I hate the cold; however, I seem to have an overheating problem ...

breaking off from the other thread (about gulping too damn much water to compensate), I found something: ice socks and ice vests. Apparently racers tie a sock full of ice to the back of their neck to keep cool... which I guess works. Crude, but effective.

Lots of expensive stuff out there for ice vests, though. They look bulky, crude, and gimmicky. Might work, but looks like they're **** by design: a proper cooling vest would use insulation on the outside to prevent the ice from absorbing environmental heat, producing cooling by direct cooling the back as the ice melts and the water runs down your body and out of the cold area.

I've been looking at the StaCool vests, and some budget stuff ... The StaCool site is nice, but puts me off a bit (too much market fluff, and they make the good argument about budget vests--but then, attacking other products is also a confidence trick, too). Their cooling packs are a polymer that I can't find details on--do you soak it in water? Freeze it? What? I can't even figure out how to buy extras if they fail. Also their standard vest is $210, form-fit, can go under a jersey; their $250 offering is insulated on the outside, but bulky.

There are some other pricey ones I haven't run through; I'm expecting more of the same. Lots of desperate marketing from an undeveloped niche market, not much meat. All I know is Garmin uses these for warming up, and pro cyclists seem to just stick with a sock on their neck during the race itself.

Thoughts?