Cold weather effects on Knees

"Drinky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Strewth! The only concessions I make to winter are a long-sleeved top and a pair of gloves if
it's below about 2-3C. I've heard it said I'll knacker my knees if cycle in shorts, but they
don't give me any trouble
- plus I don't think we get proper winters anymore anyway :-(

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know if there is evidence that it knackers you knees if you don't keep them warm in
cold weather?

Not sure about proper research type stuff, but it certainly hurts my knees riding with them cold.

cheers, clive

"Drinky" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Does anyone know if there is evidence that it knackers you knees if you don't keep them warm in
cold weather?

Quoted message said:

Strewth! The only concessions I make to winter are a long-sleeved top and a pair of gloves if
it's below about 2-3C. I've heard it said I'll knacker my knees if cycle in shorts, but they
don't give me any trouble
- plus I don't think we get proper winters anymore anyway :-(

Several people claim it does -- but I ride all winter in shorts unless it is seriously cold
(in which case I stay home!!) as I dislike cycling in trousers or tights for more than a
couple of miles.

I find shorts more comfortable and, as long as you don't try to do a full sprint start from cold, no
great problem.

T

PS -- just cos the mercury has dropped below 30 C its not necessary to assume we will be up to our
saddles in snow this weekend!!

Drinky said:

Does anyone know if there is evidence that it knackers you knees if you don't keep them warm in
cold weather?

<a skier writes>

No idea about the knee joint itself, but the tendons just above and below the knee need to be warmed
up carefully and kept that way. Cycling forces aren;t quite so severe as skiing, but even so...

Incidentally, riding into trees knackers your knees. 8-( I did the experiment on Wednesday, now I
have a football halfway down one leg.

Drinky said:

Does anyone know if there is evidence that it knackers you knees if you don't keep them warm in
cold weather?

and I quote;

Quoted message said:

Leg Warmers by Ramin Minovi

WRITING IN AN issue of Sporting Cyclist around 1957 Brian Robinson advised racing cyclists: 'Always
train with the legs covered'. It's a piece of advice that I have always followed, except in very
warm weather. Robinson was one of the real hard men of road racing, and if he didn't think it was
wimpish to dress up against the cold, then that was good enough for me. As far as I know Captain
Oates is the only man who got to be a hero because he froze to death. What's more, it seems to me
that it's good advice not only for training, but also for early-season racing. This year we've seen
a particularly long, cold winter-spring transition, and yet I saw riders in early April wearing
shorts on days when the ambient temperature was around five degrees, and a bitter north-east wind
chill was lowering it still further. Remember that in a temperature of 10°C a wind speed of 15 mph
will effectively lower the temperature to only 2°C. If the temperature is only 4°C a 10 mph wind
will lower it to -2°C. We'll publish a chart illustrating this in the Autumn. Humidity is a factor,
too. If it's damp and overcast as well as cold, then the chill will feel even more penetrating. In
Cycling Weekly for 12th May I read the report of a Buckinghamshire 25, run off in similar
conditions ('a bitterly cold morning with a fierce wind'😉. In the opinion of top time-triallist
Michael Hutchinson: 'It was definitely a leg-warmers day, and I was surprised that I seemed to be
in a minority of one in wearing them'. He won by four minutes. Human beings tend to under-perform
in extremes of temperature, both high and low. Cooling a muscle causes it to become weaker and
fatigue occurs more rapidly. The nervous system responds to muscle cooling by altering the normal
muscle fibre recruitment patterns. Some researchers have suggested that this change in fibre
selection decreases the efficiency of the muscle's actions. The velocity at which the muscle
shortens is decreased: that is, the muscle contracts more slowly, and as a result power decreases
significantly when temperature is lowered. What it amounts to is that you can choose between going
slower or using more energy. But the mechanisms which release more fuel (in this case 'free fatty
acids'😉 are themselves slowed down by the cold, so it takes longer to get the fuel into action.
It's like getting sludge in your petrol pipe. For us cyclists, who are in any case creating our own
20 mph wind chill, this means we'll go slower, fatigue quicker, and probably run out of energy
before the finish. Competitors in the recent LVRC Time-trial championships may have experienced
something like this. Being warm protects the body against external cold factors, and helps its
metabolism to work normally in order to produce the energy needed, both for the demands of the
exercise, and to keep warm. The simplest way of providing insulation against the cold is to wear
sufficient clothing - and on a cold day that means leg warmers. Another aspect of the effects of
temperature is the matter of warming-up - and warming-down. There's not much doubt that most
cyclists warm up for too short a time, and in too unstructured a way. We've all heard people say,
'It's a lot of nonsense, is all this talk about warming up. I arrived at the start a bit late,
threw the bike off the roof rack, stripped off me tracksuit and started - and I did my best-ever
time!' My answer would be: 'With a proper warm-up you'd have gone even faster.' However, just
pottering about on the bike for ten minutes is not warming-up. I think you have to develop a
structure for warming up that you find, with experience, suits you and allows you to achieve your
optimum performance. Start off with three miles steady, lowish gear, say 18 mph. Increase speed
progressively for a mile to 23 mph (these are very rough estimates, of course), making yourself
breathe hard - but don't go anaerobic. Then do (for example) three 6-second sprints, not quite flat
out, with a couple of minutes rest between each. Wind up with another ten minutes brisk but steady,
maybe including another minute a bit faster to make you breathe hard again. I would regard
something like this as a minimum. Finish your warm-up about 10 minutes before your start time, and
keep warm until two or three minutes before you're off. If you warm up and leave a gap of more than
15 minutes, the effect is dissipated and you have to start all over again. It is possible to overdo
the warming-up process. If the weather is very warm (a Saturday afternoon in June), your warm-up
should be reduced substantially - your core body temperature is going to rise during the event in
any case, and if you start off too hot, your performance will suffer. In these conditions
particularly you must always keep well hydrated, drinking before the start and throughout the
event. You'll notice that I've been thinking mainly about time-trials here, but the same is equally
true for road racing, where warming up for many people means riding round the car park making sure
your gears are working. It's perhaps not as critical as for a time-trial: distances tend to be
longer, sometimes there are two or three miles of neutralised riding, but twenty minutes warm up
should still prevent your being caught unawares by an unusually fast start. Being well warmed up
usually reduces muscle soreness in the early stages of the event, and at all times it reduces the
risk of injury. Don't forget that we're all individuals, and that what works for one may not be so
effective for someone else, so you have to find out what suits you best by trial and error. Warming
down is beneficial, too. Continuing to exercise the muscles gently improves the blood flow and
speeds up the removal of lactic acid. Fifteen to twenty minutes twiddling a low gear is as
effective as half an hour's massage.

Paul

Life's a long song but the tune ends too soon for us all