Heat Acclimitization Strategy for arriving day before a hot race
I'm toying with IM Cabo as a final race this year. But the travel and time is pointing to arriving on the Friday before the race, from Canada, and having zero prep time in the heat.
And I suuuuuck at racing in the heat (unless I give myself lots of time at the race before in order to acclimate).
Has anyone here done home-based heat acclimatization successfully? Any tips or techniques? I imagine all the basic heat adaptation principles apply; Im most interested in how to actually carry them out.
And I suuuuuck at racing in the heat (unless I give myself lots of time at the race before in order to acclimate).
Has anyone here done home-based heat acclimatization successfully? Any tips or techniques? I imagine all the basic heat adaptation principles apply; Im most interested in how to actually carry them out.
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So this year, based on this article I came across, I started sitting in an 80C sauna for 20 minutes immediately after running, 3x/week, when I was home. My last race was a good test of this. In the days leading up, temps were 21-22in Penticton, then shot up to 30-32 race day. While I didn't go any faster than I expected, I did manage the heat MUCH better than I usually do, which is to melt into a little puddle and inwardly cry. Often, I end up walking on hot days. Not this time. I also kept my Race Day Ice bag filled, and plastered right over my heart.
After the sauna, because I'm already at the gym, I do weight training. In the sauna, I am sweating BEFORE I go in, and get wetter from there. I drink more than a liter of dilute Gatorade during those 20 min. It's draining, hard work, IMO, so something is happening to my body for sure.
if you're gonna do the sauna anyway, why not try dong it after some runs. I do it after two short ones, and the morning of my split run.
I've done it when I raced in Hawaii. The hardest part is to NOT drink while in the sauna. It defeats the purpose of your kidneys response. I can dig up some research studies on it. The premise behind her protocol is that with dehydration the kidneys will produce EPO which promotes the formation of red blood cells. This is not the same as being dehydrated when exercising.
Other things you can do is drink a high sodium drink before the race to promote increased blood volume. Skratch Lab and OSMO both have these hyper-hydration - high sodium drinks.
https://extremephysiolmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2046-7648-4-S1-A109
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajhb.22509/abstract
This will be my approach to IMLC.
@Sheia Leard - Thanks for this. I'm really looking forward to reading it, and I'm really interested in understanding a bit more of the mechanisms behind not drinking when in the sauna. I'll circle back with questions.
@Scott Dinhofer - Cabo would be in addition to IMKY, and only if I'm in the headspace to want to do another IM (I felt pretty good at 5 weeks after Canada, so we'll see). If that happens, it would be a fly-in-for-the-weekend kinda deal.
- At least one of them was done in 24 y/o subjects. Their ability to withstand or even benefit from stress might be different/better than equally fit athletes in their 50s and above. Also, all the subject were male, and the findings may or may not be applicable to females
- The studies were specifically done regarding *training* in the heat in a dehydrated state. Different than my suggestion of training in "normal environment" (could be on treadmill with no fan, which is a heat stressor), with no hydration, then going into a sauna for 20 minutes immediately after, and hydrating while in the sauna.
For now, I'm gonna stick with my protocol. Running's hard enough for me that I see no need to do it in the heat. I use the sauna-after method as a substitute for inducing those adaptations.I was able to get in 6 days. When you do your workout, hydrate as you normally would. Most of us come off a workout somewhat dehydrated. That's good enough. Don't try to dehydrate yourself during the workout - that isn't necessary. This is where the Pee sticks come in ... see link below. I would guess you are not fully hydrated when you finish your workouts. You can even do this at the end of the day when most people are not hydrated. Check the Pee sticks.
I started two weeks out from the race. Race week I was in Hawaii. At first I hated it. Wear your HR monitor. I used it as mental training to endure and not quit. If I had really bad cotton mouth I would just moisten my mouth. When I came out of the sauna I would take a warm, not cold shower. Then start to sip on a bottle of Skratch or OSMO.
After three hours I would really increase my fluids and check my USG Urine Specific Gravity on the pee sticks ... see link
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_gnr_fkmr0?rh=i:aps,k:urinalysis+mission&keywords=urinalysis+mission&ie=UTF8&qid=1505434083
I made sure that I was not going to bed dehydrated!! Also, two weeks out are not super long training sessions. I worked with a Pro who raced in hot/humid China and Thailand last year. She did the protocol and raced well.
I never had issues with my hydration during the race. If anything, I took in too much salt. I was acclimated.
Keep the discussion going!!
