today I got quite cold between two sets of intervals. I did a 20m effort up a climb during which it started to rain quite heavily. Once I rolled down the climb to repeat the effort I got cold (wind-chill-effect). I could not complete the second intervall, even though I felt fine during the first one. Also the feeling once I tried to repeat the effort was weird. I was not ‘to exausted’, it just felt impossible. I was adequatley and fueld and rested for the ride.
Zone 2 riding despite being cold felt okay. But anything more than that felt weird. How is your expierence with impaired performance while being cold?
When I get cold on longer Zone 2 the main effect I useually notice ist that I feel more fatigued afterwards then I would feel if I had not been cold. But I can usually sustain a Zone 2 effort even when I got wet and a bit cold. I assume that is because the body is working more to sustain a regular core temperature? Can the underperformance for HIT-efforts whilst feeling cold be explained similarly? Maybe also by a lack of blood in the legs?
I am curious about your expierences.
Ferris
PS: Please notice that I am not generally talking about performance in cold whether, but performance while being cold due to inadequate planing, heavy rain etc.
The body prioritizes energy usage with priorities.
Core temperature is a high priority because it can be life threatening. To keep your core warm, your body will expand blood vessels that serve your core and restrict the blood vessels that serve peripheral limbs because those are the ones that dissipate the most heat. Reducing blood stream to those peripherals is a way to conserve heat and protect your core from undercooling. It’s sort of ‘better loose an arm/leg then to die’…
Since less blood is going to the peripherals, there’s less oxygen available for the muscles to burn energy sources.
If you are soaking wet, better take of your shirt and squeeze it dry as best as possible. Then ride at an intensity that feels a bit high but still comfortable and try to get warm again. Don’t try to do any real effort before feeling warm again.
Hello
I am living in Quebec. Winter is more often indoor than outdoor, but when I can, I go outside. I did ride at -29C in fat bike so effort wasn’t that much in power beast mode. I do road bike ride rarely below -10C under -10C if you add the wind this could be dangerous for any part of skin exposed. I agree Zone 2 is the Zone to be, just to control the body temp, if you start sweating to much with the cold this isn’t good.
NOTA: at -29C the wind was quite strong, it was a -39C with windshield, I almost lost the tip of my finger with frost bite. but that was a great ride