Will I eventually acclimate to this heat???

[littlegrasshopp]

all is cool and happy in our house now! But last night it took until almost 9:30 before the temp was below 90 outside. That is crazy!!!

[OakLeaf]

y'know... this is largely my wounded pride speaking and I think a lot of it is just a reflection on the geo-demographics of this board... but in part I'm posting this out of concern for inexperienced riders here...

I can't help contrasting this thread with the one about altitude sickness - and even the one about lightning.

Heat related illness kills and injures hundreds of people every year - where only a handful are struck by lightning, and really is it possible to die of altitude sickness? Yet on this thread, we have comments like "get over it" and "it's mind over matter"...

Heat related illness is not only real, it's very dangerous.

So here's a quick reminder from the Mayo Clinic website:

Signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion often begin suddenly, sometimes after excessive exercise, heavy perspiration and inadequate fluid intake. Signs and symptoms resemble those of shock and may include:

* Feeling faint or dizzy
* Nausea
* Heavy sweating
* Rapid, weak heartbeat
* Low blood pressure
* Cool, moist, pale skin
* Low-grade fever
* Heat cramps
* Headache
* Fatigue
* Dark-colored urine

If you suspect heat exhaustion:

* Get the person out of the sun and into a shady or air-conditioned location.
* Lay the person down and elevate the legs and feet slightly.
* Loosen or remove the person's clothing.
* Have the person drink cool water.
* Cool the person by spraying or sponging him or her with cool water and fanning.
* Monitor the person carefully. Heat exhaustion can quickly become heatstroke.

If fever greater than 102 F (38.9 C), fainting, confusion or seizures occur, dial 911 or call for emergency medical assistance.

I might add that early symptoms for me include suddenly stopping sweating; a sensation of cold chills; and dizziness that manifests itself more visually than mentally (it seems like everything's swirling with a lot of floaters).

Okay, rant off.

[Aggie_Ama]

Oakleaf- It is possible to die of altitude sickness but I think it is more danger for hardcore climbers.

Very good point about heat, I would feel it is the biggest natural enemy for cyclists. Even as an avid cyclist and native Texan I have had heat exhaustion. I had all the symptoms above and it was not pretty.

I know at summer rides here in Texas we often see people who ride frequently sagging or worse being hooked up to IVs for fluids, taken by ambulance to be tended to for heat related illness. Be careful out there guys and learn what works for you.

[Tuckervill]

I never said it was mind over matter. I wondered aloud what actual biological process we were talking about, and questioned whether it could be mind over matter.

No one was talking about serious heat related symptoms, which is definitely a biological process. They were talking about just not liking the heat.

Karen

[Crankin]

I agree, Oakleaf. I often feel like I'm seen as a wimp because I cannot live without AC on the type of days we are having now (97 degrees, 90% humidity). I felt very sick at school yesterday, with no AC and now I'm just sick. If it's drier, I can tolerate a little bit of a high temperature, but I have to be careful.
And yes, my altitude sickness was VERY real. I want to go on a X country ski trip out west and I searched for 2 years to find a place that had good snow and is only at 2,000 feet! When I lived in AZ I would feel it as soon as I got north of Prescott. Every trip to Sedona and Flagstaff was ruined. I know if I lived there, I would acclimate, but it's definitely not in my mind.
Of course, I don't ride a century every weekend, either. To me, it's an accomplishment I do once a year.

[bboston88]

Ok, misery loves company I guess! I think the problem is we don't seem to have seasons anymore. Just one or two weeks of nice temps then BOOM. We're in the 90s with serious humidity. Damn climate change.

I wouldn't have chosen to go at 10am, it was a scheduled group ride. I'll go solo if need be from now on. And possibly a camelback. I didn't want to pull out a camelback on a group ride for fear of looking like a dork (I know that heatstoke isn't cool though!).

I like the ice in sports bra and wet buff ideas a lot. Last night I rode and it was nearly 100 but the sun was setting so I didn't really have a problem.

[mimitabby]

one more thing about heat exhaustion. there's an article in the NYTimes about it;
here's an excerpt; it's scary stuff!


"But I wasn’t fine. By the end of the run I had collapsed with heatstroke and had fallen unconscious. The athletic trainers quickly submerged me in a tub of ice to lower my body temperature, and I spent the next week in a hospital, lucky to be alive. Later my coach visited me, angry at himself for letting me continue my run. But I had no memory of our earlier exchange. “You were so convincing,'’ he told me.

Athletic researchers say one of the most frustrating aspects of heat illness is that the sufferer is often completely unaware of his or her own symptoms.

“Your cognitive ability and your capacity to make a rational decision is indeed compromised,'’ said Michael F. Bergeron, director of the environmental physiology laboratory at the Medical College of Georgia. “You hear all the time that the athletes themselves didn’t know enough to stop and didn’t want to stop and have no memory of what happened.'’

[BarbaraAlys]

You wrote:

I didn't want to pull out a camelback on a group ride for fear of looking like a dork (I know that heatstoke isn't cool though!).


I won't ride without my camelback. If anyone has any problem with it, they have never said so, and I would't care if they did. I find that being able to sip on the camelback at any time means i drink WAY more water than I would otherwise. This is true in hiking, and I assume is true in bikeing, though I wouldn't really know as I've not figure out how you get your bottle in and out while on the bike...think of what a dork I would look like falling over because I could not get my bottle!...lol

Don't worry about the dork factor.

