I have a race on November 9th in Florida and I live in Michigan where it is much cooler. I expect the temps to be near 85°. Last year I did the race and arrived 4 days before the race and did OK. I actually had good power on the bike but I over-did it just a little. I suspect that I was probably 10 watts over what I should have averaged.
This year I’m arriving 9 days before to get time on the bike and get used to the heat (as well as vacation time). What kind of efforts do I need to do to maximize plasma volume before the race? Can it be done? Is it too little time?
Maybe someone can point me to a good resource on the topic?
While I understand that you may not think it’s hot, I’m coming from an area where all my training has been done under 55° and much of it in the low 40’s.
from my understanding, you should have enough time if you get out for some easy workouts in the heat of the day and drink plenty. You may be losing more salt than usual on race day if your are not used to the heat, I ended up in a coma from too much water plus not enough sodium for a long race in the late fall, I had zero time to adjust to the heat. Had I taken in more salt it would have been fine, but dehydration / heat illness feels the same as hyperhydration and you stop urinating, so the logical thing is to drink more.
Your 9 days should be good if it’s hot the whole time.
I had great results a year ago with doing hot yoga sessions (90 mins) as I did 4 days in a row. Just a thought, as it would be little additional strain on your body as far as training effect.
My normal taper week is kind of like below. I’m thinking that as long as I can do most of the workouts in the heat I’ll be good. I’ve read that if you aren’t going to be there at least 2 weeks beforehand that you should probably only plan on a few days before. I’ve never really worked on this before and don’t know if it makes any difference.
Saturday I put my bike together and ride about 3 hours
Sunday I run ~10 miles
Tue and Thu bike ~1 hour
Mon, Wed, Fri Run 30 to 40 minutes
Swim a few days in there as I please
Saturday, light bike ride
from my understanding, you should have enough time if you get out for some easy workouts in the heat of the day and drink plenty. You may be losing more salt than usual on race day if your are not used to the heat, I ended up in a coma from too much water plus not enough sodium for a long race in the late fall, I had zero time to adjust to the heat. Had I taken in more salt it would have been fine, but dehydration / heat illness feels the same as hyperhydration and you stop urinating, so the logical thing is to drink more.
Your 9 days should be good if it’s hot the whole time.
The logical thing is to drink when thirsty. You drank too much. By taking more sodium you might have mitigated the fact you drank too much.
You went into a coma because you drank too much not because you didn’t take enough sodium. If you don’t drink too much you don’t need sodium.
It is plain wrong to advise people to drink too much then take extra sodium to mitigate the danger of drinking too much.
It is also a myth that you need to take extra sodium.
Dr Tim Noakes has explained all this on this forum, it’s worth reading.
I found the yoga in the heat was a good mental exercise, which is a lot of what performing in heat is. Yes, hydration is important, but I never let myself even think about how hot it may be, but rather, “how do I feel; what do I need?”. Just work on going in rested and fully glycogen loaded. I love the heat! Have fun!
Agree on hot yoga/bikram yoga as being a plus for heat acclimitisation - I used to do bikram 2-3 times per week when I was doing IM’s and found it to be a big help in being able to train/race better in the heat and humidity.
from my understanding, you should have enough time if you get out for some easy workouts in the heat of the day and drink plenty. You may be losing more salt than usual on race day if your are not used to the heat, I ended up in a coma from too much water plus not enough sodium for a long race in the late fall, I had zero time to adjust to the heat. Had I taken in more salt it would have been fine, but dehydration / heat illness feels the same as hyperhydration and you stop urinating, so the logical thing is to drink more.
Your 9 days should be good if it’s hot the whole time.
The whole losing salt thing is a myth. Humans need very little salt. Salt loss isn’t the problem drinking too much is.
Read this - pay particular attention to Dr Noakes.
OK a simple internet search will turn up lots of factual information rather than some of the anecdotal misinformation. It generally takes 2 weeks to get your body acclimated to the heat. For those who don’t have the luxury of a two week vacation to the race site to get heat adjusted, you have to create your own heat chamber. Pick a small room in your house and set up a space heater. IIRC, Fleck has a good story about his wife training in the bathroom with a heater running to make the room really warm.
Keep in mind that you do NOT have to do your entire workout in the heat chamber. Something really minimal like 30-60 minutes a few times a week for the two weeks is all it takes. And it’s equally important that it is an intense workout and not just soft pedaling. And although hot yoga seems fine, it really doesn’t do much other than make you able to do hot yoga, it doesn’t really help your biking in the heat. So your heat training must be specific to the activity you plan to perform in the heat.
Common myth is that you must do your entire long ride on the trainer in the heat chamber – NOT TRUE! I have also seen equally ridiculous things like people saying that when they get to Kona, they drive around in their hot rental car with windows up and AC turned off. That’s really stupid and doesn’t do anything for acclimatization.
Coming from a cold climate and getting ready for a hot race, it is really critical to have some heat acclimatization program before you get to the race site. But stick to facts about how to do it, rather than some of the ridiculous anecdotal stuff.
The trainer and treadmill are your friend. You probably get better heat training that way than people living down south. Beyond that, get as lean as possible…the cabbage and water diet is your friend. Just ask Macca how it is done!
