Freezer Burn

Temperatures have just dropped down into the teens for lows, and the sun cannot pierce the opaline skies most mornings. Winter riding has started again, and the sensations forgotten in the intervening months have been reaffirmed -- painfully cold fingers, frigid feet, the icy nose, a frozen mouth, and a chapped face. Most importantly, these first few rides in the subfreezing weather have revived another set of memories -- that cold weather makes breathing and pedaling more difficult.

Air actually becomes thicker and heavier in cold weather. It is, after all, its new proximity to stasis that creates cold. Water is more condensed in cold air, air that is not as available to the lungs immediately as warm air. This makes breathing on colder rides a bit more of an effort. In addition, the energy needed to continually warm the cold air leads to extra depletion, not to mention the most obvious side-effect, the increased production of mucous to compensate for the cold.

Evaporation in the cold can be deceptive, and it's easy to think you don't need a bottle of energy drink along. After all, how much sweating will you do in 20F weather? But the extra evaporation from your lungs in the cold air, along with the mucous production, can combine to deplete as much water as a heavy sweat, especially when you realize that you are also sweating, but at a lower level and with less of a sensation of sweatiness.

Rides also get shorter in the flash-freeze. There is the first psychological barrier to get over (damn, it's COLD out there!), and if the wind is also blowing, you may just choose the indoor trainer and a grainy old Spinervals instead. But the extra effort, dicey roads, unpleasant sensations (cold feet are among my least favorite things), and limited daylight combine to truncate rides. And the intensity is harder to maintain, even on shorter rides, as cold keeps your own molecular activity on the slower side.

Yet, there is a burn to a winter ride, and the feeling afterward can be sensational. In addition to the pleasant feeling of being outside, in the weak sunlight and biting air, there is the fact that, happily, all this culminates in a hot post-ride shower, after which toes are pink and warm again, fingers move effortlessly, and speech is once again fully articulated. Savoring the reassuring pain of frozen fingers and toes straining back to temperature is what the wrap-up is all about. Then, warm, fit, and relaxed, you glide back into the day, and realize that you have been fully a part of two worlds -- the frozen natural world, and the world of manufactured warmth humans huddle inside these dark months. And, soon, you're ready to go again . . .