@Al Truscott attached is information on female thermoregulation.
There maybe more than one way to skin a cat here, some maybe better than others, but I gotta believe the goals is to simply elevate the core temp by any or all means for adaptations to occur... This could be hot tub, sauna, steam room, training or TM with no fan, heck I have read guys training for Badwater doing stuff like setting up the TM in the Laundry Room , running the dryer with the vent into the room, dressed in rain suits etc... Bottomline I think heat training needs to be carefully applied like fitness training, its not how much heat or training you can handle but how much heat or training you can absorb, recover, and adapt to... Must use caution NOT to dig a hole or have the heat training effect the physical training.. Which leads me to my next paragraph...
Having just arrived in Tucson for my first week of heat all summer (NH was cold all year) I have accumulated 10hrs in 85-105 temps with most being in the 90-95 range and I am getting my A$$ handed to me... Yesterday I was finishing up a 3hr ride and only had 3 miles to go and I called Heather to come get me (ok I called her with 7 miles to go but had her pick me up 3 miles from home) I had enough and believed I was reaching a point I might not recover from if I kept going... I was already riding at .50 but that did not matter... I took it easy with a swim day today and plan to get back in the heat tomorrow, I am feeling better, but I must admit my confidence in handling the heat has been shaken... @ Al Truscott I fear but do NOT accept this maybe age related...
The articles were very interesting... I had never heard of stressing the kidneys via dehydration as part of heat acclimation, I must admit it makes sense for a 60-90 min wko, and I am glad @ Sheila Leard mentioned/clarified that a longer session usually ends up with a form of dehydration anyway which is good enough and enhances the adaptations... I gotta admit that my systems certainly feel stressed.
Sorry I didnt anything concrete to add but wanted to engage the thread with my thoughts!
Tim - the Pee Sticks are no joke. High School Wrestlers are often require to "pee on a stick" before competition to see how dehydrates they are to make weight. Get your hands on some and you will see how much it takes to get close to the standard.
It's interesting, this study and the one I cited achieved similar results with reverse approaches. These young ladies FIRST got hot in the Sauna, THEN exercised in a sauna suit, if I'm reading it correctly. Other studies, in young men, FIRST raised the core temp via regular running programs, THEN sat in the sauna @ 80 C for 20-30 minutes.
Building on what Tim notes in his experience, and my own over the summer using a run-sauna-weights program 3x/week weeks on, 3 weeks off, this particular protocol must be used in a targeted, time-limited way. It could bee considered in the same vein as a Camp Week, or volume pop, during training, except this is in the two week taper period before an A race in a hot environment. Not to be done on-going; if one wants to do that, the 3x/week, 3 weeks on 3 weeks off might be the max one should try. These sessions must be thought of as similar to any hard workout, with specific focus on length and recovery needs. It would be easy to over do it.
@tim cronk I was thinking this Tuesday about how to suggest modifying EN plans, such as the OS, for the "older" triathlete. I realised that one-size-fits-all would not be possible. Some people will have to start modifying on a regular basis their frequency and recovery needs starting age 48; others might make it past age 62 before the inevitable sets in. And for all of us, during that 15-year senescence, there will be days when even the fittest will feel "old". I doubt you are going to have a lot more of those over the next five-seven years. Luckily, the older we get, the more we have learned about reading our bodies' signals (I hope), and the more we have learned about patience and humility, so fine-tuning training plans on an individual basis should become second nature. But sometime before age 70 for all of us, I suspect, we'll have to accept that we can no longer routinely do, say, two high intensity biking sessions and 2 high intensity run sessions/week. I don't think you're there yet.
@Al Truscott I too had been thinking about modifying OS and IM plans (via the recent threads on ideas) and believe me I had plenty of ideas, but in the end that's the beauty of the self coached peer guided EN model, it's truly up to the individual to determine their limits within the work and adapt to their needs.... Luckily we have WSM's and P to help guide those decisions.... And of course in the context of this thread applies to heat acclimation , aging , male vs female, large vs small, BOP vs FOP etc!
When they were studying hydration in the field refractometers were used on the athletes. Of course this is not practical for everyday athletes. Thus, the urinalysis strips came along. It's one more measure that can be used besides urine color. There can be a lag in hydration status when using strips, but it is still feedback. Also, the strips have other indices, (leukocytes) that can help the self-coached athlete determine if today should be a light day. One thing that is certain, Master athletes's thirst mechanisms are not as keen as a younger athlete. Drinking to thirst will not work.
