Cold Feet and cold hands.

Some days in winter time you arrive home without any feeling in your feet. They are totally numb and sting like hell when you step into the warm water of your shower. Your hands and fingers too may well suffer from the same affliction. However there are ways to help, and avoid these frosty sensations:

• Insulate your body.
• Think about why your extremities are getting frostbite whilst the rest of your body feels ok. It can be circulation related but can also be down to a lack of insulation.
• Keeping your blood warm for as long as possible after it leaves your heart is key. To do this wear a good base layer and then also were arm warmers under your Winter jacket and leg warmers under your winter bib tights.
• It doesn’t matter how thick your socks and overshoes are if your blood is already cold when it gets there.

• Block out the cold and rain.
• If your feet are being bombarded with cold air form any angle it will not matter how well protected they are from above or below, they will still get cold.
• Tape up any holes in the soles of your shoes with Duct tape. I sometimes even use some silicon.

• Keep in the heat
• Get a tin foil emergency blanket https://www.nisbets.ie/emergency-foil-blanket/y500 Then take out the insoles from your shoes and trace around them with a black marker. Cut out the shape and place the foil under your insole. It will take up very little space but helps to reflect the heat inwards.

• Plastic bags, tinfoil and latex gloves
• You can also put some tinfoil over your toes although this can sometimes be a little uncomfortable.
• On wet days in the past a Dunnes Stores plastic bag was often used to keep your feet dry. The secret was to tape the top with insulating tape to stop any water getting in from above and then to also use duct tape on the top of the over shoe to stop any water getting in there too.
• Latex gloves inside your normal cycling gloves can help to help to keep your hands warm on cold wet days.

Whatever happens don’t let a cold or wet morning stop you from getting out there and enjoying a spin on your bike.

If you have any more tips on how to deal with cold hands and feet just let us know in the comments section below

Barry

thecyclingblog.com

seankellycycling.com