Advice for cycling in this heat

Light clothing, 500ml of fluids per hour. Sun cream. Good rules of thumb.

markos1963 wrote:

If anything I go quicker when it's hot (broke my 10TT PB on wednesday night) Just take on some more liquids, less clothing and a positive attitude.

Me too, i fly (in my own small way) when its hot.
Just make sure you ride well within yourself TKF plus the advice above.

A lot of it is mainly practice. You get different sensations in different temperates. After a while you get used to it. Main thing is to embrace the warmth, rather than fight it (mentally).

Buckled_Rims wrote:

What really effects me is flies, bees and other small critters.

^Yep, swallowed a couple and had at least another three dozen stuck to my suncreamed arms and legs yesterday
Anyone know a non-sticky suncream?

The heat itself doesn't bother me too much. Plenty of electrolytes as mentioned above. In fact I use the lap warning (5 miles) on my Garmin to remind me to have another drink...otherwise I tend to leave it too long.

It's the stinging (sweat?, pollen?, more flies?) in the eyes that bothers me most...takes hours for them to stop weeping afterwards.

Clothing -> from Socks to Helmet, you want light, well vented stuff. Good baselayers improve comfort, otherwise your jersey can stick.

Hydration and nutrition -> 500ml per hour is about right for me, electrolytes are useful for longer rides. Don't forget to eat, i find I'm less likely to feel the need to eat if its hot.

Other stuff? Suncream is useful If you're going on longer rides... but you need to let your tan-lines develop at the same time. Chamois cream is also useful as you're going to be sweating more and the chamois in your bibs is more likely to chafe (especially if you sweat as much as me!).

Also you should go faster in the warm, apparently ~1.5-2mph gain from winter conditions to warm summer conditions due to factors such as thinner air, better road conditions, less clothing etc.

You should be able to adjust to the warmer weather though, and you shouldn't be feeling slower for too long.

I think the 2 main issues affecting the op are, first, last week it was 12 degrees in the day and yesterday it was hotter than that in the middle of the night. Then this is probably accentuated by being a relative noob. Drink your water ,keep going, suddenly youll realise this aint so bad....

The problem is acclimatization, when you are used to riding in a certain temperature and it suddenly changes, your body takes a while to adapt. Probably more difficult in the UK as the weather often changes rapidly.

Start out slower than usual, get used to it, before increasing speed helps to avoid sudden overheating which is difficult to cope with. Two bottles on the bike, drink before you go out, keep stopping to pee.

When it gets to 47c, stay in the house



Mavic do 28c+ jerseys, so good excuse to spend

RC856 wrote:

For those that use the High5 Zero tabs...do they make you pee more?
Previously used Nuun but recently got the High5 because they were in a shop rather than on the Internet and I found
myself having to stop a lot. Usually that won't happen when I'm working hard and sweating.

Guess they're just super hydrating? Mate uses the caffeine versions and finds them ok. :?

personally i prefer the nuun tablets, cheapest way is buy them in 8-tube boxes online

afaik caffeine raises your core temperature, which in hot weather can negate the stimulant effect

to the op, as others say, it's acclimatization, i used to spend a lot of time in tropics/jungle, the first 1-2 weeks were toughest, keeping hydrated, after a while the body seems to adapt to retain more water

i just came back from a couple of weeks cycing in the canaries, first week coolish, then the calima started and the second week was brutal, 40+ in the shade, had to refill at every cafe i passed as i was getting through over a litre an hour, plus sometimes a bottle of coke and adding a smidge of salt to it

have ridden in the UAE, Oman and Qatar now for 3 years. I use Zero tablets (including the caffine ones) but they are not as good as Pocari Sweat, which has a noticable benefical boost to my endurance. I also freeze the water bottle (s) and use insulated ones, they stay frozen for the first 20 minutes at least