PVCs and Cold Weather Excercise

[KankRat]

Greetings.
I am a 42 year old runner and cyclist.  In winter I get PVCs severe enough that I feel faint if I get up fast enough.  I would call the palpitations pretty severe.  My resting pulse is already pretty low (high 30's)  When the skipped beats (or extra...whatever) start I really feel like ****.  I feel like someone is sitting on my chest.  And when they stop, sometimes suddenly, I feel like I'm drowning in oxygen.  Almost high. I can suppress them by running and sometimes they totally clear up afterwards.
The PVCs can last as long as 24 hours and longer.  The main thing I can see that triggers them is sustaining my heart rate at over 80% during winter.  I really only get them, the severe runs of PVCs in winter.
Caffein does not seem to trigger them, but defintley don't help.  I try to keep it down to one cup of coffee a day, but usually have several cups of green tea afterwards.  I drink red wine regularly but can't pin a connection down since I typically give up booze and caffein for Lent and still feel like **** unless it gets warm out for a good length of time.
I'm no where near dehydrated.  I pay attention to that and try to keep my urine the color of lemonade.
In 07 I had a 6 hour or so episode after a duathlon in June, In which I sustained 170bpm for an hour and a half ( my max is 185 bike, 188 running) and won 3rd in my age group.   Other than that, I felt great for months, in which time I rode my bike 3000 miles and trained for and ran the infamous '07 Chicago Marathon (3:31 in temps approaching 90F) with not a hint of a problem.
I've been thru a gammut of tests including a 64 slice scan. My electrophysiologist recommends I just live with it.  He has given his blessing to my endurence fun (though I doubt that he knows how hard I go).
The drugs were worthless.  This winter I've been doing only enough to keep from getting fat.  Staying on a treadmill or indoor bike trainer in <45F.  I feel occasonal PVCs.  But not too bad.  I wear an HRM and keep it pegged at <78% MHR.
the last thing I should mention is I'm an ex-fat smoker.  Quite smoking in '95. Dropped 50lbs in 04.
10,000 on the bike. 2 half marathons, 1 full marathon since.
I'm learning to live with this.  But just curious.  Anybody else have similar reactions to cold?
Mine are repeatable.  I have extreme tolerance to heat, my endurence buddies call me "the Reptile", but cold kicks my ***.

So Any feedback appreciated...

[marlinspike]

Funny you should post about this - I used to have multiple ectopics, thousands a day. They have got better in the last year, now I get brief spells of them, and only one missed beat every 10 beats or so, instead of a missed beat every other. But yesterday we went on a trip to a beach - got out of a warm car into a bitterly cold and windy beach. It was nowhere near zero degrees, but I had a sudden spell of ectopics which lasted a minute or two. I can only put this down to the cold.

Congratulations on losing 50lbs - that is a fantastic achievement. I also admire you for exercising so much when you have pvc's - my ectopics have made me afraid of exercising.

[dquenzer]

Suggestion:  Run with a face mask that warms the air.  I use to do that all the time in severe cold.  It keeps that cold air from restricting blood vessels in your lungs.

[dquenzer]

Cold weather running can cause restriction and more stress on the system.  That's why people aren't suppose to shovel snow in the cold if they are not in good shape.   I have had problems running in the cold in the past pre-ablation for AFIB.  Since my ablation I just have chosen not to run in the cold.  I use to run when it was below zero all the time.

When you run outside in the cold do you keep your heart rate down so that you can talk?  Most exercise experts state that you should reduce intensity in severe cold or heat.  Too much stress on the system.  I know when I did run in the cold I really tried to keep intensity down.

Remember your heart is a muscle and can be stressed just like another muscle.