Hot Riding preparation

[Penny4]

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 to do this too. I squirt a bit on the back of my neck at almost every stop just to keep myself from getting too overheated. I usually freeze half the bottle so the water will be ice cold throughout the ride.

I also set my watch to beep every 8 minutes to remind me to take a drink.

[velo]

I also set my watch to beep every 8 minutes to remind me to take a drink.

This is a great idea! I have a hard time remembering to hydrate.

[Bike Writer]

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.

Cliff Bars - Yum! Discovered them last year, hooked on the Mojo with chocolate and carmel but I haven't found them this year. Had a choc PB one last week on my ride to Ford Lake. Stopped at a RX store across the street from the lake and it was just enough to refuel for the ride back.

[Dogmama]

You can get an electrolyte mix that has no sugar. It is Electro-mix and made by the Emergen-C people. I think I got mine from Vitacost.com. That has really been working for me lately.

[Owlie]

My scalp sweats like crazy, so if I pour water over my head, I end up regretting it three seconds later. I wet down the front of my jersey, either with the water bottle (I use the dregs at the bottom that are too warm to drink) or in the sink at bathrooms.

I'm still trying to work out food so that I get enough electrolytes. I can't do real food (beyond almonds or something) when it gets hot, and I only barely tolerate Clif bars (depending on flavor). I take dilute Gatorade with me (I'm too poor to experiment with the other stuff) in one water bottle, water in the other, and sometimes a Camelbak with water and ice. The only problem with the Camelbak is that my back starts to regret it once the water warms up, both temperature and discomfort-wise.

There's a place where I used to ride with a shaved ice stand. That was the best thing ever after a hot ride. Not exactly healthy, but I didn't care!

[malkin]

Good grief, it is so hot, dry and windy here that I may never ride again!

[Bethany1]

Good grief, it is so hot, dry and windy here that I may never ride again!

It's so hot, humid and windy in Nebraska and I feel the same way...LOL. Next week will be 95 temps.

I only did 4 miles and it nearly killed me yesterday, but I was on my fat bike. I just figure shorter trips will have to do.

[malkin]

Yesterday I could hardly go outside!

This morning I went outside early to do some of the work that didn't get done yesterday. It was already mid 70s at 7:00 this morning! Now that the sun is up, it will be hide inside for me.

[Dogmama]

Yesterday I could hardly go outside!

This morning I went outside early to do some of the work that didn't get done yesterday. It was already mid 70s at 7:00 this morning! Now that the sun is up, it will be hide inside for me.

It was 85 degrees at 4AM in Tucson. Phoenix was 92. Maybe it's time to drag out the lights & start riding at 3AM?

[Becky]

It was 85 degrees at 4AM in Tucson. Phoenix was 92. Maybe it's time to drag out the lights & start riding at 3AM?

DH and I have been known to do this. It's actually lots of fun

[BikeDutchess]

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.

If anyone has a link to that article I would love to read it.

I always have a very difficult time with the heat. Went on a club ride this morning in what I'm sure was 90+ degree weather (at least towards the end) and my jersey basically stayed dry because any sweat immediately evaporated (I knew I was sweating because my face tasted very salty). It was so dry and windy it felt like riding in an oven. As we were nearing the end of the ride I noticed my heart rate was hovering in zone 5 and just wouldn't come down, even though it was a flat ride with lots of tailwind in the 2nd half. I'm sure all the soot in the air from the fires wasn't helping either. I was squirting water on me to try & cool down, and finally cried uncle when we got back to the starting point - asked hubby to come get me so I wouldn't have to climb the hill to get home. If I lived in a humid climate I don't know that I would be riding at all.

[malkin]

It was 85 degrees at 4AM in Tucson. Phoenix was 92. Maybe it's time to drag out the lights & start riding at 3AM?

Well, it certainly wouldn't interrupt any sleep because it is too stinkin hot to sleep! We tried sleeping outside, rather unsuccessfully because of the wind.

[Crankin]

Malkin, where do you live? Don't you have AC? Evaporative cooling?
In AZ, people used to hang sheets out on their porches and blow a fan on the sheets, to sleep in the summer, before the 50's, when AC become available. Women and children were sent to San Diego for the summer!
Dogmama, I would not be riding in AZ at this time of year. I might get up and ride at 4 AM now, but I remember walking at 5 AM in the summer and it was already unbearable. I would think my riding season would be the end of October through March.
It was about 82 when we rode on Saturday, but the combination of bright sunshine, eating lunch in the sun, and hard climbing had me cursing the heat. I do acclimate more quickly than in the past, but I obviously need to do this still, this year.

[jessmarimba]

Well, it certainly wouldn't interrupt any sleep because it is too stinkin hot to sleep! We tried sleeping outside, rather unsuccessfully because of the wind.

I'm sleeping on the couch downstairs with a tower fan, since 93 degrees with shaded windows is remarkably cooler than my upstairs, with no porch roofs to block windows and temps of around 105. It cooled to 82 downstairs overnight.

I don't want full-blown a/c because of Raynaud's, but I went to buy a portable evaporative cooler yesterday and the entire Denver/Boulder metro area is sold out. Something's gotta give. 3 days of record heat here in a row. Maybe I'll sleep at my office tomorrow night?

[malkin]

I'm in Salt Lake City.
Our house is pretty far from well designed; the bedroom upstairs heats up like an oven. We're running AC and a portable swamp cooler too, which makes it okay inside, but it's just blasting hot outside.

Next modification to the house will be better insulation and venting the attic space, but really, when it's that hot outside it's just that hot. The sun at this altitude feels nastier to me than it does shining through all the lovely atmosphere at sea level.

Relative humidity is 10% and there are fires all over the state.

Brewer & I were outside downtown this afternoon and ended up making jokes about living on Tatooine and more obscurely "Dune, Arakis, Desert Planet..." So maybe the heat has gone to my head...

Usually June is nice!