Winter Cycling - Brakes seizing up

I've been having brake issues ever since it's been cold. I'll be riding along, and I brake, but the lever stays depressed, and the brakes themselves stay closed. It's more of a problem with the front brakes. The problem starts occurring after 10 to 15 minutes of riding.

It's hard to tell if it's directly related to the cold, because it's winter and there is nowhere warm to ride. Plus, my living arrangement requires me to store my bike outside. I do have a cover for it, and everything stays pretty protected from the elements when I'm not riding.

From what I can tell, it's not a problem with the brake itself. It seems like the cable is getting stuck somewhere. The reason I think that is because if I disconnect the noodle, I can work the brake arms with my hands without any extra resistance, so I'm pretty sure it's not that joint that's freezing.

What is causing this problem and what do I need to do to avoid it? I was thinking maybe I just need to clean out my cable housings and put some oil in there, but I don't know of an easy way of cleaning it.

EDIT: I wasn't sure if this should go in mechanics or not, but it seems like a direct consequence of winter riding. Mods, feel free to move the thread.

you probably have water in the brake housings. use WD-40, preferably in a warm place, in the brake housing.

substitute lube with WD-40, which displaces water and shifter with brake http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b080ppT7D1g

if they're really rusted, then it's probably better to just replace the cables all together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdSUN3S1S5M

I've had some issues with my v-brakes this winter. Some of it can be attributed to the need to get new cables (this is my 2nd Winter and about 3500 miles). The problems started after some rainy weather and then followed by a cold snap. First I found that I had to re-lube my cables. I found that it works best if you release the tension on the cables and "un-hook" the cable sheet from the holders. This way you can slide the cable housing out of the way and lube everything properly. Tri-flow is very good stuff. WD-40 will displace water, but it a lousy lubricant (mostly because it was never designed to be a lubricant... it is a water displacing fluid... therefore the name "WD"). The Tri-flow will lubricate and leave a nice slippery coat behind once the liquid part evaporates. I found that I had the move the sheeths near the brake handles a bit as there was some crud/frozen issues in there. Once I lubes the cables well, the cables move freely. A few weeks later I started to have problems with my v-brakes not returning to "neutral" after applying the brakes. I took the v-brakes appart and found that I was getting some corrosion within the bushings on the v-brake housing. I liberally applied lubricant and moved the bushing around a lot. After a little work they all stated to work freely again. I used a rag to keep wiping the extra lube up as it was "washing-away" the crud that was stuck in them. After this round of work my brakes and shifter cables work fine. The cables still need replacing, but that will be done on February 21st... they just have to hold on till then.

Happy riding,
André