Another area of interest is the type of carbohydrate used in the drink for effective hydration. The new Gatorade Endurance first ingredient is Maltodextrin. This carb can leave the gut quickly but may not be as effective for absorption into the small intestine. But - now I'm going on another tangent.
What is interesting is OSMO just branded their own strips https://osmonutrition.com/performance-begins-with-pee-say-what/
Skratch Labs and OSMO both have a hyper-hydration drinks that can be used to maximize blood volume before intense, long and hot workouts. https://blog.skratchlabs.com/blog/hyper-hydration
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7987361?dopt=Abstract
Hydration is very individual. The leaner less muscular athlete will not be as challenged as the heavier person.
Does anyone have experience with the hyper-hydration products?
@Sheila Leard thank you for the follow through data, I'm interested enough in those strips to give them a try, plus they are cheap in the scheme of what we do... But like all data I am not sure what I will do with it... Since I am small with no muscle I do drink less than most, I usually have no problem peeing while racing, training, etc so if it told me I was dehydrated and to drink more I just would not... So I do believe there is something to drinking to thirst as long as you are peeing... But that data looks really interesting...
@Rich Stanbaugh I used scratch hyper hydration on Day3 UMFL (52 mile run) in some of my later bottles, I really like the taste of it... Did it do anything? I have no idea... The rescue hydration from scratch is also very tasty IMO.... I do know @Mike Roberts uses the hyper hydration protocol...After reading the scratch/osmo info again I am interested enough to give that a go as well... My next RR I will preload the night before and the am with the scratch hyper hydration, of my bike/run day... If I feel good I will apply that to KONA... I also like the idea of maybe rescue hydration at the Run AS by then I am drinking coke/redbull and no more gels so can use the sodium....
On Ben Greenfield: Ya, I hear ya. The name on its own stops a lot of people in their tracks. If I'm giving benefit of doubt, though, one of the strengths that come from being the consummate huckster and snake oil salesman is you become a very effective communicator, which I think comes across in his urinalysis strips explanation. If I understood the purposes correctly from him *(and then through a "trust but verify" exercise looking elsewhere!), it makes sense.
(Of course, he lost me in the preamble with his pitch for coffee enemas - see
https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/article/digestion-articles/bulletproof-coffee-enema/ . Now call me old fashioned, but I'm the type of guy who takes his coffee one way, and one way only. Then again, if this catches on, maybe he could organize a pre-race team EN-ema (get it? Wordplay!) at the key races going forward.)
Back to regular programming. Sheila, again, thank you for guiding this discussion, and for sharing Stacy's materials and research. One other thought: can you identify any risks in this particular sauna acclimation approach? I don't have a rational (or knowledge-based) reason for this, but I just feel uneasy with the thought of tinkering with my renal system in this way at any time. Of course, I do follow a similar sauna protocol for races generally, with the difference being lots of hydration ... and I'm sure there are lots of adaptations that this is forcing that are probably similarly scary (if I were to only learn about them!)
Another observation from the protocol from Stacy's book - she advises an iron supplement at the first day of the protocol. I'm just curious about the purpose of this? Any insights you can offer?
And, like Tim, I've put in my pee strip order. How I can say "coffee enema = bad, pee strip = good" with a straight face is another discussion!
Ok ... all for now. Again, thanks for keeping this one rolling!
We all know Ben G is more than an outlier in the scope of health, but he did a good job explaining urinalysis strips. In regards to the iron supplement, Stacy's book is primarily written for women, so you would not do the iron supplement. I skip that part. If your heart is saying no to trying her protocol I would advise not to do it.
@tim cronk @Rich Stanbaugh
You may not need to do a bottle the night before if you are a lean non-muscular type. Allen Lim suggests playing with the dose. If you find yourself peeing all night than you don't need the night bottle, just do one in the morning. I really like Rescue Hydration. It's light and easy to drink.
If you're drinking to thirst and peeing then ... good! Another easy one is - can you spit? If you can't make saliva then you're in trouble.
Full disclosure, I am now at altitude, and have started taking iron supplementation again.
Maybe I should rename this thread Sauna Training.