Barbara

[GLC1968]

I have suffered from dangerous levels of both heat exposure and altitude sickness in my lifetime (though not always on a bike). They are both very, very real and can be very, very dangerous.

I'm a northern girl and I don't handle heat well, never have. I moved to Florida in 1997 and was miserable for the 7 years I lived there. I spent the summers indoors in A/C. When we moved to NC and I started biking, everything changed, but it was gradual. NC summers were hotter than FL summers (in FL, we were close enough to the coast to have our temps reduced - it rarely got above 90). The difference was that in NC, I wanted to bike in the summer which meant being outside. We would do all the 'stay cool' tricks but I would still suffer (when DH was fine). I would break out in awful (and ugly) hives when my core temp would get too high. Until I learned how to read the signs, I couldn't control it. Once I did figure it out, I still found that some temps were just too extreme. I did acclimate though. Knowing that I'd signed up for a century in mid-August, I purposely tried to ride at mid-day for my training rides so that I could get used to the heat. I was careful, but I made it happen. When the ride came, I was ready. By the end of that summer, I was comfortable riding long rides in 95+ heat and that still amazes me (and anyone who knows me!).

We moved here to OR and it's been cold and rainy (even by OR standards!). We had a weekend last month where it was over 90 and sunny DH and I jumped at the chance to ride. We saw NO other cyclists on routes that are normally quite busy. NONE. No one here wanted to ride in that heat and here we were excited about it! Now it's taking me months to get used to riding in 50 degree temps. I never thought I'd say it, but this northern girl is used to southern temperatures!

Plus, there is something to relativity, too. Think about mid-winter when you get a freak 60 degree day. It feels like a heat wave and you want to put on short sleeves and shorts, right? What if you got that same day in mid-August? It would feel down right chilly and you'd be pulling out long pants, right? That's because your body has acclimated to the season's temps and anything out of the ordinary feels extreme. Of course, with weather conditions the way they have been lately, it's really hard to judge this. 90+ temps in May? 40's in June? Seriously...no wonder we are all having trouble adjusting!

[sundial]

I won't ride without my camelback. I find that being able to sip on the camelback at any time means i drink WAY more water than I would otherwise.
Barbara

And another perk: whilst you enjoy a refreshing drink from your Camelbak, fellow cyclists are scrambling to find a water faucet or a convenience store to replenish their diminishing water supply.

[ny biker]

Personally I can't wear a camelback while I'm riding because it exacerbates neck and shoulder pain and having that thing on my back makes me way too hot. Instead I use 2 water bottles when I'm riding. I plan my rides so that there will be someplace to refill them long before they are both empty. I don't like to ride more than 25 miles without a rest stop anyway.

I generally don't have much trouble with hot weather in the morning or late afternoon/evening. My problem is between noon and 3:00 when the sun is hottest. It's harder to find shady spots when the sun is at it's high point and the roads turn into blast furnaces with the heat reflecting off them. So I do my best to avoid riding during that part of the day when it's super hot out. If I do get caught out in early afternoon I look for shady areas where I can stop and rest, and if needed I take off my helmet and pour water over my head to help cool down.

Also for me clothing color is extremely important. I have to wear light colors to reflect the sun. I cannot understand how people can wear dark colors when they're riding on a hot sunny day. Same for helmets - I avoid dark ones.

[indysteel]

one more thing about heat exhaustion. there's an article in the NYTimes about it;
here's an excerpt; it's scary stuff!


"But I wasn’t fine. By the end of the run I had collapsed with heatstroke and had fallen unconscious. The athletic trainers quickly submerged me in a tub of ice to lower my body temperature, and I spent the next week in a hospital, lucky to be alive. Later my coach visited me, angry at himself for letting me continue my run. But I had no memory of our earlier exchange. “You were so convincing,'’ he told me.

Athletic researchers say one of the most frustrating aspects of heat illness is that the sufferer is often completely unaware of his or her own symptoms.

“Your cognitive ability and your capacity to make a rational decision is indeed compromised,'’ said Michael F. Bergeron, director of the environmental physiology laboratory at the Medical College of Georgia. “You hear all the time that the athletes themselves didn’t know enough to stop and didn’t want to stop and have no memory of what happened.'’

Here's the link to the full article: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...llness-denial/

[indysteel]

All this talk about acclimating....I'm curious about what biological process or factors we might be talking about here?

Here's more than you may have ever wanted to know about heat acclimation:

http://www.sportsci.org/encyc/heataccl/heataccl.html

[tulip]

freeze your filled-up camelback the night before a ride (cool on the back) and take along a couple of water bottles to drink while the camelback thaws out.

[OakLeaf]

Here's more than you may have ever wanted to know about heat acclimation:

http://www.sportsci.org/encyc/heataccl/heataccl.html

wow, great link, thanks!

so the bottom line is: there's nothing that'll acclimate us better than just getting out and doing it - albeit CAREFULLY - but going to the air conditioned gym and working out is better than laying around in the heat. I really worried that teaching aerobics in the AC was ruining my acclimation, but I guess that's not the case. I'm glad for that!