When I was riding with Kraig Koski in Colorado I told him that right before RAAM I planned to ride the trainer in my workshop with heaters going to get used to the heat. Kraig said, "You're gonna make a puddle." Kraig was way off base, or maybe he was just assuming my shop floor was level...I made a stream.
The heaters would only get the shop to 95 degrees. At first I was disappointed because I thought I wanted it hotter than that. Within about 20 minutes I learned that was plenty hot. Initially it felt pretty good. My muscles just responded really well to the heat, and unlike most of my rides I felt strong right away instead of having to warm up for two hours before I started feeling good. I set the resistance at 4% and was cruising easily at 220W (these Watt numbers are from my trainer and may have no connection to reality). After about 20 minutes I was starting to feel the heat and having to cut my pace back. By 40 minutes I was trying to keep my power below 110W because (for those not familiar with power numbers that equates to roughly 10 mph on a 4% grade) if I stopped paying attention my power would increase and my heart rate would skyrocket and I'm pretty sure I'd be unable to thermo-regulate in about 10 minutes.
I had planned on riding for about an hour or hour and fifteen minutes. That's about all I can stand on the trainer in good conditions. Especially on a pretty nice day when Heather is out on a real bike ride.
At an hour I was out of water so I quickly re-filled my bottles and got back on the bike. Since this was mostly a psychological workout I decided I'd force myself to make it to 1:30. When I got to 1:30 I decided I'd go until I was out of water. When I ran out of water I tried to force myself to go for 10 more minutes. I haven't done a single ride this year where I felt like I couldn't go another hour (or more) beyond when I ran out of water. Yesterday I made it about 7 minutes after the water was gone.
I'd ridden a couple minutes short of two hours. But only 25 (trainer) miles. I'm hoping that 95 degrees in absolutely still air is worse than 105 in moving air. And I think it is. I hope it is. Because that really sucked a lot.
I'm going to do the same thing tonight. But I won't do it for that long because I've got to get to the airport.
1 comment:
Jeff,
Do NOT sleep with air conditioning once you hit the lower-48. This will help your body get used to the heat. For the first 72 hours in a hot climate, you sweat water and salt (test this by licking your skin). After 72 hours in a hot climate if you work out each day, your kidneys conserve salt and you only sweat water (lick and test). Once heat-adapted you are less prone to electrolyte imbalances. Also in heat, you may have to dilute your liquid nourishment more than in colder weather in order for it to taste good and digest easily. GOOD LUCK in RAAM. Alaska Digital Visions
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