Heat + Humidity = Wall

[OakLeaf]

This actually sounds worth double-checking. Source?

Well huh. I too had only read it in lay summaries, and when I tried to chase it down, this was the best thing I found: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1875801 which without reading the full text, seems from the abstract that it just assumes that as a given, like it's conventional wisdom among doctors too?

This comes from MIT sports medicine department, but of the four citations it gives, three are lay summaries and the last is an entire book, not particular studies.

[estronat]

Interesting thread full of great advice. I am soaking it all up (pun intended).

Let me just say as a noobie rider, who can only go about 5 miles total on completely flat, shaded, smooth bike paths, and probably only about 2 miles if there is any kind of incline, I am in awe of all of you who can go for an hour or more in any kind of heat.

Imagine 'bonking' 1 or 2 miles into a ride and you've well hydrated yourself before during and after, you've eaten within 90 to 120 min of your ride, and other than the fact that it's hot, humid, and you're completely out of shape and overweight, there's no other factor affecting the bonk. Talk about completely humbling!

But we all have to start somewhere, even if somewhere is right at the 0 mark.