Photo: SnowyMountain Photography
The past two weeks I competed in the Elite and Professional US National Championships. The courses were hard, and the fields were fast, but most importantly, it was hot and humid. The heat was a major factor in every single race, and it was at its worst for the US Pro TT in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We didn’t start until the middle of the afternoon, when the heat index was 105°+. TTs can be hotter than most other races too, because of the cramped position on the TT bike, long sleeve skinsuit, and the giant aero helmet.
I was excited, because I race well in the heat and handle it better than most people. I still feel the heat just as much as everyone else, but for whatever reason, my performance doesn’t suffer. At the US Pro TT, however, many of the top favorites completely blew up in the heat. They went out too hard, overheated, and just had a bad ride. Many of them finished close to five minutes down, and I had been expecting them to compete for the wind.
So what can we do to help improve our performance in hot and humid conditions? How can we keep our bodies cool, and avoid overheating when it’s 100° out?
3 Tips for Racing in Hot Weather:
Ice socks – pantyhose are ideal. Fill them with ice, tie them off, and stuff them down the back of your jersey whenever you get the chance. For a time trial, this will be during the warm-up, and then again just before the start. It felt like I had five pounds of ice of my back as I rolled down the start ramp at US Pro; but it was all gone in 20 minutes. For a road race, start with an ice sock, but then also have them in the feedzone. Depending on the circuit, you could grab an ice sock and/or water every lap. There is no better way to stay cool than having ice cold water running down your spine when racing in 100-degree weather.
Water – obviously. Drink lots of water. Keep it cold, in a cooler filled with ice if it’s in the feedzone. Don’t overhydrate however – this can lead to hyponatremia, which is a very dangerous and potentially fatal condition caused by low sodium levels in the blood. The best thing you can do is drink to thirst. Don’t force down bottles of liquid if your stomach feels full and your mouth plenty moisturized. In general, drink 500 mL (standard bottle size) every 30-45 minutes when it’s hot. And don’t drink just water either – experiment with different drink mixes and added electrolytes to see what works best for you.
Pre-race – don’t overdo your warm-up. Don’t spend 45 minutes on the trainer in the baking sun, elevating your core temperature before the race has even begun. The #1 reason that we “bonk” – when we can’t push hard on the pedals anymore; blow up; get dropped – is elevated core temperature. When our internal temperature reaches a certain point, our brain sets off the alarm bells. If our temperature gets any higher, our body will begin to shut down. This can lead to complete muscle exhaustion, organ damage, and blacking out. But, we never reach this point (almost never – read, David Goggins) because our brain tells us to stop. We start to slow down, we back off from our effort, and slowly but surely, we begin to recover – Especially in the heat, there is the danger of ‘overdoing’ the warm-up. If it’s 110° on race day, for example, the best warm-up may be sitting in an air conditioned car, drinking ice cold water until the start. If the race requires an all-out effort from the start, such as a prologue time trial, I recommend doing a tapered version of your normal warm-up. Here’s an example:
Normal warm-up: 30 min with a 5 min tempo/threshold effort + 3 short sprints
Tapered warm-up: 15 min with a 3 min tempo/threshold effort + one or two short sprints
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What do you do on race day to keep yourself cool?