Actually it doesn’t. If it did, then why would a Pro train low and live high?
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I’m not so sure on this one, I have a blower pointed at my front, a box fan at my back and I’ve trained next to an open window when it is -20C (stopped doing that as my fingers froze). I was still considerably warmer and sweatier than I am outside in temps under 25-27C + sun.
I can’t imagine running no fans on anything higher than low-mid endurance though, and even that has me scared (though I will attempt!).
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I can only say what I personally do, as I’m not aware of a more formal way to do it.
If I’m getting noticeable orthostatic symptoms I go out of my way to reflect on what I’ve been doing in my training recently. If there’s any suggestion on reflection of increased heat stress, I just take a tspn of table salt, mix it up in a cup of water, and take it like a shot. It’s disgusting but I am too lazy to anything else lol. The dose is about 2-2.5g of sodium from that.
I think eating 2-3 average sized pickles would give you roughly the same amount though, and would maybe be more palatable.
If sodium deficiency was the problem, then I usually feel completely better in an hour or two.
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- Got anything to back this up?
There are few and far between examples I have seen shared with people claiming better power inside vs outside. And from memory, none of those were from extreme cooling related setups. The greater majority are from people falling short inside, so I really don’t buy your supposition overall.
It may be possible to “super-chill” a rider (core temp mostly?) to a point where it’s impractical or unlikely for that use case to match outside, but not impossible either depending on the event.
Regardless, I just don’t see an excess of over-cooled riders from what gets shared around here. It’s usually the opposite.
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Related, there are multiple examples of lower HR inside relative to same power outside. This is not only heat, but the stress of riding outside (traffic, terrain)
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Yeah, those seem like good factors to consider. Add in rigid or minimal motion setups for lower muscular demand unless the rider is on something like rollers or a very active motion setup.
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Performing in heat is the largest benefit of heat adaptation but many of the performance gains will also translate to performance in colder weather.
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Do any of you find you get noticeably dizzy when doing workouts without a fan? Doing Zwift races or harder workouts without a fan feels terrible to me.
I’m a North Carolinian and have been doing Z2 rides at around 50f in my garage with the fan off because if I turn it on I’m instantly freezing. It’s the lasko blower and even on the lowest setting it’s a lot.
On harder workouts I start with an extra layer of clothes, some light gloves, and a warm hat so I can have the fan on for the ~10 minutes that it takes me to fully get warmed up and start really sweating.
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Sounds like heat stroke
Warning Signs and Symptoms of Heat-Related Illness | Natural Disasters and Severe Weather | CDC
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It seems weird to me to be getting heat stroke when it’s less than 60f in the garage but it certainly feels like it, which is why I stopped doing it.
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It’s core body temperature. Doesn’t matter how you get there.
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Just a reminder that large language models like ChatGPT are simply that: language models. The information they put out is not necessarily correct. They pull information from all over the internet so they might be pulling information from outdated studies, poorly designed studies, or some bro science blog post. Or they could be pulling good information from good, double blinded, peer reviewed studies. We have absolutely no way of knowing because of the black box nature of these models. The models are simply trained to output language that sounds like an answer to what you’re asking. They aren’t necessarily trained to make sure that answer is at all correct.
I don’t think there’s anything incorrect with this answer as far as I can tell, but just wanted to put it out there as a PSA of sorts.
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Escape Collective recently did an episode about heat training on their Performance Process Podcast about heat training.
You might need to be a member to read/listen to it but that whole series has been pretty awesome so far. I highly recommend signing up if only for that. (But the rest of their articles and content have been pretty top notch too). For anyone that isn’t aware, this is the old Cycling Tips crew that created a member funded cycling news network after being acquired and subsequently cut by Outside.
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It is probably too far out to start heat adapation for a race at the end of April…most of what I have seen indicates that 2-3 weeks is sufficient. @mwglow15 linked to the recent Escape Collective pod, which has a lot of great info in it.
You can also check out the article below, if interested…
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Heat adaptations are sort of a “use it or lose it” - by that I mean my heat related vo2 performance gains disappear around November when the weather turns. I can feel it and see it in my numbers. I’ve toyed with the idea of using a sauna in the winter months, but its too much bother and I’m not buying a sauna as we are moving in a couple years.
Then it gets hot again in May, and I enjoy them all summer and into fall. Its a dry heat here, so a lot easier to ride outside in 90-100F afternoons than in say Humid Houston or Florida.
All outside except for a handful of inside rides.
This was covered in great depth in the early days of the AACC podcast. For easy stuff I never use a fan. Up to Sweet Spot I’ll leave it off unless I’m still building back some conditioning (or turn it on if HR starts to creep).
Hey @mcneese.chad ! Nice to ‘see’ you again!
LOL! 
Don’t need anything to ‘back it up’, buddy!
You don’t, either! Nobody does.
It’s as true as the sky is blue. You’re gonna crank more W with fans than wo. More / better fans = more Ws. A lot more.
Do any WO that’s a H or VH for you, 60 - 120 mins and repeat w the fans off, you’re either not going to finish, or you’ll mark it a full rank higher.
[Extremely important adder note that of c., cooling depends massively on RH. Your cooling drops to near zero as you approach 80 - 95% RH. Pretty sure it drops exponentially rather than linearly, but could be wrong. It’s super fast, and extreme, though.]
As for inside vs. outside, that’s a variables salad I don’t want to touch with a three meter pole!!
But, for kicks:
I’d happily bet ya that >80% of TR riders have very inadequate fan setups. Inadequate = nowhere near the cooling they experience outside. Hence the outside numbers being higher.
But who knows. Too many variables to know it all; like you mentioned; motion of the trainer setup, RH, temp, wind speed, relative windspeed given direction of travel, etc, etc, etc. Too many.
Inside, in a controlled environment w all other variables being the constant, more fan = more cooling = more power.
And if someone [like yours truly!! ] has a best-in-the-world fan, 1 m / 3.28 ft from his face, and he cools that room down to 15 C = 59 F @ a crisp & fresh 30 - 35% RH, and then cranks that fan to a full-body covering, down under the chest AND up over the head & back airstream running at 100 km/h = 62 m/h, he is going to crank insane Ws, and there is no way in heck he could ever go that speed = achieve that kind of cooling, and so be able to generate those same Ws, IRL.
Amirite?!?!
I still don’t understand why you’re saying more watts because of better cooling is bad. In many interval sets, more watts = more adaptations = more better. Okay, so if you have better cooling inside maybe you do 350W inside and 335W outside. So? Most likely that 350W indoor workout will make you faster in the long run so your outside watts turn to 340-345W.
Obviously if you have a hot race planned then you should get in some hot riding but that shouldn’t be done in a way that compromises your intense workouts.
Your cooling drops to near zero as you approach 80 - 95% RH.
What’s RH?
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RH is relative humidity
Lot of bro science in this thread LOL
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@mwglow15 I’m not saying it’s bad at all, dude!
I’m just agreeing w OP on the point that it is something we should all be aware of, and account for.
If I always ride in that above situation I described w my insane-O cooling setup, and then go out into 25 C weather @ 80% RH on race day, I’m gonna have a very, very bad day!
I agree w you; sometimes maybe you want to push it as far as you can, and to do that, max out your cooling.
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