How to train with Raynaud's

Training
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I have Raynaud’s, and also sweat a lot. I train in my garage in the winter on my trainer. My issue is I am sweating but my hands and feet are cold. Any advice, especially from others that have Raynaud’s

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My wife suffers with Raynaud’s too and really struggles in winter.

Apparently the best way to avoid it is to reduce the chance being exposed to a sudden drop in temperature. Although that is much easier said than done.

I know you can buy special gloves/socks lined with silver which review well and my wife has used handwarmers in the past.

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Two pairs of socks and overshoes in winter works for me, also fleece gloves keep my hands OK

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I have Reynaud’s and did a 1:45 ride outside yesterday with 16 mph winds and 27F. I wore XXL lobster gloves and poly glove liners. For my feet, I had thin wool socks (shoes too tight for thicker) and OP shoe covers. I had on shorts thick, windscreen bib tights, a shirt sleeve short, poly long sleeve shirt, windproof jacket and a beanie.

The tips of my fingers were cold/numb for the first 20-30, but were ok after that. Toes kept getting colder and colder. By the end, fingers were ok, toes had no feeling. When I got inside, Reynaud’s kicked in big time. All fingers pure white as were my toes. The foot pads and my heels were the same. It took quute a white for things to come back. I finally put on my Prolotex Reynaud’s gloves as my hands just weren’t warming up.

I plan to get a pair of half size larger shoes so I can wear thicker socks. You might try the same. Winter gloves until your hands warm up initially might also help. For my next cold ride, I want to try getting my nike and gear setup inside where it is warm so I don’t start out chilled.

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I found having larger winter cycling boots and overshoes help as I can keep moving my feet

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I’ve suffered with Raynaud’s for years, it really is a nightmare for the winter cyclist. Only 2 things have ever worked for me:

  1. A direct heat source on hands and feet (look at heated insoles and gloves). Mainly available in the skiing world.

  2. The drug Nifedipine. This stuff messes with your blood pressure and basically increases blood flow. This overcomes the narrowing of blood vessels which Raynaud’s causes. As with any medication there are downsides e.g. your body needs time to get used to it, at first it made me feel like I was going to black out when in VO2 max and above zones.

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Talk to you primary care physician about a calcium channel blocker like Nifedipine that was previously mentioned. It can help and generally is pretty well tolerated but there are always exceptions.

For feet, a warm pair of merino socks to start with. I’ve been impressed with Castelli’s Incendio 2’s. They are still relatively thin but very warm for the thickness that they are. There are thicker socks though too. The use a pair of winter cycling shoes. Lots of options here - just need to find something you like. I’ve got a pair of Sidi’s for mountain biking and a pair of 45Nrth Fasterkatt’s for road biking. Putting shoe covers over top adds another layer of protection and warmth. If there is no wind, oversocks can work well, but if there is wind, then a windproof overshoe is best.

Pre-heat your shoes. This is a trick I learned from skiing. You can get some ski boot heats or just warm them with a hair dryer and put over a heating outlet for a little while. Starting with shoes that are warm lets you get warmed up while riding and generating your own heat before they start to cool off.

For hands, there are a lot of great gloves out there. Merino liners can also make a difference as long as the gloves are big enough to accommodate. I’ve had great success with some of Gore’s glove offerings. They seem to regulate temperature really well, keeping my hands warm but not sweaty. Similar to the shoes, you may want to preheat the gloves .

If your hands are still cold despite all of this, you may want to look at some ski gloves that are heated. I haven’t used these but flipping through this month’s Ski Magazine there was an ad for a pair. With improvements in battery technology I would seem that this is going to be more and more feasible.

Hope this helps.

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Fleece gloves for the win. Not very aero outdoors mind :smiley:

Thick socks and overshoes in the garage for me in the depth of winter. I keep the fan off my feet and use arm/knee warmers too.

It’s a bit of a balancing act between keeping warm, catching chills and sweating buckets. Fellow sweaty betty here.

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Lots of good information here. The other thing you might try is conditioning:

I don’t have the full article handy but my recollection of the data is that those completing the treatment had a good response.

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Another rider with Raynaud’s here. I find that convective losses are my worst enemy, but luckily are also the easiest and cheapest to address. A pair of plastic sandwich baggies outside my socks (inside shoes) and nitrile gloves under riding gloves give me 15-20 degrees of additional riding outside with feeling in my digits. Chemical warmers (Hothands footwarmer pairs specifically) are my nuclear option for both hands and feet. I keep a pair of gloves and at least one pair of warmers with me on any ride where it might go under 50 degrees F and so far I’ve never fully lost feeling on a ride.

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