Hot Riding preparation

I've done something wrong with preparing for hot rides recently and am curious what others do. Last night's ride is a good example - is there anything apparent that I am not doing properly?

I knew it would be over 90 last night, so I drank more water yesterday than usual, and after 12 I drank nothing but water. I waited until 6 to ride, and had dinner an hour before riding so that things would have a bit of a chance to digest.

For the first 30-40 minutes of my ride my stomach was unsettled - not quite nauseous but close. So close that I rode longer in the park than I wanted to in case it got worse and I needed to go home. It finally settled and I left the park to hit my shorter loop before going back through the park to go home. I tried to focus on just riding, not hitting it hard.

I didn't apply sunscreen because I wanted to sweat and it was cloudy/sun at a lower angle. I did drink whenever I thought about it, though when I got home I found that I hadn't drunk as much from my pack as I had thought, and I didn't put much Heed into my pack - there may not have been enough for my needs. Halfway through I did stop in some shade and had a shot block, the one with the increased sodium.

I've been riding/hiking in hot weather all along, but the last couple rides have been similar. Is there anything obvious in my preparation for the ride last night that I can tweak? It could be no more than the hour between dinner and bike wasn't quite long enough

Sometimes it is just too hot. I can take it easy or I can get sick. Because it is dry here, it can help to wear a damp woven shirt over whatever else I have on, but your humidity is another story.

When I would commute on hot (90* + days) I would wet my hair and jersey down before I left. I usually do not like to commute on very hot days though. My commute is 16 miles. Always drink a lot of water even before you ride, that seemed to help me too.

I would drink water constantly throughout my workday, for my long commute home.

I read an article about the physiology of adapting to heat. It involves an increase in your blood volume-- to compensate for the blood being shunted to the periphery which is part of the cooling mechanism. In very athletic people it's a matter of days, otherwise it can be weeks.

Loading up on the water might do more harm because you dilute sodium & potassium. I don't know if shot blocks have potassium and might not have enough sodium for the rides you are doing.

I was very upset Monday night. After 60-80 miles a day for Bike Across Kansas, I came home and tried to do a one-hour evening ride. I nearly throw up. We didn't actually have much heat last week in Kansas, oddly enough.

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Originally Posted by Muirenn

What is your helmet like? Is it lightweight and vented? Just one or the other? Or neither?

Is your hair damp with sweat at the end of a ride? Can you feel any air getting to your scalp when you ride?

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This is the helmet I ride on the road - it is a UVEX mtb helmet. The color is different but I think it is just last year's version - it doesn't seem overly heavy and has bug netting on the front vents. I have a more robust mtb helmet for trail riding.

I can't seem to remember feeling any air getting to my scalp, but my hair wasn't drenching wet when I got home last night - though generally is at the back of my neck. I will pay more attention to this,

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Originally Posted by Trek-chick

When I would commute on hot (90* + days) I would wet my hair and jersey down before I left. I usually do not like to commute on very hot days though. My commute is 16 miles. Always drink a lot of water even before you ride, that seemed to help me too.

I would drink water constantly throughout my workday, for my long commute home.

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Good idea about doing that before you leave the office. So far I've not commuted in very hot temps as the one day I commute is my short, 4 hour day (I work 4 nine hour days and 1 four), which means I am typically home between 12:30-1:00. My ride home is close to the distance you ride, and features more climbing than the flat/downhill, and shorter, route to work.

The almost-nausea started almost immediately after getting on the bike, it may have been hotter than I realized. With the low humidity it just didn't FEEL that hot.

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Originally Posted by Melalvai

I read an article about the physiology of adapting to heat. It involves an increase in your blood volume-- to compensate for the blood being shunted to the periphery which is part of the cooling mechanism. In very athletic people it's a matter of days, otherwise it can be weeks.

Loading up on the water might do more harm because you dilute sodium & potassium. I don't know if shot blocks have potassium and might not have enough sodium for the rides you are doing.

I was very upset Monday night. After 60-80 miles a day for Bike Across Kansas, I came home and tried to do a one-hour evening ride. I nearly throw up. We didn't actually have much heat last week in Kansas, oddly enough.

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I think I read the same article and that makes sense. I've certainly ridden longer distances in recent weeks in similar temps - though for those rides the temps were rapidly rising, it wasn't already at the high point for the day. While I got hot on those rides, I didn't get sick to my stomach. Shot blocks do have potassium (I am pretty sure at least, and the Hammer Heed does) and I had the Margarita blocks which have double the sodium of the regular blocks.

