Does hot weather have a negative effect on athletic performance?

dannyjames1

Those in the UK will know that today has been an absolute scorcher. 25 celsius and quite possibly the hottest day we'll have in 2018. Put on some spf10 which just about done the job and I went out and done a 50-55 miler at my normal effort and couldn't help but notice I wasn't getting the power through. Really strugged at times and was rather warm and a bit uncomfortable. The usual climbs that I tend to be decently quick up took a fair bit longer and the ride in general was a lot slower than usual. I absolutely demolished 3+ litres of water and a coffee and an ice cream.

So I'm wondering is anaerobic performanace, exertion and comfort effected by hot weather?

And any tips on how to deal with it better? Do I need to start thinking about putting electrolytes into my bottles at these temperatures because of the massively increased fluid loss? Or will it simply be a case of acclimation to the transition into summer? 25c feels like a lot right at the start of May.

webboo

SPF 10 is probably only good for someone born in Southern Europe. You need to be looking at factor 30 plus given this is really the first sun we’ve had apart from two days two weeks ago.

sungod

3 litres is a huge amount lot for 50 miles, i did about that today and one and a bit bottles was enough, barely a litre

sounds more like you simply aren't used to the heat, perhaps also that you drank too much, do you really think you sweated/exhaled three litres of water?

it takes time to get used to exertion in the heat, 25 really isn't that hot, if you're fit you should easily adapt (assuming the good weather lasts...)

dannyjames1

Webboo wrote:

SPF 10 is probably only good for someone born in Southern Europe. You need to be looking at factor 30 plus given this is really the first sun we’ve had apart from two days two weeks ago.

I agree that I would've been better something a bit heavier considering how hot it is today. No sunstroke or bad burns but I did suffer pretty terribly with the sudden heat.

dannyjames1

sungod wrote:

3 litres is a huge amount lot for 50 miles, i did about that today and one and a bit bottles was enough, barely a litre

sounds more like you simply aren't used to the heat, perhaps also that you drank too much, do you really think you sweated/exhaled three litres of water?

it takes time to get used to exertion in the heat, 25 really isn't that hot, if you're fit you should easily adapt (assuming the good weather lasts...)

3 litres doesn't feel like a huge amount for 4 hours (1hr stopped talking at a cafe) though could've been a little less than three now I think about. 700+500 bottle consumed twice is closer to 2.5 and I had a coffee. Never seem to get the last bit of water from a bottle too so that's a bit less again.

I tend not to sweat much usually but every time I stopped at a junction or something today and the wind didn't have a chance to wick the sweat from my face I felt like I'd been slapped with a wet mop after 10 seconds of not moving.

Fitness shouldn't be an issue, I ride regularly and the ride I done today involving 3500 or so ft of climbing (5 hills + a small amount of rolling roads) I usually finish averaging 18mph give or take .5 depending on wind. Today was nearer 17-17.5 and felt more fatigued than usual and I even missed out one of the climbs. Could've just been an off day I guess. I did do 30 flat miles after work yesterday evening at a rather high intensity.

sungod

sounds like you just need to get used to the heat, wearing lightweight jersey etc. can make a difference to comfort as well

fwiw when i ride overseas it takes about a week to get used to the heat up to the high 20s, bit longer if it's into the 30s, but then i'm fine, much rather be in the heat than the bloody cold!

dannyjames1

sungod wrote:

sounds like you just need to get used to the heat, wearing lightweight jersey etc. can make a difference to comfort as well

fwiw when i ride overseas it takes about a week to get used to the heat up to the high 20s, bit longer if it's into the 30s, but then i'm fine, much rather be in the heat than the bloody cold!

My club jersey is rather light and breathable and has cutout mesh under the arms for added ventilation, but I'm questioning how good the bibshorts I use are for warmer weather, good pad but the shoulder straps and part that sits around the stomach/back seems excessively thick and I've noticed I can get a little warm under them. I recall seeing couple of people mentioning it in reviews on the Planetx website. Think it's time to get a couple of more lightweight pairs for the warmer days.

I'll get used to it. Just a bit disheartening today that I seemed to suffer quite bad, still it was lovely out and beat riding in the cold.

sloppyschleckonds

Maybe you carb loaded the days before and that was weighing you down like ballast. Remember all those extra carbs add water

Or just sounds like fitness/ fatigue issue

cougie

Anaerobic exercise ? You don't mean that do you ?

