Hiya
I'm not a natural climber, and my husband is, so I've had to look for every trick in the book to get up our Scottish mountains. I have the opposite problem, in that my legs give out before my lungs, but here's a few tips that have helped me...
- count your breaths. It helps to make you think about it, breathe more deeply, and if you think, 'I'll see where I get to after 25 breaths' you'll forget about your legs and concentrate on your lungs. It helps me anyway.
-use all your gears; that is what they're there for. Otherwise, they're just extra weight
-Alternate standing and sitting on a road bike, but the key is to change before you're shattered. It helps to change the muscle groups you're using, and to stop you crouching over the handlebars as you get tired. Standing for a few strokes really open out your lungs and strecthes your muscles.
- When it's a long hard drag and I'm really suffering, I think about a bigger push with every third pedal stroke. So its, LEFT, right left, RIGHT left right, and so on, if that makes sense. It just lets the lactic out a bit, and also gives you something else to think about.
- most important, eat enough. I found out on my first really long ride that one granola bar does not get you 100 miles. Eat before, eat early in your ride (before you get hungry), and keep eating. If you can't stomach it, a carbo drink will do, but get stuff you mix yourself so you can up the concentration if you need to.
happy hills!