To employ beamforming to increase signaling distances, one wireless device trains a beamformer using a signal being received from another wireless device. The trained beamformer can then communicate with the other device via a signal beam until channel conditions change. In example implementations, a base station (BS) reserves an air interface resource unit for beamformer training in conjunction with allocating an air interface resource unit for downlink data. The BS transmits a downlink control channel communication to a user equipment (UE) with a downlink data grant indicative of the allocated resource unit. During the reserved resource unit, the UE transmits an uplink tracking communication, which can include a pilot signal, to the BS for beamform training. The BS then uses the freshly trained beamformer to transmit the downlink data as a downlink data channel communication via a downlink beam during the allocated resource unit.