Obviously heat plays a part. Your exercise produces heat. Your body needs to cool itself down by sweating. It's harder in the heat.

photonic69

My heart rate was definitely higher in the heat yesterday. Also when on Turbo and I forget to have the fan on my heart rate is higher by about 10 for usual effort of exercise. So yes, heat will affect performance and max HR might be reached sooner

jgsi

Less time in cafe = more athletic performance , whatever the weather.
Are ALL rides nowadays, training rides even if they include 3 course meals half way through?

navrig2

TrainerRoad has a very good podcast in which they discuss performance/heat/cooling. There was quite a lot of referencing to studies so I may not have it all exactly right.

They said that cooling was the key issue and at hot temperatures a huge amount of the bodies effort goes towards cooling to prevent damage as a result of overheating. The implication being that if you had efficient cooling then your performance could be maintained with a loss of performance if you overheat.

Cooling is obviously related to sweating and having that sweat evaporate off the body. This allows more sweat to be produced and the evaporation has a cooling effect itself. Some studies suggested that pouring cool water over your head didn't actually help although, if I remember correctly, this was a very subjective assessment. Drinking cold water also didn't always help as the sudden surge of cold to the stomach caused the body to direct effort to dealing with the shock cold and took up calories whilst the cold water was brought up to body temperature.

The one thing they seemed sure of was that overheating was the thing to avoid.

For us Brits this is difficult because we don't get used to the heat much and as a result don't cope when it comes suddenly - which is what usually happens, 6 degrees one day and 17 degrees the next. Look at the recent London marathon which was run in "scorching" temperatures which, in reality, were just average temperatures for many other countries who produce world class athletes.

Personally I love riding in the heat. I am sure my performance is affected but as long as I drink lots of water (which is usually tepid rather than cold so no shock loading) I am fine. The bit I like is that when you stop your muscles do not cool down so much so when you start again it is easier to get going.

photonic69

Elite athletes train in temperature controlled rooms where heat can be set at any level from 2-40 degrees C. Very important for F1 drivers when racing in hot conditions as they lose up to 5kgs in weight during a race.

dannyjames1

cougie wrote:

Anaerobic exercise ? You don't mean that do you ?

Obviously heat plays a part. Your exercise produces heat. Your body needs to cool itself down by sweating. It's harder in the heat.

My bad. Aerobic. Only went hard on the climbs and a sprint to the cafe.

JGSI wrote:

Less time in cafe = more athletic performance , whatever the weather.
Are ALL rides nowadays, training rides even if they include 3 course meals half way through?

True. I just couldn't resist today and the extra course of chocolate ice cream certainly didn't help. The outbound journey was certainly slower than going back. I'm sure my performance didn't suffer that bad in the end, found out I had a gps and data glitch so I'll never know.

dannyjames1

Navrig2 wrote:

TrainerRoad has a very good podcast in which they discuss performance/heat/cooling. There was quite a lot of referencing to studies so I may not have it all exactly right.

They said that cooling was the key issue and at hot temperatures a huge amount of the bodies effort goes towards cooling to prevent damage as a result of overheating. The implication being that if you had efficient cooling then your performance could be maintained with a loss of performance if you overheat.

Cooling is obviously related to sweating and having that sweat evaporate off the body. This allows more sweat to be produced and the evaporation has a cooling effect itself. Some studies suggested that pouring cool water over your head didn't actually help although, if I remember correctly, this was a very subjective assessment. Drinking cold water also didn't always help as the sudden surge of cold to the stomach caused the body to direct effort to dealing with the shock cold and took up calories whilst the cold water was brought up to body temperature.

The one thing they seemed sure of was that overheating was the thing to avoid.

For us Brits this is difficult because we don't get used to the heat much and as a result don't cope when it comes suddenly - which is what usually happens, 6 degrees one day and 17 degrees the next. Look at the recent London marathon which was run in "scorching" temperatures which, in reality, were just average temperatures for many other countries who produce world class athletes.

Personally I love riding in the heat. I am sure my performance is affected but as long as I drink lots of water (which is usually tepid rather than cold so no shock loading) I am fine. The bit I like is that when you stop your muscles do not cool down so much so when you start again it is easier to get going.

