Heat Adaptation
Race Preparation, January 08, 2019
Heat Adaptation is a great way to aclimatise to an event in a hot and humid environment.
At the time of writing this article we are between 5-12 weeks out from 2 very significant events for the Foot Traffic athletes (Long Distance Triathlon Worlds Champs in Canada and the Ironman World Champs in Hawaii). Both events are in very hot conditions, with the Canada race being quite hot and dry and the Hawaii race being very hot and humid. I’m doing both these races, so I will be experience quite a contrast in racing climate.
Coming from the depths of a New Zealand winter aclimatising to these conditions will be vitally important. So there are a few tricks and techniques that we can apply to simulate the conditions we will race in. I have tried various Heat Adaption techniques, so have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t work. Following are the protocols I am going to follow, and I think this is fairly useful for any athletes racing in hot conditions. On a side note, Heat Adaptation Training actually has a general positive effect on fitness and performance, so you can apply these techniques if you are targeting an A-race even in quite temperate conditions. Even if you live and train in a hot/humid climate I think you will benefit from taking on a similar approach to race day.
Here are two very good and useful resources for you to refer to, however if you punch ‘Heat adaptation training’ into Google you will come across a multitude of useful articles.
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/3-ways-heat-acclimatize-live-cold-climate/
Just a disclaimer first…I’m not a Sports Scientist, or a Medical Doctor, so what I’m writing below is anecdotal and based on my own experiences. We are all different people, so you may have a different response to this than me. But this gives you a guideline and somewhere to start. The research is fairly robust, and is supportive of Heat Adaptation training, so you should see positive effects if done correctly.
So here we go:
My first trip to the Hawaii Ironman was in 2007. I had raced in hot conditions before, but this was the first time I had decided to pay attention to the conditions I would encounter on the day. Those previous races I had suffered pretty bad, so I was keen to not let that be an issue in Kona. Not really knowing what to do I decided to head along to Bikram Yoga as I had heard it was very good. After my first session where there was a massive hairy sweaty man on one side of me, and a scantily clad farting woman on the other side of me I decided that Bikram Yoga wasn’t for me….and I have never been back since, or recommended it to anyone. There was an easier way for sure. The rest of the training prior to Kona had me dressed in many layers of cycle kit so I never got cold, and was often super heated. It worked pretty well, I didn’t suffer too bad despite the extremely hot n humid conditions, intact I found myself saying to the Island Gods “Is this the best you can throw at me? You aren’t that tough”
I was back to Hawaii in 2013. This time round a group of us was given the chance to use the Heat Chamber at AUT on Auckland’s North Shore, which was quite expensive in the end. The Heat Chamber comprised of up to 6 x 60-90 minute sessions where we just pedalled at a steady/easy intensity, at 36 degrees and 60% humidity. We monitored our Heart Rates and we were all amazed at how tough the workouts were, despite feeling it was at a low effort. Once your HR goes higher than the power you are putting out you know you are in a state of heat exhaustion….a few times I had to take a breather outside the chamber to bring my core temp down. This training was very hard, and a lot tougher than anything I encountered that year during the race, again I was asking the Island Gods “Is this the best you can throw at me? You aren’t that tough”. Heat Chamber was very good, and if it wasn’t so expensive or a bit of a hassle to get to I would do it again.
This year with the races in Canada and Hawaii I am going to use a different modality, Sauna. For me this seems a much more effective use of time. Most of us have a Sauna at the local pool or gym so it’s easy to get to. The time needed is less than the Heat Chamber, however I may have to contend with hairy men and farting women again.
Prior to commencing the Sauna work I am going to do some bike training sessions whereby I overdress and don’t drink as much so as to create a dehydration effect. This needs to only occur on light sessions, and can be done on the indoor trainer without a fan to create a hotter more humid skin surface. After these sessions it is very important to rehydrate fully as this can be quite draining and have a negative impact on the next days training.
As for the Sauna sessions, the aim is to start this about 2-3 weeks out from race day as that is the duration it takes to get the greatest gains, any longer may have minimal improvement or even a diminishing return. So after a normal training session up to 1 hour I will spend increasingly more time (15-45mins) in the sauna, whereby I will wear my Heart Rate monitor and watch how my HR responds to the stress. Early in the process the HR should run pretty high, but as adaptation occurs over a few sessions I will see the HR at a lower level, indicating there is an improvement. I will look to get about 7 sessions in the Sauna, so once every 2 days, until 1 week out from race day, which coincides with me travelling to Canada, so the timing is perfect.
There are other very important ways to deal with the heat when training and racing in those hotter climes (especially in race week), but I will discuss more about this in a following article.
If you have any questions please ask away on the members forum that way everyone can read the responses and hopefully contribute some of their own experiences.
