My latest experiment: Cold Tolerance

Hi.

As some of you may know, I have a hard time racing in cold conditions. This might sound crazy as a winter sport athlete, but as you can probably imagine, there is a range of experience between racing in 40 degree springtime slush versus -4 degree early season styrofoam. I tend to struggle below 10 degrees, and really thrive above 30. Almost all of my best races have occurred in relatively warm weather. 

Letting my eyes thaw after a cold race

When I get too cold in a race, I commonly experience my feet or hands going numb, my face going numb, my eyes going blurry, and my body feeling stiff with no ability to “push.” 

Some googling backed up this experience, and informed me that when getting cold in a race, the body experiences “reduced blood flow, slower muscle and enzymatic processes, and increased energy expenditure which can lead to muscle fatigue, poor coordination, a higher reliance on anaerobic energy production, and an increased risk of "bonking" (running out of energy) earlier than usual.”  This is exactly what happened to me during my Birkie 2024.

These processes are obviously the exact opposite of what I want, so I have gone to some lengths to address them. 

Warming up for a cold race

I have tried:

Covering all exposed skin in vaseline or Warm Skin cream, wearing mittens, wearing hats, wearing both a headband and a hat, wearing wind blocking layers on my core and legs, wearing wool, wearing synthetic materials, layering wool and synthetic layers, layering wool on wool or synthetic on synthetic, wearing toe warmers and boot covers, wearing full coverage ski goggles instead of glasses, warming up indoors before racing, warming up in a puffy jacket, wearing an Airtrim mask, eating and drinking more in cold weather, drinking beet juice for vasodilation, avoiding cold racing altogether.

These things all work, to a certain extent. But they don’t fully solve the problem. I still find myself feeling like a brick with no range of motion when I wear so many layers and bulky accessories, I still feel my face go numb and lungs become irritated, and I feel distracted from reaching a flow state when I have so many extra things on my mind. 

Yes, I ended up throwing the goggles and mask off during the race because they drove me crazy

I don’t know how it took me so long to realize this, but I recently decided I need to physically increase my cold tolerance. 

That means training my body to be more able to tolerate cold on a cellular level, without needing 100 articles of clothing. I believe this might work because it seems to follow the logical reasoning of ski training: adding manageable stress to the body provokes adaptation, so that the body can be better at handling that stress next time it arises. 

Hypothesis: I have made myself cold-intolerant by constantly wearing warm layers, laying under cozy blankets, and avoiding cold.

Science: Brown adipose tissue (BAT), or "brown fat", is a type of body fat that plays a role in regulating body temperature and burning calories. It is a deep tissue that cannot be observed by looking at someone. BAT is good, helping to generate heat and regulate blood sugar. It also has anti-inflammatory properties. Cold exposure can increase BAT levels and activation.

Plan: Force my body to adapt to the cold by intermittently pushing my comfort zone.

Actions: End showers with 2 minutes of cold water. Jump into cold bodies of water. Wear fewer layers around the house. Go on short walks in the cold without a jacket. Don’t be cozy under a blanket all day long. And finally, start ski training sessions wearing fewer layers :( 

busted - this was a hot spring. But next time I'll go in a cold spring

I am a strong-willed over-dresser but that era is over. 

I am not looking forward to this but hopefully it will make me less cold. Check back into the blog in December for results and wish me luck.  I'm starting now to hopefully be ready by winter.

Thanks for reading and feel free to join me in this challenge if you dare. 

-Renae