tempo in nearly freezing temperature

[KK400]

@Stefanie

It’s very cold here at this time of the year: 0-5 degrees every day.

When I’m doing tempo, I’m experiencing a very hard time breathing. At first I thought I have a breathing problem, because when I ran with my non-athlete friend the other day, he was cruising, while I could barely breathe.

A friend explained this as the phenomenon of "asthma of cross country skiers… Basically, when the athlete has low body fat in the abdomen area, and fairly strong muscles there, when the muscles are cold they contract more than usual and push against the diaphragm, hence the feeling of shortage of oxygen. Men experience this phenomenon less than women, because men’s abdomen is the area of concentration of whatever fat is in their body (please if this is all false information, correct all you want) so their temperature there is greater .
As the body slowly warms up and the muscles expand,(but problem is I cannot possibly warm up in this weather, unless I’m doing one big long run), the depth of the breathing is increased, and things feel better overall.

So the question here is: whether or not this ‘breathing suffering’ (during tempo), helps at all for the aerobic component and fitness of the 400 - meaning; is more work being done, as opposed to doing the same session in warm temperature?

Thanks in advance.

Thank you for posting this!!! I thought something is wrong with me, I was really afraid that I am seriouslly overtrained as I wasn’t even able to finish big circuit last Saturday. And I was also experiencing severe soreness in abdominal muscles. Well, that explains everything. Thanks again for posting this!

As I come from the country bordering Italy (you’re from Italy right? :o ) I experience the same weather at the momment.