wheezy coughing after hard effortss

so I only get wheezy if I REALLY push myself physically [even for a short effort] and my HR reaches its peak. Sometimes I'll feel it during my rides, like my lungs are irritated and I HAVE to cough. other times I feel it afterwards all day and get that wheezy cough, sometimes with that "popping" noise like I am coughing something up but I'm not.

sidenote/ I use to smoke for 6 years with no exercise, quit 3 years ago. also had pneumonia when I was a kid and used an inhaler during highschool. started biking seriously in August 2011.

so is it just my lungs irritated from the hard effort, or exercise induced asthma?

see a doctor and then work on building your cardiac capacity.

Sounds like EIA, to me. I would definitely get checked. You might need to simply have a rescue inhaler to use before going on rides and take with you to use as-needed.

Does it get hard to get enough air, or do your lungs open up? Does it happen if you're doing those really hard efforts regularly, or only if you haven't done one in a week or two?

My asthma is very mild but strictly allergic, not exercise-induced. What happens to me is that if I've only been doing lower-intensity efforts, then when I go to my limit (like a long steep hill, a hard interval session or a 5K, say) I'll have symptoms that sound like yours (except my cough will be minimally productive, and it tastes really "stale"). My speculation is that the far reaches of my lungs get plugged with mucus, and only a really hard effort opens them up.

+1 on seeing a doctor.