John aged 40 and a MTB rider from Texas asks:I am 40 and race road and mountain bikes in Texas. I started racing a few years ago and did not have any younger experience. I find that I lose large amounts of weight during hard rides. I use a large camelback and extra bottles for longer rides. I use cytomax as an energy drink. It is often hot in Texas so I load up on water prior to a race. I am concerned about the amount of weight loss since I have see drops of up to 13 pounds (I was 210 at the start of the race). Is this a conditioning problem? Can training be specialized to deal with heat? I keep reading that this type loss affects performance, but I can't seem to carry enough.
The Coach responds:John thanks for your email. the questions you ask are really out of my league as they are more physiological. but I also live in a hot climate and ride in very hot weather.You are already quite heavy - 210 pounds (?) - which I would guess means you are probably carrying a relatively high % of fat. This doesn't mean you are fat, just the % of your total bodyweight - the heavier you are usually means the higher the %. The higher % fat, the more water your body stores. This means that when you sweat you have more fluids to eliminate. I might lose about 0.25 of a kg during a hard race, but it is mostly fluids. Do you feel dehydrated? If so, then it is a fair bit that for some reason or other you have abnormally high fluid levels which are eliminated via sweat. The substantive thing I can help you with relates to conditioning. Yes, you can acclimatise to anything. Riding in the heat acclimatises you to it. I was reading an interesting report from a physiology study the other day. It said that prior to going to the antarctic for the winter (australian scientists go down for 6 months at a time), the scientists have very cold baths for a week staying in the water for 30 minutes at a time. They then hardly feel the cold. this has been done to people who have then been able to wear shorts all winter in a cold climate. So the idea is that you an train your body to exert itself in the heat. However, I think you have to be very careful. you seem to be aware that drinking a lot is important. The loss of weight (if fluid loss is the reason and it could be no other) is only a problem for performance if you don't replace the fluids. Dehydration will always reduce your performance. My advice is to build up a tolerance to the heat by progressively training in it rather than going gangbusters in it all at once. The weight loss is certainly fluid (muscle and fat do not waste that quickly unless you "melt" your muscles by developing too much internal heat). You should not continue exertion in the heat if you get dizzy or feel a little out of it. Stop, b/c that means your internal cooling is failing. And then the loss of weight could be actual tissue deterioration. I doubt this is your problem. |