaphragm relax enough so that the lungs can drop down into your belly.

The other side of breathing is getting your breathe out of your body. This is the CO2 that is the waste product of your effort. This too is an active action, and is often missing in many of the athletes I work with. As practice, you can purse your lips and force the air out of your lungs.

Your breathing under pressure should be rhythmic, deep and active. Watch that you aren’t stuck in a shallow breathing pattern. Limiting your oxygen intake will limit your athletic performance. This one is an easy one to improve your riding.