DEALING WITH HEAT

Race season is heating up and so is the great outdoors. Anyone who has raced and trained in heat is aware that how well one can take it. 

Here are some tips to deal with heat.

Hydrate Early and Often

Drink 16 ounces of sports drink an hour before you head out.  Consume about six to 10 ounces of sports drink about every 20 minutes while training or racing.  Sports drinks are better than water because they contain glucose and sodium (sugar and salt), which increase your water-absorption rate, replace the electrolytes you lose in sweat, and taste good, encouraging you to drink. It is very difficult to advise on the exact ratios of electrolytes, glucose, sodium, and protein to mix into your water bottles because it is so individual. Our best advice is to train using different types and ratios to see what works best for you the triathlete.

Determine Your Losses

Weigh yourself pre- and post-workout in each sport and be as specific as you can to the actual racing conditions to determine the exact amount of fluid you lose. There is a big difference between 80 degrees and 20 percent humidity and 80 degrees and 70 percent humidity. You need to know exactly how much fluid you are losing in each sport. Don’t guess!

If, for example, you lose two pounds during a 90 minute bike, it means you sweat about 32 ounces of fluid (remember to add in the fluid you drank during the ride). For future planning you can try to replenish your fluids at a rate of slightly less than 32 ounces per 90 minutes of cycling. It is difficult on the run to replace the entire amount of fluid that you lose during exercising but you do need to replace about 75 percent of what you lose with small drinks. You want to avoid the sloshing and fullness associated with drinking too much. Your body just can’t absorb the fluids as fast as you lose them.

We would also recommend you do the same after some of your longer swims. We do lose water while swimming.