Good food for thought, every season is a learning experience! Thankfully I hope to be on the trails this weekend, it is so much more comfortable to be in the woods when it is hot :cool:

I was going to suggest sodium but Mel beat me to it.

Nausea is the #1 symptom I get when I'm not getting enough sodium. For me, though, it persists throughout the day (and will go on and get worse for as many days as it takes for me to figure it out and drop a few Zenergize tablets or whatever :rolleyes:), so I'd still wonder in your case whether it wasn't simple overheating.

I know people who keep water bottles in the freezer, so they'll thaw and provide cool water as they ride.

I've been experimenting with something called "Salt Stick", they are in capsules like Enduroytes but are said to have a better nutritional profile. I had intended on taking one before the ride, and will try this next time.

It may well have simply been hotter than I realized and was tricked by the low humidity. Usually, however, that kind of problem presents in the latter half of the ride not the first...and I felt much better by the end of the ride.

Good thoughts everyone, and thanks!

For me, an hour after eating would be too soon to ride. In addition to the weather it could be that also, as you said you felt better toward the end of your ride. I've had the same thing happen if I tried to ride too soon after eating and it makes me feel queasy. If I take it easy I find that as the ride progresses I feel better and can ride stronger.

This happens wether it is warm or cold. So now I only snack before a ride and have a regular meal afterwards. If I know I want to ride in the evening I'll take a late lunch. For me the heat only exacerbates the whole thing.

How long was the ride? If I wasn't on vacation, I would have gone for a 90 minute ride last night. I never drink more than usual or eat anything special before an evening ride on a hot day. I do bring two water bottles with me to drink during the ride, but it's just water. I eat half a sandwich (probably ~350-400 calories, in some cases) about 2 hours before the ride, because it's my usual afternoon snack (I eat 1/2 sandwich for lunch the other 1/2 sandwich for snack).

If I ate dinner an hour before a ride (or any exercise) I'd probably wind up with stomach cramps.

hmmm, didn't think about food perhaps being the problem. It was a 90 minute ride. I eat an hour before riding all the time, and now that I think about it, it was just a little heavier than my usual pre-ride meals and, of course it was hot.

I ALWAYS eat before exercise as it helps to keep my blood sugar stable; the diabetes may have been reversed but I've always had problems with low blood sugar without fueling beforehand (it's dropped as low as 29). 2 hours is too long a wait for me. My body is normally fine with 1 hour but perhaps it was a combination of different food than usual and the heat.This makes sense - I probably would have been fine with a banana/PB sammy or something like that.

I remember my first ride as a stoker last month on a day where the temps were similar, and I had eaten an entire 2 hours before. The ride was only 24 miles but I was bonking at the end, thankfully I wasn't alone and we ended at a restaurant. Unsure why I didn't have anything with me, I always do, but things worked out.

Riding on a completly empty stomach is not something I can tolerate either and if it's happened I bonk shortly into the ride, I do try to have a little snack like a handful of raisins and a handful of walnuts shortly before a ride and if I'm going to be out more than an hour I take mabye a little snack baggie of the same or something equally little but powerful. I like those snack packs of the peanut butter with little round toasts. Two or three of those little cracker sandwiches. about a half a pack, is just about right for me mid ride.

I'm a regular water drinker throughout the day anyway so I don't drink more or less before a hot ride but I do ensure that I have enough on the ride and drink a bit more than usual after the ride.

It is always interesting to read how our bodies respond in different ways Bike Writer. I need to consume a good amount of calories on the bike, though not as much as I once needed to :) I don't typically eat anything extra on the bike as long as I fueled fairly close to the start of the ride, but if the ride is >90 minutes I need to consume 150-200 calories an hour. It is a balance, and we all have to find what our bodies prefer.

My body loves Cliff bars on the bike - don't ask me why those dense things work for me - Cliff Bars, bananas, Shot Blocs, Heed and Accelerade (for the really long rides), moving away from those things pretty much causes tummy upset. I also make my own energy mix with almonds, raisins, dried cranberries and sometimes add sunflower seeds and/or chocolate chips if it isn't too hot. This tends to be more for the mountain bike than the road.

When it's this hot I carry a bottle just to squirt on my head between the vents in my helmet. Makes a huuuuuuuge difference.

I have a soakable cool-off wrap which you soak in water and swells up. I wrap this around my neck and when I stop I turn it over to the cooler side. This makes sure the blood going to my head is cool and it really works well.