Hill Speed

[Hi Ho Silver]

I hadn't heard the advice before to breath through the nose when climbing, I am not a strong climber myself. Is this more efficient than mouth-breathing? Of course, if we are doing that then we are likely panting (at least for me)...

From what I've read on the web, nose breathing is the preferred method. But I have a book (Bicycling Science, from M.I.T. Press) that says

"Up to a breathing rate of 0.67 ml/sec (40 l/min), people tend to breathe through the nose ... Above this rate, the resistance to flow of even a healthy nose becomes penalizing, and mouth breathing is substituted. For a normally healthy individual riding on the level in still air on a lightweight bicycle, this limiting rate for nasal breathing is reached at about 14 mph."

That implies to me that really hard effort, like climbing a steep hill at a moderate speed, necessitates mouth breathing. I could be wrong though ...it has been known to happen