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Huh. I grew up racing XC skiing in Alaska, and usually during the first week of practice in the winter you'd "burn" your lungs from the cold (or apparently, the dryness). You'd cough if you breathed deeply, and it took a few days to recover.

But then the rest of the season you were totally OK - no issues at all, with a weekly racing schedule and lots of very cold temps. I don't recall any teammates having any chronic or recurring issues either.

It was accepted as the annual acclimation to winter aerobics, just like that first sunburn of summer let you enjoy the rest of the summer sun without burning.

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I strong suspect that only a certain percentage of people can easily follow the "just suffer and you will adapt" advice. I mean believe some can do but I wouldn't take this as universal advise. Edit: Extreme reactions to cold even have a name, Raynard's syndrome[1]. But as someone who suffers occasionally from this, I think it's more useful to say people's cold reactions vary.

...just like that first sunburn of summer let you enjoy the rest of the summer sun without burning.

Advise that even more clearly applies to only some people and some locations.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynaud_syndrome

I wonder if there is some kind of predictor for whether it'll work for someone? (Like skincolour for the sun exposure issue.)

May be some survivor bias there. In summer I burn ever single time I don't wear sunscreen or extra clothing. In fact I burn on sunny days in winter.

Yeah, some people are able to establish a “base” which protects them over summer but many people can’t. It varies.

Yeah, I've had similar experiences to yours, nordic ski racing on a team all throughout college. We'd all get coughs the first few cold days, but that was it. We would avoid doing interval workouts if it was below 0° F though.

Yeah, when it was really cold (<= 0F) were were required to wear facemasks (those neoprene masks with the nose fold, paper-punch holes at the mouth, and velcro in the back[1]) to prevent frostbite on the face, and they definitely helped with breathing as well.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Tough-Headwear-Neoprene-Ski-Mask/dp/B...

> just like that first sunburn of summer let you enjoy the rest of the summer sun without burning.

This is not how it works. If you burn your skin, it doesn't tan (the skin layer responsible for tanning dies and then peels off), and aside from that burning your skin annually seriously raises your risk of skin cancer.