Anyone have experience with different tri suits that claim cooling effects? The Roka Gen II Elite Aero Short Sleeve Tri Suit claims to have a "cooling technology" for example, but I haven't heard any reviews.

Any others out there claim anything similar, and do any work?

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Too old to go pro but doing it anyway
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In general hydrating days up to the event with electrolytes whatever drink that may be

you probably wont notice it too much on the bike due to riding and winds but the heat will sap your energy so really be making sure to take in fluids. Id opt for gatorade/nuun/tailwind/heed/whatever electrolyte drink you prefer again. When the run comes water on you not in you will probably be your best bet. Try and have the water get on your wrists and neck as this helps cool you down better. Also recommend a hat and getting that wet at each aid station.

The longer the race the more important these will be. Your run pace will need to slow down a ton and will be hard to get that done because your heart will be working coming off the bike so it will be super easy to run too hard in the first mile and you will be dead soon after. Around halfway into the run is a good time to start picking up the pace/effort. Id also recommend that you dont actively slow down on the run after the first mile. If you went out too hard, the cards are on the table and the heat will take you but you still have some time to save some time so just keep whatever pace you started with till you do blow up

If the forecast is sunny then arm coolers for UV protection will be good to keep the sun off of you as that is going to be the biggest energy drainer and is hard to notice while riding

One thing I haven't seen anybody touch on just yet is the idea of "pre-cooling" before the race start. The reality is once the gun goes off your body temp is only going to go in one direction - up. So the idea is to be "cold" to start the race to give you more of a buffer. This can be done by consuming some sort of iced slushie prior to the start, and I mean right before the gun goes off, and by placing cold packs on your "nuts and neck" (ie. the major arteries in your body, your carotid at the front of your neck and your femoral/iliac in your groin area). You'll see the pro's practice something similar to this with an ice vest/slushie before race start.

The sleeves aren't that expensive, so I may try them. But it sounds like they may have questionable benefit in humidity. It's the humidity that kills me. We're talking 95 degrees with a dew point of 79 today. I can't function in that shit.

Just in case it's a site you don't visit, irunfar.com has a series of articles by CTS coach Corinne Malcolm, where she reviews all the current literature for a given subject. She actually just did one a couple days ago on cooling. It's mostly about running, not cycling, but still a good read.

https://www.irunfar.com/...durance-running.html

Interesting article. This bit at the end about sunscreen caught my attention:


Now I'm wondering how to identify sunscreen with "inorganic chemicals" vs "organic chemicals". Is it just as simple for looking for "organic" I'm the label? Anyone have any recommendations on organic sunscreens?

"Now I'm wondering how to identify sunscreen with "inorganic chemicals" vs "organic chemicals". Is it just as simple for looking for "organic" I'm the label? Anyone have any recommendations on organic sunscreens?"

Mud.

My assumption without reading the article is that inorganic would refer to products like zinc oxide that form an opaque boundary layer. But I would not call the usual cream whose color disappears when rubbed on "organic". Rather, it's lotion, sunscreen lotion.

Organic is a word that is WIDELY misused as part of marketing gimicks, frequently used to mean "chemical free", which is in itself a load of horse shit because "chemicals" can be naturally occurring. But if the goal is natural vs man made then I second the poster above: use mud.

(Point of view is based on my Ph.D in synthetic organic chemistry.)

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

Anything that has Cool Back works pretty well