I did read something along these lines. It makes a lot of sense that your body will work harder towards keeping you cool rather than pushing harder on the pedals when you get hot.

It certainly is hard for us Brits with such inconsistent weather. It'll be pissing down and cool for the rest of the week as of tomorrow then probably go mild and moderately sunny next weekend. If only it could be around 20 celcius with a nice breeze and a little cloud all year round. Best thing I can think of is getting some lighter clothing to keep more airflow to my body and reduce trapped heat. Especially my bibshorts. bib on them is terribly thick.

Good share anyway. thanks.

milemuncher1

If you care that much, yes it does ( to proper athletes ). Blood Oxygen saturation tends to decrease relatively, as temperatures increase.

sloppyschleckonds

JGSI wrote:

Less time in cafe = more athletic performance , whatever the weather.
Are ALL rides nowadays, training rides even if they include 3 course meals half way through?

Dont forget that important cool down time

Alex_Simmons/RST

My winter days are low 20s C.

Yes, lack of adaptation to warmer than normal temperatures does affect sustainable aerobic power.

Matthewfalle

dannyjames1 wrote:

sungod wrote:

sounds like you just need to get used to the heat, wearing lightweight jersey etc. can make a difference to comfort as well

fwiw when i ride overseas it takes about a week to get used to the heat up to the high 20s, bit longer if it's into the 30s, but then i'm fine, much rather be in the heat than the bloody cold!

My club jersey is rather light and breathable and has cutout mesh under the arms for added ventilation, but I'm questioning how good the bibshorts I use are for warmer weather, good pad but the shoulder straps and part that sits around the stomach/back seems excessively thick and I've noticed I can get a little warm under them. I recall seeing couple of people mentioning it in reviews on the Planetx website. Think it's time to get a couple of more lightweight pairs for the warmer days.

I'll get used to it. Just a bit disheartening today that I seemed to suffer quite bad, still it was lovely out and beat riding in the cold.

Club jersey.


Questioning bib shorts.

dstev55

I don't do well in the heat. I think some people quite simply deal with heat better than others. I'm ok up to 21-22 degrees but anything above that and I know my performance drops.

hdow

What Navrig2 correctly refers to is the fact that the body will protect itself from building a core temperature approaching 40C. This is to protect vital organs. In addition to sweating etc the body can subconsciously limit its work output which feels like fatigue so reducing the 40C threat. Obviously it will also be working hard to cool down, hence high heart rate, and will adapt its cooling systems over time so rides can be harder for the same perceived effort.

3wheeler

Your body will be pumping a lot more blood to the skin, to lose heat, instead of your muscles so your performance will suffer. This depends on how hot it is and how acclimatised your body is to the heat you're training in.

Ben6899

I don't want to sound like your mum, OP, but get some SPF30 or 50.

kingstongraham

This is true commitment to looking for something to moan about.

surfercyclist

Your body burns more energy when it's hot keeping you cool than when it's cold keeping you warm. Seems odd but it's true.

kingstongraham

Remember that day it was actually hot in this country last June?

fenix

dannyjames1 wrote:

I'm questioning how good the bibshorts I use are for warmer weather, good pad but the shoulder straps and part that sits around the stomach/back seems excessively thick and I've noticed I can get a little warm under them. I recall seeing couple of people mentioning it in reviews on the Planetx website. Think it's time to get a couple of more lightweight pairs for the warmer days.

It's Britain ! How many hot days do we get ? Lightweight shorts will probably get one or two weeks usage a year. I'd just unzip my top a bit....

navrig2

Might be this one:

https://soundcloud.com/trainerroad/ask- ... t-training

I'll have a listen later.

pilot_pete

Could it have just been you were on a bad day? I went out and did 100miles that day and still averaged 18mph, which is par for the course for me. Yes I felt warm and sweated like buggery (which I do in all weathers!), the only difference being sore eyes from the amount of sweat running into them!

PP

sloppyschleckonds

Pilot Pete wrote:

I went out and did 100miles that day and still averaged 18mph,

PP

Do you find holding these high speeds for this amount of time your carbon wheels heat up and delaminate :?:

pilot_pete

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Pilot Pete wrote:

I went out and did 100miles that day and still averaged 18mph,

PP

Do you find holding these high speeds for this amount of time your carbon wheels heat up and delaminate :?:

No, do you find being a twat for such a length of time easy? Yea thought you did. :roll: