Do you find it more difficult/tiring/hard to cycle in relatively cold weather?

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Do you find it more difficult/tiring/hard to cycle in relatively cold weather?

59 posts & 31 voices | Started 2 years ago by topper | Latest reply from simonfbarnes

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topper - Member

My daily commute from SE15 to W8 is a 25-30 min ride depending on traffic and how lively i'm feeling. I find that when the temperature falls fairly low ie to around 1-2 degree C, i find it much harder to maintain the same pace and feel much more tired immediately after completing the journey. I don't perceive this increase in difficulty to be linear with decrease in temperature, it just seems to get harder for me to work as hard approaching 1- 2deg.

Being somewhat scientifically minded, i have tried to rationalise this effect but can't really. If anything, i can only think that it should get easier to cycle as temperature drops (to a limit). My clothing feels thermally efficient, ie it keeps me warm but i don't get overheated.

Any ideas from the sports scientists or anyone?

Topper

Any explanations?

Posted 2 years ago #
cp - Member

yep, i get the same. i wonder if it's to do with the cold air going into your lungs reducing oxygen uptake or something. my body generally slows up in winter. road rides are about 15 mins faster in summer over 2 hours than in winter.

Posted 2 years ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

no

Posted 2 years ago #
coffeeking - Member

I find the ice enough of a problem to simply resort to using the car. But I don't find riding any more of a chore due to the cold, at the most you may lose a little more heat through your head etc but not enough to account for performance loss. Probably purely psychological.

Posted 2 years ago #
tracknicko - Member

YES. minus 2 in the peak this morn. just the cold nipping your hands and toes can be enough to put you off your rythym. for me performance is at least 30% mental, as soon as you factor in 'oh im abit cold etc etc' it starts dropping off quickly.

Posted 2 years ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

it encourages me to pedal harder to keep warm

Posted 2 years ago #
stumpyjon - Member

Seen the same thing, seem to have more joint aches when it's cold too. I think the biggest problem is when the cold gets into your muscles. completely saps your strength.

Posted 2 years ago #
DaRC_L - Member

Yep I definitely run better when it's hot; as long as I'm taking in enough fluids.
The cold weather just seems to slow my muscles down.

Posted 2 years ago #
IanMunro - Member

Yep, for me the clothing feels a bit more restrictive, which I wouldn't have thought would make much difference, but seems to for me. Maybe the difference in proprioception causes the muscles to fire differently?

Posted 2 years ago #
Mostly Balanced - Member

You're probably not wearing enough to get or stay properly warmed up.

In cold weather I can ride at a steady, comfortable pace without sweating or feeling unduly cold but if I'm anywhere near race pace I'll get very warm indeed under my kit and usually have to remove a layer after I've warmed up. I find winter hardest to maintain a comfortable temperature when riding hard because wearing all the kit needed to stay warm stops the sweat from doing it's job of cooling me down.

Posted 2 years ago #
uplink - Member

It's definitely easier to control your heart rate when it's a bit colder
so you should be able to perform better

Posted 2 years ago #
Pook - Member

http://www.snowbikers.com/articles/cold_air.html

Posted 2 years ago #
Keva - Member

nope, love riding in the frosty cold. If anything heat and humidity seems to sap my energy.

Posted 2 years ago #
samuri - Member

isn't there more oxygen in cold air? Cars run with more power when the air is cold, and so should you.

Posted 2 years ago #
DaRC_L - Member

Well I've always known that somewhere in the deepest recesses of my psyche I'm a lizard...possibly a Squamata Loungeius.
I need sunshine and warmth to move properly whether there's more oxygen in the air or not.

Posted 2 years ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

I think the biggest problem is when the cold gets into your muscles

ie you are dead

isn't there more oxygen in cold air? Cars run with more power when the air is cold, and so should you.

not exactly, but the same volume of air contains more stuff (oxygen & nitrogen etc) as the temperature gets lower

Posted 2 years ago #
Mostly Balanced - Member

Keva - Member
nope, love riding in the frosty cold. If anything heat and humidity seems to sap my energy.

Heat and humidity gets me really fired up to ride hard. Just shows we're all different despite being built to pretty much the same design.
I'll confess to taking it steady the morning I had to ride 35 miles in 40+C on a Greek holiday.

Posted 2 years ago #
mtbfix - Member

Smoke a nice warming fag as you ride. The warm smoke will counter act the chill on your lungs.

Posted 2 years ago #
The Southern Yeti - Member

No. I'll be plenty warm enough after 5 mins on the bike even if I start out in subzero temperatures. MTFU.

Posted 2 years ago #
joemarshall - Member

Overall in winter I'm slower generally. Possible reasons:

More air resistance, both because it is colder and air is more dense, and also because you tend to wear more and bulkier clothes.

Higher winds (even if you get a tailwind one way, you are still less efficient overall).

Supposedly you use more energy in the cold, due to energy used to keep yourself warm or something. Although some studies claim that this isn't an issue for people exercising very hard, only for moderate/light exercise - depends how hard you commute.

Traffic goes slower so you spend more energy stopping and starting while you wait for cars to get out of your way.

More rain - again makes you slower.

More riding in darkness, so you hold back a bit more on the big descents - I know I have one descent I can happily hit >60km/h on in the light, but in the dark I get up to 45-50 (maybe less of an issue in London commutes!).

Joe

Posted 2 years ago #
molgrips - Member

Try warmer leggings - really warm. I noticed that it really helps. I was perfectly comfortable in my normal tights and one day went out overdressed and my legs actually felt really warm - and it really helped my riding actually. I think it's easy not to notice that your legs are under temperature.

I picked up a really cheap pair of merino leggings in a size too big that are nice and thin but warm. I just washed them on too hot a wash and they shrunk down to my size perfectly

Posted 2 years ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

it's easy not to notice that your legs are under temperature.

perhaps because they aren't ? Your skin may be cold, but underneath your muscles are pumping out 4 times more power in heat than the mechanical power of pedalling

Posted 2 years ago #
Karinofnine - Member

I'm so glad you said that. I feel the same, I thought I was losing it. Sometimes when it's cold I feel like I am slogging away and getting nowhere. I still love it, but feel as if I am going really slowly. None of this is scientific, by the way, so I might just feel slow. Also if I get really cold on the last bit of the ride home (because it's warmer in town than it is out here) I feel really sleepy when I get in.

Posted 2 years ago #
iDave - Member

the riding bit is fine, its the excess clothing required and shitty end result which I despise.

Posted 2 years ago #
Karinofnine - Member

Yes, it is a major pain in the butt pulling on all those layers - and my poor commuting bike gets a real kicking in the winter

Posted 2 years ago #
Junkyard - Member

Think slower due to the road conditions meaning it would be very unwise to go at full speed. Not sure temp per se has any effect but on wet cold and icy conditions I am not going at full sppeed round corners so I am slower. Motivation is no problem I have no car so I have no choice

Posted 2 years ago #
bigyinn - Member

Perhaps its because the body concentrates the blood away from the extermities to maintain your core temp. Thus there is less blood being shoved around you limbs, hence less oxygen reaching your muscles? (This could be complete tosh, but hey ho).

Posted 2 years ago #
AndyP - Member

2 things
1) only more difficult because traction is a bit compromised on ice and snow. Otherwise no.
2) Squamata Loungeius. Binominal nomenclature FAIL. Small 'l' required.

Posted 2 years ago #
molgrips - Member

Your skin may be cold, but underneath your muscles are pumping out 4 times more power in heat than the mechanical power of pedalling

No - if my skin were cold I'd feel it... what Bigyinn said.

AndyP - the word is taxonomical. Language FAIL

Posted 2 years ago #
AndyP - Member

I'll allow you to rethink that one. FAIL FAIL.

Posted 2 years ago #
D0NK - Member

Hmm, dunno about slower (apart from slippy conditions obviously) but I've been taking a lot longer to recover from hard rides in the last few weeks. Not noticed it before but this has been the coldest jan in 20 yrs. So does cold affect recovery or did I really over do it on food and booze this christmas?

Posted 2 years ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

the body concentrates the blood away from the extermities to maintain your core temp

and how this works is the capillaries in the skin contract. The arteries feeding your major muscles do not. When you're pedalling with any enthusiasm your leg muscles will be generating more heat than the whole of the rest of your body and your blood will be preventing them from overheating by carrying the heat away...

Posted 2 years ago #
alpine girl - Member

I find it a lot harder riding in the winter - I did my normal "quick" loop (about an hour) yesterday in -10°C, and although it only took 10 minutes more than normal I was totally exhausted for the rest of the day.

I think it's a combination of the reduction in fitness over winter and the cold sapping the energy. No matter how hard I work my skin is still freezing to the touch and the "well-padded" bits of my body need hours to get back up to normal temperature afterward unless I take a bath.

Posted 2 years ago #
DaRC_L - Member

re: binominal/taxonomical I'm glad to see the STW pedants are still revolting.

Posted 2 years ago #
AndyP - Member

re: binominal/taxonomical I'm glad to see the STW pedants are still revolting.
well it's important. Two very different things. It certainly was a taxonomy fail but it was in jest therefore he can probably get away with it. But the capitalisation of Loungeius was inexcusable.

Posted 2 years ago #
molgrips - Member

I'll allow you to rethink that one. FAIL FAIL.

No.. FAIL FAIL FAIL yourself.

and how this works is the capillaries in the skin contract. The arteries feeding your major muscles do not. When you're pedalling with any enthusiasm your leg muscles will be generating more heat than the whole of the rest of your body and your blood will be preventing them from overheating by carrying the heat away...

Not sure I agree there mate. Your limbs are often colder than your core body, and their temperatures fluctuate depending, although your core doesn't (much, else you die). It was on this TV programme I watched.

I did suggest that the OP try extra layers. I invite you all to do so. Try a nice warm pair of under-tights.. it definitely helps me.. but then according to the folk on here I'm a deluded impressionable unscientific simpleton who is entirely influenced by marketing, heresay, romantic ideas and the placebo effect...

Posted 2 years ago #
simonfbarnes - Member

Your limbs are often colder than your core body

how would you know ? The temperature sensors are on your skin, out where it matters. Inside your limbs, everything is bathed in blood at 38C (try cutting yourself anywhere if you don't believe me). If you're pedalling at say 200W power, your leg muscles will be putting out another 800W of heat, ie 8 times your rest metabolic rate, and your blood will distribute that heat over the surface of your body to prevent overheating

Posted 2 years ago #
jonb - Member

I find it harder but I imagine it's down to wearing more clothes. A buff round the neck and head, and extra layers on your top half while wearing longs is bound to be harder. More restriction to your movement comared to simple shorts and T shirt. I imagine there's a large phsycological part to it as well, even in summer I feel faster on sunny compared to cloudy days.

Posted 2 years ago #
scaredypants - Member

people ride in winter ?

Posted 2 years ago #
MoreCashThanDash - Member

I'm glad someone else raised this question - I've always wondered if it really got harder to ride in the winter or if it was just me, been through the clothing/weather/temperatire affecting air pressure/resistance scenarios in my head.

At least I'm not alone with this issue. I will sleep easier tonight.

Posted 2 years ago #

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