# Breathing - Crits vs Hills



## alexp247365 (Dec 29, 2009)

I noticed a difference in which the way I breathe when climbing a hill is vastly different than when riding in a criterium race.

When hill climbing for any length, my breathing develops a rhythm similar to running. However when racing in a crit, I actually don't notice any type of measured breathing, just big gasps for air now and again(and which transitions to more like coughing and then feeling faint towards the end of races.)

Whats also interesting, as that I do not hear anyone else breathing in a measured fashion during the crit races. 

I was wondering why the differences?

For background, I'm an intermediate rider with 2 years experience, Cat 3 racer.

If any insight to the differences, would be much appreciated. Thanks!


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## the_gormandizer (May 12, 2006)

With the surges in crits, you go constantly into your VO2 Max or anaerobic capacity ranges. For long climbs, you almost have no choice but to sit and grind at your threshold, or perhaps VO2 Max. Seems to me it's just the difference between being aerobic (or mildly anaerobic) vs anaerobic.

Do you train or race with a powermeter? It can be very informative to look at power files after a race.


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## alexp247365 (Dec 29, 2009)

I used to train with a heart monitor, but have given it up in the last few weeks. I do remember that in looking at my HR data over the last 2 years, Max has been 189... and I've had more than one 40 minute crit where Avg was either 178, or 179.

Hills I remember my heart-rate would just steadily climb until I either popped, or slowed to a rhythm.
I've read that 'anaerobic' still uses oxygen, but perhaps significantly less? Does that attribute to the seemingly shallow breathing. 

Sometimes after long endurance efforts at high intensity, it feels like my lungs just get too tired to expand and contract rapidly, and just stop expanding. Funny feeling to have a high heart rate, yet breathing like your walking down the street and be able to talk moderately.

Thanks for the info! Trying to get the wife on board to get a power meter before the off season starts.


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## the_gormandizer (May 12, 2006)

Yesterday, I did a 3.5 mile climb up a mountain as hard as I could. Then I went and did a short "B" training crit. I have attached the graphs of power and HR for both efforts. The scales and the smoothing are the same. Both rides were painful.

The climb was pretty much at my threshold power the whole way. I started off too hard, and you can see that my power was fading near the end. My heart rate reached a certain level then pretty much stayed there the whole climb.

For the crit, my normalized power was 290W, vs 276W for the climb. The short sprint efforts left me much more winded, but I was able to sit in the pack and recover from time to time. This is reflected in the HR.

Tell your wife you absolutely need a Quarq!


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## alexp247365 (Dec 29, 2009)

I really wanted a Quarq! Positioned both my bikes with Hollogram SL cranks so swapping bikes would be painless. Never thought SRAM would buy them out, and kill my dream!

Was looking at my Garmin data from Tuesday's Crit, and noticed I had a power output for the first 10 minutes. What's odd is that I do not own a powermeter device! Must've synched up with someone else's power-meter. Haha..

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95795696


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