Improve Your Breathing

I know proper breathing is important, I use it to calm myself in stressful situations or when I am feeling anxious and it works.
I have been cycling the last few summers to help stay in shape and to spend great times with my boyfriend.  I've notice this summer that I am much stronger but on a scale of good female cyclists I suck!  I am very strong, I do P90x but when I cycle I run out of gas, I have no endurance. I know one of the keys is proper breathing and good lung capacity to oxygenate the blood. I found this great article from a runner, here's a portion of it:

Most of us simply don’t breathe deeply enough. Breathing using all four stages: inhaling, full pause, exhaling, and empty pause helps increase oxygen in the blood. The more oxygen in your blood, the less fatigued and more mentally alert you are. There is a strong connection between respiration and one’s mental state, so it is obviously beneficial for everyone to start working with their breathing. Shallow breathing does not exercise the diaphragm and lungs enough and most people only use a small portion of their lung capacity. In learning to breathe more fully, you will see many benefits whether you are an athlete or a not.

Oxygen in the blood is critical for ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). ATP is how your body makes energy. Before I do any kind of hard practice, I always make sure to practice healthy breathing to get my body ready to perform. Good breathing is far more important than stretching before running. One misconception about stretching is that it reduces your chance of getting injured while running. The truth is that this has never been proven. Of the studies done on stretching, all of them are inconclusive as to the prevention of injuries, in spite of the fact that you see every sports team on the planet stretching before their games.

Warming-up is the key. Warming-up can be done simply by jogging and doing exercises like jumping jacks. Warming-up the muscles is vital; you can have a successful warm-up just by breathing well, walking, and jogging. Breath comes into play because by breathing deeply and using relevant breathing techniques you are oxygenating your cells. What the heck is more important than oxygenating your cells before a work-out, or, for that matter, before and during a stressful situation in your life? Nothing! It is a very powerful and simple concept, and yet I hear very little, if anything, about it. Knowledge about health issues and creating good health is a journey, a process. You have to be determined to find it.

Read the whole article: 

http://www.authentic-breathing.com/breathingforathletes.htm