Five tips to beat the heat…on long rides.
Jun 23rd, 2010 by Leo
Heat can make you loopy. And in a city filled with air conditioning and wool suits in the summer, ours is not a society that knows how to handle real heat. Feel faint on the subway and you only have to hold out until the next stop. Feel faint while riding in traffic, and you still have a great deal to do before you can take a swig of your peach Snapple. So here are five really simple but important tips on keeping it together in the heat!
For long rides, summer track days, and long hot commutes:
Tip #1, don’t skip meals. Make sure you’re eating something at regular intervals. Your brain needs a lot of glucose in order to process all the information on the road, and hot weather manages to sidetrack a lot of it. Make sure you eat something whether you’re hungry or not, because you can’t pull out a sandwich in the middle of your ride.
Tip #2, take a sip of water every chance you get. You don’t have to down whole bottles at a sitting, it’s actually better if you don’t…but take a couple of sips whenever you get the chance. If you’re off on a long ride, take a few sips at every rest stop whether you feel like you need it or not.
Tip #3, monitor bathroom breaks. Okay – this sounds like kindergarten – but if you’re not peeing a couple of times during the day, then you’re probably dehydrated.
Tip #4, salt tablets. You’ve seen the Gatorade commercials…when you sweat you lose the electrolytes your body needs. Most of those electrolytes can be found in common table salt. If you don’t have salt in your system, then your body won’t be able to put all that water to use! In a pinch, if you don’t have salt tablets, try downing a pinch of table salt (yuck)…just make sure you have water to wash it down.
Tip #5, stay away from caffeine. I love coffee almost more than life itself…but when I need to beat the heat I have to limit my coffee intake, and make sure to hydrate after my morning cup o’ jo. But it’s not just coffee, stay away from diet pepsi, colas, anything else that’ll keep your body from holding onto water.
Got any more tips for hot summer rides? Share the wealth in the comments section!
Related posts:
One (compound) word: CamelBak:
http://www.amazon.com/CamelBak-Fairfax-50-Ounce-Hydration-Black/dp/B001PO53RU/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1277311603&sr=8-13
Light weight, easy to take with you. I have a larger one which is standard gear on any ride from early spring to late autumn.
CamelBak – nice!
Now if it only came with a camel bladder
In Arizona or any other really hot places there are some things that can help for a little while:
1 Wet bandana wrapped around neck – the evaporation helps.
2. Pour water (half a bucket) on upper body and the airflow will help cool. A cooling vest would be great.
3. Know that when it’s hot – here, that’s over 105(about 113 today) , you only have limited riding time no matter what you do.
There are limits – push them and you may not make another ride.