Cold weather athletes

“Colder days do make you get tired a little faster,” he said. “The days my teeth are chattering I won’t last as long in the water. But I’ll go out no matter if the wind is blowing and it’s raining.”

Alisa Proudfoot of Windsor is a self-described “winter person” who started skiing when she moved to Nevada City in the sixth grade.

“I don’t really like the heat,” she said. “I prefer cold.”

Proudfoot started out the new year with four sub-freezing days at Tahoe where she skis weekends and works at Sugar Bowl ski resort as a mountain safety volunteer.

When the temperature is in the single digits, she wears a down jacket underneath a ski jacket. She favors mittens over gloves, starts with a hand warmer insert, then adds a liner mitten and a waterproof mitten.

She wears a fleece balaclava under her ski helmet to cover her head and neck, plus polyester tights and wool socks.

“Lots of layers and wool is best,” said Proudfoot. “Everything I wear wicks away moisture.”

To protect her skin from the mountain air, she uses a petroleum-based moisturizer under sunscreen. To keep healthy she takes Emergen-C vitamin supplement, drinks lots of water and gets a flu shot.

She begins her ski mornings with an egg and cheese sandwich and ends them with a fireside glass of wine at the Santa Rosa Ski Club’s cabin in Truckee, which she calls her “winter home.”

Cyclist Helfrich says winter people enjoy elements of the season that the house-bound miss.

“I feel like everyone inside is isolated from nature,” he said, describing his ride home “on a cool cloudless night when the stars are so bright.”

It’s not always wondrous.

“The absolute worst point is getting a flat and it’s 8 p.m. in February and raining an inch an hour. You have to take your gloves off to fix the tire and as soon as you stop pedaling you get really cold.”

That’s when he pulls out his cell phone and calls home, to ask his wife to come get him.

Susan Swartz is a freelance writer and author based in Sonoma County. Contact her at susan@juicytomatoes.com