Extra fuel for extra hot days?

[OakLeaf]

I've never noticed calories to be an issue. But increased core temperature does increase your heart rate, so I suppose something has to fuel that.

I'm not sure what you mean by feeling "de-fueled." When I need calories on a ride, I get muscle fatigue. Is that what you mean? Maybe you were overheated - did you take your temperature? Maybe dehydrated - did you weigh yourself or note the volume and color of your urine? Maybe mildly hyponatremic - what's your salt intake like?

I'm a firm believer that you CAN acclimate to heat, but be careful and gradual and smart about it.

[ny biker]

I'm a firm believer that you CAN acclimate to heat, but be careful and gradual and smart about it.

No matter how much I ride on hot days, and no matter how acclimated I get in terms of efficient sweating, I will never be able to ride at noon when the heat index is 105 without feeling weak and desperately in need of finding shade immediately or I will completely freak out. Everyone has a limit, and for most people it is probably when forecasters are predicting "deadly heat," like they are this week.

When temps are hot but not as bad as this week, I find a noticeable improvement in my energy levels when I increase my salt intake.

And if I'm riding at noon, I need to have a big breakfast at the very least, possibly also a snack pre-ride depending on how long I'll be riding.

So I'd say it could be combination of things. But mostly, stay out of the sun between 11 and 3 on really hot days.

[blue_angel]

Maybe if you drank one bottle of gatorade to water in a 1:1 ratio (e.g. one bottle of water, one bottle of gatorade) you'd feel better. You'd get some calories/carbs, plus the electrolytes, which are particularly important in super hot weather. It's hard to hydrate properly in extreme temps like that, and gatorade (or something like it) will really help.

[rubysoho]

I know what you mean. I didn't feel "warmed up" for my ride until I was 2/3 of the way done (on a 20 mile ride!). Everything felt slow and heavy and not effortless at all. At the end it turned out I had shaved 4 minutes off a time recorded over a month ago, but it was still not a fun ride. The last 5 miles felt better than the rest.

What I did was eat about an hour before the ride (I normally eat 2 hours before so wondering if this didn't help...) and drank a lot of water. I made sure to drink water often on the ride. Then once I got back I ate some crackers and drank Hammer Recoverite. Today I am feeling pretty good and thinking about going out even though it is even hotter today. Tomorrow is supposed to be even worse!