Exercise physiology question

[verbs4us]

Yesterday in central Massachusetts I head out for a nice run in the zero-degree air. Did my usual hour or so at a comfortable pace, despite wind chill warnings. That evening, I crashed at 9 pm and felt like I had run a marathon. Through the day plenty of hydration and food, the usual recovery regimen. Anyone know the ballpark calcs the correlate effort and temperature, to explain why my modest 8-miler felt like a marathon? I don’t know how you control for clothing. Maybe assume you’re insulated enough not to feel a chill.

[dogdriver]

I'll bet that you meant to put this in another category... but:

I'm no expert, but train in varying climates/altitudes, etc (travel a good bit with the day job). Excessive weather/climate (in your case, cold temperature) puts a tremendous strain on your body. I'll bet that you cooked through a ton of calories just staying warm, both due the outside temp on your body and warming the air you were breathing... As an aside, I live in a dry climate but feel wiped out after a relatively humble event in humid air.

[Bruce K]

Put this in GD

You probably won’t get much help in the Classifieds

BK

[thwart]

Yesterday in central Massachusetts I head out for a nice run in the zero-degree air. Did my usual hour or so at a comfortable pace, despite wind chill warnings. That evening, I crashed at 9 pm and felt like I had run a marathon. Through the day plenty of hydration and food, the usual recovery regimen. Anyone know the ballpark calcs the correlate effort and temperature, to explain why my modest 8-miler felt like a marathon? I don’t know how you control for clothing. Maybe assume you’re insulated enough not to feel a chill.

Methinks you've answered your own question.

[SuperColnago]

Yep all I know as a winter commuter, 10 km in really cold weather drains you, as said you expend a lot of energy trying to survive...
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r116/GoHabs1/garmincCold_zpsgcn6mjnc.jpg

[berserk87]

Yep all I know as a winter commuter, 10 km in really cold weather drains you, as said you expend a lot of energy trying to survive...
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r116/GoHabs1/garmincCold_zpsgcn6mjnc.jpg

Now that's a tough dude (about -13F)! Makes me not feel as nuts when I go out in single digits.

[mattnes17]

Extremely cold air is harder for your body to breathe. Your sinuses help warm and humidify the cold air, but sometimes the below zero temps make getting enough oxygen tough and result in more fatigue.

XC skiers wear on of these around their necks and pop it in when necessary to keep warm/humid air flowing in:
http://lungplususa.com/

[NHAero]

I rode 20 miles yesterday at 10F and I was definitely more wiped than I would normally be on the same ride.

[velofinds]

Extremely cold air is harder for your body to breathe. Your sinuses help warm and humidify the cold air, but sometimes the below zero temps make getting enough oxygen tough and result in more fatigue.

Theoretically speaking, could this be used as a training tool (like training at altitude, let's say)? In other words, the body will adapt (or will it not?) to riding in cold temps and therefore become more efficient in warmer temps?

[PQJ]

FWIW, I did 20 miles on the bike yesterday morning with air temp at around 18F and wind chill 5 or 10 below that. Post ride, it felt like I'd done more than an "easy 20."

[jemoryl]

I've often wondered about this when just out walking around in the cold. Your body must need to burn extra calories just to maintain a constant temperature, especially considering all the cold air that is being inhaled just to breathe. Does anyone know of an actual scientific study on just how much more energy is burned?

[verbs4us]

I've often wondered about this when just out walking around in the cold. Your body must need to burn extra calories just to maintain a constant temperature, especially considering all the cold air that is being inhaled just to breathe. Does anyone know of an actual scientific study on just how much more energy is burned?

A semi-answer to this question. Years ago I worked on a medical magazine and wrote a piece on asthma and winter sports. There were some studies (this was the 1980s, so take that under advisement) by the US Army Cold Environment Lab (Natick, Mass) that showed ambient air temps down to zero deg F reached to the 80s by the time the air got to the vocal chords and presumably warmer by the time it reached the bronchial tree. Specific heat for dry air is low, so it can warm fast, esp when breathing through the nose. Moral of the story was that you are not really doing that much work to warm inhaled air, esp if you can breath through your nose You are doing a lot more work to keep skin and muscle temps in the working range.

[zap]

Theoretically speaking, could this be used as a training tool (like training at altitude, let's say)? In other words, the body will adapt (or will it not?) to riding in cold temps and therefore become more efficient in warmer temps?

Your body will adapt to the conditions. Becoming more efficient riding in warmer conditions means living and riding in warmer conditions. Some fast CAT's head south in February/March.

[jemoryl]

A semi-answer to this question. Years ago I worked on a medical magazine and wrote a piece on asthma and winter sports. There were some studies (this was the 1980s, so take that under advisement) by the US Army Cold Environment Lab (Natick, Mass) that showed ambient air temps down to zero deg F reached to the 80s by the time the air got to the vocal chords and presumably warmer by the time it reached the bronchial tree. Specific heat for dry air is low, so it can warm fast, esp when breathing through the nose. Moral of the story was that you are not really doing that much work to warm inhaled air, esp if you can breath through your nose You are doing a lot more work to keep skin and muscle temps in the working range.

