Microclimate

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Eric Reid AeroFit | Instagram Portfolio
Aerodynamic Retul Bike Fitting

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Hot baths immediately after running, and/or run in long sleeves/pants in the middle of the day.

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<The Dew Abides>

I did Cartagena 70.3 a couple years back, it was in the 90s in both heat and humidity. I prepped for it by doing most of my workouts in my basement with the heat turned up and no fans. Usually I wore two jerseys on the trainer as well. It was brutal, the clean up after each workout was disgusting, I'd start slipping on my treadmill after 45min, I'd have a river running behind my trainer (and also ruined the resistance unit on my inside ride rollers). But it worked, I did well.

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Dimond Bikes Superfan

My first was IM Austria - race ended up hitting mid/high 30 degrees. I was living in northern UK and had done vast majority of training in rain, exceptions being when it was snowing....

Luckily we got the 3 days a year of sun 2 weeks before where it got to mid - high 20s. I went out at 3pm each day wearing 3 layers of merino and waterproof coat, and beany for 90 minute runs.

Come race day then I honestly didn't notice the heat at all, and I always suffered really bad at anything over 25 in UK. Did get sunburn that left marks for years after, but no heat exhaustion at all.

Was something that I saw that suggested you can get 90% of acclimatization in 2 weeks. Noting that I can't even remember what random person told me that, it was several years ago and possibly was sourced online from the 'ask jeeves' era, I'd treat this with even more skepticism than the general Slowtwitch post claiming scientific fact. But from a personal 'Yorkshire' approach to solving this problem, then wear far too many layers and be active will result in elevated temperature of the air on your skin. And costs less than making all the air in the room you are at hot.

I did bikram or hot yoga 2/week for a few months and long trainer rides, up to 4 hours with a space heater and humidifier going when I prepped for cozumel.

Did it work? Thinking of buying a humidifier to help prepare...

I did something similar for 70.3 Worlds when it was in Clearwater, coming from a colder climate. I did 3 45-minute easy bike rides each week for 2 weeks before leaving for the race in an extra bedroom with a humidifier, heater and fan. Had a great race. I had a great race.

Great, sounds promising!

Go listen to this episode of That Triathlon Show - Kona being the main theme, it's largely about heat and humidity prep. Great stuff.

https://scientifictriathlon.com/tts309/

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

This is a great approach.

Frequent shorter, very sweaty indoor sessions at low Z2 intensities worked well for my wife in the 2-week lead-up to a couple hot races. Had great performances. I think she did a total of 8 dedicated heat acclimatization sessions totaling about 10-12 hours. All on the bike.

This frequent lower intensity, shorter session approach is well evidenced in the literature for its efficacy.

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Dr. Alex Harrison | Founder & CEO | Sport Physiology & Performance PhD
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From PA and Heat trained for Augusta 70.3 2018 by doing all my solo driving with windows up and heat on in the car for up to an hour. During the summer it would get upwards of 140F plus degrees in there. Also made sure to do long rides during the hottest part of the day. Was 102F I think on race day and heat was not a factor for me. YMMV

I believe it helped. Cozumel felt comfortable, tbh. I think I got lucky with the weather. I think doing bikram may have been more effective than the trainer rides, ymmv.