Recently my pain cave has ranged in temperature from about 3 to 10 degrees Celsius (with a kerosene heater on full blast) and its doing a number on my throat. Are there any tricks to mitigate the effects of breathing in a lot of cold air? Sore throat spray helps, but it’s just a Band-Aid solution.
Many xc skiers and runners use heat exchange masks when training in the cold.
Maybe that is one way to go? I know a popular brand here in Sweden is Airtrim
I’ve never heard of anyone using one in temps above freezing, maybe the kerosene heater is part of the problem?
For me sore throat often is a sign of high training load / exhaustion. Irregardless of outside temperature.
3 Likes
Doing TTs and crits in cold weather did the same thing a few months ago. A heat exchange mask would be…slight overkill.
I have done very little training recently, but racing in the cold did the same thing a few months ago.
I’m training in a garage just now. This year thought I don’t think it has fallen below 9deg. It has in the past. I go with a cheap but warm base layer on top that I take off once Ive warmed up. I embrace the initial chill as I know in 5mins time I won’t feel it and in 10-20 minutes time I will be crying out for it to be colder 
In the past when it has been colder or in the middle of my chemo when I did feel cold, I also wore a cycling cap which I could again take of easily.
I’ll echo the sentiment of ditching the Kerosene heater. I’m in a similar situation with a less than ideal workout space, in that I’m currently building our shipping container house, and so I’ve got a few of them sitting on the property, and one is serving as my “pain cave” for the time being. It’s been in the teens Fahrenheit( so -7c to -20c) most nights and into the early morning. I was heating the container for a bit, with kerosene at first, and then eventually with a propane heater. The kerosene certainly puts off more of an odor, and with that, I assume more fumes/toxins. The propane burns a lot cleaner, but still I’ll usually pre-heat the room up to about 35f/2c before I head out there and then turn it off and open the windows for fresh air. If I continue to run the heater, or don’t open the windows, the lack of o2 is very evident in my heart rate and perceived exertion. Needless to say, I have yet to need a fan for any workouts…
1 Like
My feet go numb from the cold even with shoe covers with the heater on. Otherwise I wouldn’t mind riding in 0-1 degrees with warm clothes.
I’m not overtrained. I haven’t done any serious bike training in months.
I’m still having this problem, but even worse this winter… since I caught an actual cold.
One thing that has always helped me is making sure my throat is covered by one of those neck gaiters and if it’s really cold out I cover my mouth with the neck gaiter. It’s what I use when going snowboarding to prevent that weird sore throat feeling. That’s just my two cents.
I am thinking the actual issue was (and is) a lack of humidifiers, not only while training, but basically all day, and especially at night.