One thing my instructor advised me was to do sprint training. The reason he suggested this was to get my body and lungs used to using sudden bursts of energy and taking in oxygen etc. One exercise he suggested to do this (taking into account I run almost daily) was to run as normal but every other lamp post sprint instead of jog. Obviously there's also skipping, and this is also a reason why we do ten second bursts of jogging on the spot during our warm ups.
when it's not too hot out,i always carry my wet rag & water bottle.i'm light asthmatic so i also carry my inhaler.