If you’re only training 3-5 hours a week, there are perhaps better choices to be made in optimising performance. Pros are already doing everything else, and might be seeking the 0.5 gain.. If you are only at 60% of the possible gains maybe you do t need to worry about 0.5% just yet.
It’s a real thing. I experience it every winter when I leave the basement of this polar country and go ride somewhere tropical for 2 weeks, then return to the basement. You lose most of it within 2 weeks or so though.
The bigger problem with it is how to you balance the stress of it on your body? Yes heat stress is extra stress. And it impairs your ability to hit your intervals.
And the question I don’t know the answer to is whether you would get faster by heat training but riding less intense, or not heat training but being consistent in your intensity rides.
I have lost fitness in the past during heat waves because of this tradeoff. I find it very hard to balance, and I think I would only deliberately try heat training again during a taper.
Does it work as well as just riding your bike more/better? Dont know.
When you are using your sauna bag, are you also monitoring your HR? My cue that I had reached the required internal body temp increase was when my HR went from 70-80 and shot up over 100 bpms just sitting there. It would usually take me 25-30 minutes in a legit sauna at a gym. Also, I’d prewarm myself up by either just having finished an outdoor ride, or warming up to a light sweat on a stationary bike, stair climber or treadmill.
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I haven’t yet, but I’ll give it a try. Can set up my garmin so I can see the readout.
Perfect! Seems like most protocols are for room temp to be 40+c so I’d say close enough.
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Thing is, it isn’t 0.5%. it can be up to like 10%. What other intervention could you swap for this (if you do the training on the bike it’s time efficient also).
Btw the easiest thing to do is buy a pack of Tyvek painting suits for pennies and wear fleece under. That’s all the core training suits are.
I might try this before a big event some day but it looks like a PITA - all the sweaty clothes and the extra load of laundry.
For those interested, this podcast with Bent Ronnestad has a discussion on heat training and tips/hacks from Burke:
(It’s a good podcast. Jack will try and get your email at the end by offering you a ‘secret’ 6 minutes of the interview. The question was Ronnestad’s favorite method of increasing performance. The answer is 3 days in a row of 30/15s (3x9:45min). One day rest then two more days. Five days of tapering before a race. One can also read Ronnestad’s 30/15 study for more details.)
Can you share the papers where you get 10% faster at 20C from heat training. Plus I don’t mean 10% faster for 45 mins, I mean for for multi hour rides.
Here you go. Ignore the first 3 minutes or so, but steady heart rate increase from the high 50’s to high 80’s low 90’s today. This was not post-exercise, so was not starting warmed up today, and I only had the “sauna” pre heating for 3 minutes or so before I got in. About 10 minutes in is where I felt myself start to really heat up. Lost 3# in 30 minutes - which is over 1L of fluids.
Will give it a whirl longer at some point and see if I hit an inflection point in that 30-45 minute range.
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Can I ask anyone with a core sensor to try out this data field and compare it’s results?
Based upon research that accurately estimates core temperature from heart rate.