Anyway ... keeping the thread going. The following is a nice overview of the benefits of sauna training. In particular Chris Kresser mentions athletes can have increased plasma volume - reference citations #23 and #24. I can't find the full study but it looks as though they didn't implement a "no drinking" in the sauna. But i'm not entirely sure on that.
https://chriskresser.com/the-health-benefits-of-saunas/?_ke=c2hlaWxhbGVhcmRAYXR0Lm5ldA==&utm_term=underrated-but-powerful&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ck-blog&utm_content=&utm_source=activecampaign
There are 3 numbers they tell you to watch LEU overtraining/white blood cells , PRO overtraining Protein , SG Hydration
1. LEU is the same every time I test on the very lowest number = Good
2. PRO is the same every time I test +1 from the lowest number showing just a little protein, will be interesting to see if that ever goes away in taper or rest.
3. SG tends to be all over.
a. I am always at the very dehydrated numbers first thing in the am.
b. I am always much closer to the hydrated side (but still 2 numbers off fully hydrated) later in the day , even after a huge training session in the heat, where I have dropped a ton of weight and can barely pee on the strip.
4. PH is also quite variable showing 6.5-9 which is 5 of the 7 measurements of the PH range.
5. All other numbers are always the exact same right in line .
Hyper-Hydration - "May Work" Last Saturday I did a 5.25hr bike starting in the 75 degree range, the last 3 hrs were well above 90 degree, then I did a 4 mile brick run where the temp hit 100 by the time I was done.... I had miso noodle soup 800mg sodium for dinner , then a scratch hyper-hydration mango drink after dinner at 1700mg sodium... After breakfast I had another scratch for 1700mg sodium... That morning I tested the highest hydration level via SG out of any mornings so far....I also tested very high that afternoon... BUT- I did not feel any better, I did not put out any more power, I did not pee any more or less.... IOW I noticed absolutely nothing other than a higher reading on a paper strip in the AM.... Since there were no negative effects I plan to implement in KONA but maybe only half as much...
So interesting Data but cant see how or where to apply it yet.
Like Tim, I've been using the strips for about 2 weeks, but tracking sg only. I also find it's all over the place even during a regular week - the end of day and morning measures are remarkable, and if anything, have highlighted that I'm undermining recovery (even if it's by a small amount) through chronic dehydration.
more to the point of this thread, I've been using them this week as part of the Sims sauna protocol. Because that's a larger topic that probably deserves a post on its own, and one written at the and of the protocol and in its application to a race, I'll put a pin in it until after IM Lou. ( It's certainly not the testing ground that Kona is, but will be warmer than my normal temps).
@Dave Tallo brings up a good point and a variable I've noticed myself ... recovery. I think it's worth looking at if chronic dehydration in athletes can affect increased muscle soreness, higher heart rate and poor sleep. You may not need to use hyper-hydration as much for IMLOU.
Another explanation from Stacey on plasma volume (she's very kind answering my questions) is that dehydration in the sauna invokes red cell production. The drop of partial pressure of O2 (from low blood volume) stimulates EPO thus red cell production. It is total blood volume expansion that occurs with dehydration +sauna, not just plasma volume expansion that you can garner with heat exposure.
A prudent way of using the strips is to look at SG BEFORE training or a race. Going into a session fully hydrated sets you up for expanded blood volume. There is no doubt that you will loose fluid in a long race. Hydrating during is really to offset the loss. I have never found a study that says we must replace all that we loose ... impossible. More muscular types will loose more than 2% body weight. This gores in line with Coach P harping on getting lean for hot races.
As for SG being all over the place is normal. This is where juicy fruits and watery veggies can also help.
I'm curious, as always, about anyone using HRV Heart Rate Variability for monitoring recovery. I may start a thread on this because I use one and have stressed out clients that could greatly benefit from it. The self coached athlete should look at all variables, not just how do I feel today?
I've done the sauna protocol that she prescribed and was very happy with the results. I haven't had time to go through the attachments on this thread yet - I will shortly. One of the things I also remember was that the effects of the sauna slowed dramatically when you hydrated after the sauna. Also, a warm shower after or cold 5 minutes later. I'll see if I can dig up the report she gave me on that if it's not included above.
I've used the pee-sticks before based upon her advice. Much like Tim, it showed me as dehydrated quite a bit. I remember tracking data for a month or so and then gave up. I remember one of the markers showing not enough recovery. I felt fine, wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary but the marker assumed I was under recovered almost all the time. I never felt that way. I have the guidance for this also if it hasn't been posted yet.
I followed her nutritional advice basically separating hydration and fuel, so eating real food. I had a great race nutritionally. I did it again the next year and it was a bit of a disaster. I just couldn't get the real food down. I used her protein bites and P&B on white bread mostly. I've switched back to more liquid calories. Still, haven't mastered nutrition and hydration, but I'm getting there!