Well, this past week Iโve just finished shovelling white fluffy stuff that some joker laid down on my driveway. Danged kids. Anyway, it seems like a good time to go over some rules concerning exercising outdoors in the cold and also indoors on the trainerโฆ
How Cold is Too Cold?
Thereโs a train of thought out there that thereโs no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. Iโm usually in agreement with that sentiment, but that kind of rhetoric is often spouted by people living in places where 7ยฐC and having to wear arm warmers is considered an ice age. Growing up in Vancouver and now living in southern Ontario, Iโve gotten more than my fair share of nasty cold rain, deep snow, and severe wind chill. When itโs too cold, thereโs simply no point in fighting the elements, because thereโs a fine line to play between building toughness and getting sick.
But within reason, exercising outdoors even in the extreme cold is both doable and maybe even enjoyable, as Andy Hampsten discovered on the Gavia in the 1998 Giro. Besides tales to tell your grandkids, it gets us away from that dreaded trainer.
Psychologists studying Seasonal Affective Disorder consistently urge getting outside to avoid the depression that comes from shutting ourselves indoors in the winter, so letโs hit the great outdoors armed with some common sense!
The Iceman Cometh
My research focuses on extreme heat and also extreme cold, so half the time Iโm freezing my poor participants in the lab. And like clockwork, every winter the media calls me up to comment on the latest case of somebody suffering or dying from severe hypothermia. If you donโt want to be a subject of mine, here are some guidelines to consider when exercising out in the cold.
Breathing the Cold Air
A very nice study back in the early 1980s demonstrated that there is minimal to no negative effects from inhaling very cold air during exercise (1), as the nasal passage and the airways are very effective at warming up the air before it reaches the lungs. So if it is cold and dry, there are no problems with going out cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or cycling as long as you dress appropriately and bring enough food and drinks with you.
Cold dry air can be a trigger for asthma and also exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. If you are prone to either, one thing to try is to warm up indoors and get your respiratory system adjusted to higher ventilation in warm and humidified air before giving it the double dose of cold/dry and high ventilation. A mask or a buff can also slow down the rate of cold air going into your airways.
Blowing in the Wind
Wind chill is the big risk when exercising in the winter, because wind greatly increases the rate of heat loss from your skin and the risk for frostnip and frostbite (2). Consider ditching the road bike, which is generally on exposed roads, and build up a mountain bike for ice/snow biking that gets you into tree-covered trails. My favourite winter activities are snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, which gets me out into the trails and gives me great cross-training benefitsย for both the cardiovascular system and the legs.
When itโs cold, the real limiters for me are my hands and feet. I canโt believe it took me 35 years of cycling before I got myself a set of Bar Mitts โ big neoprene โpogiesโ that form a hood over your hoods and handlebars. Thatโs greatly extended the temperature range that I can handle.
For my feet, I generally stick with one pair of thick merino wool socks paired with a specific winter MTB shoe. On the rare occasions when I ride my road bike in the winter, I go with MTB pedals and winter shoes in case I get stuck needing to walk.
But honestly, why would I ride my road bike when I can ride my gravel bike with fatter and grippier tires in uncertain winter conditions? My gravel bike also has tubeless tires rather than the tubed clinchers on my road bike, greatly decreasing the odds of me stuck by the side of the road fixing a flat with frozen fingers. And the heavier slower gravel bike means less wind chill.
Water and Sweat
Be extremely careful when itโs cold and raining or when you are near water. Water conducts heat 25 times as fast as air (thatโs why a 15ยฐC room is not too bad but a 15ยฐC pool is brutal), greatly increasing your risk of hypothermia. If itโs a cold and wet day, consider doing something indoors instead, or make sure you have excellent rain gear. When itโs cold and wet, also try to keep stops or rest breaks to a minimum, as the act of exercising is generating a lot of valuable heat to keep you warm.
Make sure you wear quality winter underclothing that is going to wick the sweat away from your body, because the trapped sweat is also going to cool you down rapidly. With the advances in clothing technology, thereโs almost no excuse for going out unprepared.
Layering definitely does work. Each individual layer acts as a barrier to wind, and the sum of a few layers is usually greater than one single layer of the same overall insulation. Layering also lets you customise the degree of ventilation during exercise.
Last but not least, listen to your mom and wear a hat under your helmet, especially with all the super-ventilating helmets out on the market. Itโs not that you lose disproportionately a lot more heat from the head area, but simple logic says that if you have exposed skin itโs going to be a site for heat loss. I wonโt name and shame, but I have a โsummerโ helmet thatโs so poorly ventilated that I keep it specifically for winter riding. And when it gets really cold, I swap to my snowboarding helmet.
So get out there and imagine youโre Andy!
References
1. Hartung GH, Myhre LG, and Nunneley SA. Physiological effects of cold air inhalation during exercise. Aviat Space Environ Med 51: 591-594, 1980.
2. Noakes TD. Exercise and the cold. Ergonomics 43: 1461-1479, 2000.
The post Training in the Cold appeared first on PezCycling News.