That's interesting. But about your last sentence: usually one tries to keep most of our skin covered by warm clothing, whereas you are constantly causing cold air to come directly in contact with tissues via breathing. I'm just wondering what is the total change in calories burned, simply by being outside in the cold, whatever the activity.

[velofinds]

That's interesting. But about your last sentence: usually one tries to keep most of our skin covered by warm clothing, whereas you are constantly causing cold air to come directly in contact with tissues via breathing. I'm just wondering what is the total change in calories burned, simply by being outside in the cold, whatever the activity.

It's my understanding that the difference in caloric expenditure is minimal to nonexistent; it's only when one is cold to the point of shivering that the body kicks into overdrive and burns more calories in an effort to stay warm.

[BigDaddySmooth]

How would you have felt if you ran 8 miles in 1 hour in 95 degrees and 80% humidity? You overworked yourself.:no:

[giverdada]

So that's like 4:39ish for an hour. Sounds quick for me. I think a lot of it has to do with your own 'fitness' and fitness factors rather than other stuff. And I think you were burning a lot to keep warm, even though you were dressed for the weather. So maybe you cooked yourself, feeling like you weren't working that hard because it was just cold and your HR didn't go super high to make you feel like you were working (because it was cold), so you ran faster, burned more calories, and then underrecovered as a result of not feeling like you had worked harder than usual.

In my experience, colder weather seems to keep my heart rate lower, all other things, like effort and cadence and whatever else, the same. I ran the Toronto marathon a couple years ago in May, and it was cold (just above freezing) and windy and terrible, and I missed my goal time by minutes, but I looked at my HR data afterwards, and it was striking. My heart rate was 10bpm LOWER than any average HR for any marathon before that one. Same steps per minute. Same watch and strap. Same me. 10bpm lower HR. I figured it must have been the cold weather.

What does this have to do with your run? Maybe lower temperatures mean lower HR (for some people, like me) so you go harder thinking that you're not going harder because your HR hasn't gone up. Maybe. Maybe you forgot to eat or drink because it was so damn cold you couldn't pop a gel or pee if you wanted to. I hope you recover well though. Maybe a beer or two is in order...

[Ti Designs]

It's my understanding that the difference in caloric expenditure is minimal to nonexistent; it's only when one is cold to the point of shivering that the body kicks into overdrive and burns more calories in an effort to stay warm.

Hard to imagine that's not the case in very cold temps... I rode for 4 hours on New Years day (waffles were 2 hours away by bike). It was 4F when I left my house, and then it got cold. On rides in the 20's I feel cold when I leave the house, but I warm up as I ride. On this ride I could feel the cold the whole time, it's a disturbing feeling that your body is losing more heat than you're generating, so it's not going to last that long before you're really in trouble. Two hours after I had gotten home my body temp was still a degree low, and the act of moving wood from the wood pile into the wood stove was a real effort.

As much as we would like to think of ourselves as tough, we're really not.

[unterhausen]

It's my understanding that the difference in caloric expenditure is minimal to nonexistent; it's only when one is cold to the point of shivering that the body kicks into overdrive and burns more calories in an effort to stay warm.

you just ruined my theory that I lose weight riding in the cold. Oh well.

Maybe the OP has a mild case of asthma. Cold weather really beats me up because of that. Last month I did 100km in 20F temps and my inhaler was barely working. I felt like my legs were going to fall off.

[93KgBike]

I had the same issue winter commuting about a decade ago. Just destroyed after regular 30 mile commutes in sub-zero weather, at modest paces, and I developed a dry raspy cough. The short story is, very cold air and pollution was noticeably hurting my lung tissue. My PCP recommended a balaclava. Worked out great. I bought a merino wool one, however, as the neoprene unit I started with was not hygienic after 2-3 rides.

It is also unhealthier to exercise on heavily car-trafficked routes.

Exposure to PNC and offensive odour, and nasopharyngeal irritation, can be significantly lowered when utilising a route of lower proximity to motorised traffic whilst bicycle commuting, without significantly affecting commute distance or duration. This may bring health benefits for both healthy and susceptible individuals. (https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1476-069X-12-29)

[jimcav]

I ran year round in Indiana growing up, then DC area for 8 years, then on the border of IL and WI on lake Michigan. I'd say if you were used to running in the cold, then it was simply the windchill and not being dressed for it. My experience was you had to be very cold for that "empty mile", which in winter for me was probably 10-15 minutes, and then, if dressed right you'd warm up and be fine. Hard wind makes that tough as one direction you overheat a bit and then going into it, that sweat gets you chilled. My other experience is that such runs really highlighted if I wasn't 100%--i.e. cold and flu season--I might only be very mildly sick, but it made a difference and sometimes it was the run that made me realize I had a touch of something.