Riding in the HEAT

[rkimble]

As you all probably have seen on the news it is extremely hot here in the Southeast (Nashville,TN). I ride by myself on country roads and I'm wondering how you all deal with the heat. I'm real good about staying hydrated thanks to military experience. But I still get nervous about going out and riding in the heat.

Right now it is 102 degrees outside with no wind.

Should I ride?

[BeckyW]

It's 101 here... I'm debating the same thing. It won't cool down significantly till after dark. I'm thinking I'll skip it today, go to bed early, and go for a ride in the morning before work.

[rkimble]

My problem is I leave for work early in the morning. So for me to ride in the morning I would be riding in the dark and it would be 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning to be able to get backin time to get ready for work.

So I do not know what I should do...lol

[BeckyW]

Hmm... maybe go out late this evening, see how it is. If it's too bad, come back?

[b_young]

It was 104 here yesterday and heat index of 114. I rode. Stay hydrated, I drink 3 glasses of water before I leave and make myself drink at least every 5-10 min. Heat affects people different. While riding, I do not feel hot at all because of the air flow. When I stop, I instantly have a gallon or two of sweat. I have been commuting at least 3 days a week 21 mile rt and am use to the heat. If you are not, I would suggest riding in the evenings.

[Halthane]

Couple thoughts for you.

1) Ride as early or as late as you can, if you have to ride in the dark of the morning/evening, lights are not that expensive 40-50 for both head and tail.

2) Try to ride longer, easier workouts, or very short, very high intensity ones. Similar workload just at either end of the spectrum.

3) Your military training helps with hydration this is good. Be sure to get enough electrolytes, use a good sports drink, hammer nutrition HEED, accelerade (if you can take the protein in the heat), Cytomax etc. Be cautious of Gatorade/powerade as the high concentration of simple sugars can make things worse.

4) Use a camel-bak for drinking water and pack multiple bottles of water to dump over your head and body. When I do really hard intervals in heat like this I take 4 bottles, two in the cages and two in my jersey pockets, and use them like this. Drink one during a very long warm up to get the body used to the heat and get the sweat machine going ~45 minutes. Dump one entire bottle over the body. Do the work intervals, something like 4 sets of 6 minutes near threshold with 2 minutes rest between, drinking most of bottle three, and ending very near the house. Dump most of bottle 4 over the head, and cool down over about 20 minutes drinking what I have left during the ride home.

5) Wear lightly colored clothing.

6) Try swimming for 30 minutes instead of biking for an hour

[Terrierman]

I've been leaving the house about 6:15 or so when it's cooler, but that won't work for you. You can also get a light and become more vampire like in the evening. Riding at 102 is do-able but be careful and pay attention to your body and DO NOT push past your comfort zone in this sort of heat. We had a fatality from the heat on Saturday in my home town, and not some old person cooped up in a house with no AC, a youngish (42) fellow working on construction equipment. A body temp of 107 is fatal, that's not far off from an air temp of 102.

[hassel50]

Hey rkimble, I live in Nashville. It is so hot it will take your breath away. I have to be at work at 5:30a.m. so I cant ride in the a.m. I have been starting at 6:30-6:45p.m. and riding till 8:00p.m. Drinking plenty of water during day and using a camelback filled with ice so my water is cold when im riding. I might be wrong but it seems I read somewhere you body aborbs cold water better then hot. Also the electrolyte replacement is really important now. Use a front light and a blinkie on the rear and you can ride till 8:15 or so. The days are really getting shorter. I rode in Ashland City last Saturday with 3 people from church-Bicentennal Trail- Chapmansboro Rd.- Hwy12-about 20 miles-Catfish at Riverview Resturant. Good Luck.

[kk4df]

My problem is I leave for work early in the morning. So for me to ride in the morning I would be riding in the dark and it would be 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning to be able to get backin time to get ready for work.

So I do not know what I should do...lol

I ride about 4AM year round. You just need some decent lights, and the determination to get up so early to ride. I enjoy these early morning rides as the traffic is very light, and nothing else ever gets in the way of my ride as it does in the evenings. If you have lights, you should try it.

[bdinger]

Today it was 102 (IIRC) with a heat index of 117 (again, IIRC) and I rode. Probably about 20 or so miles, actually. 13 or 14 of those miles were after work, when it was at it's worst. I tell ya, even though there was a good wind, it didn't help.. it was pretty miserable :). But I proved that I literally can ride in any weather, even if it's an hour in brutal temps.

That being said, when I got home I was exhausted and thirsty. I also had the beginnings of a headache. This was AFTER I consumed about 128oz of water today at work, and two bottles during the ride. I don't think I would have had another hour in me, or even another half hour.

So.. if you do, be careful. Do loops that are close to home, and do laps. Keep safe, hydrated, and have a emergency plan.

[jaxgtr]

I ride after the sun goes down due this problem. I live in Jacksonville FL and the heat index was 108 or 109 today and has just been horrendous the last week. A couple of times it was actually cooler in my garage than it was outside so I hooked up my bike to the trainer and plugged in a fan to help stay cool. Right now the index is a lovely 103 at 7:09 pm according to the gauge on my porch. It's just not safe to ride in this unless you are use to riding in it and have a lot of fluid to take along. If you ride at night, make sure you have good lighting, front and back.

[(51)]

When I went out at 4AM this morning and it was already 90'. Luckily the humidity was low and I didn't die. I mixed a little "electrolyte" powder into my 40oz of water.

[KingTermite]

When I was in the dog days of summer in FL, I used to plan how long I wanted to ride and leave that long before dark. To me it was nicer to start a ride hot and have it get cooler as you went along, than to start cool and have it get hotter as you went along.

[Dewey Oxberger]

This has easily been the hottest summer I can ever remember (Northern Utah). I have well over 40 days where my ride home from work has been in 100-108 degree heat. Ride in to work has been 80-95.

I got a very nasty case of heat stroke about 4 weeks ago (I think I posted about it here). I've changed my ride routine so that if it's above 100 I cut my ride short and take a tree lined street.
It helps...

[kensuf]

The last few days I've been riding when the heat index is about 105-110. I bring a 1l bottle of electrolyte replacement mix (gu2o) and another bottle of water which I can dump on my head.

[HAMMER MAN]

take plenty of fluids as suggested before you go.; drink 2-8oz glasses of water and a 8 oz glass of gatorade or even OJ, before the ride.
During the ride, hydrare /drink every 10 -15 minutes you should be ok.
Pace yourself depending on the length of the ride as well as the # of water bottles to take.
I live in Texas and the summers are always hot and I usually ride M-F from 4:00 to 6:00 P.M. when it is the hottest part of the day, my mileage is around 22-30 miles during the week per ride and I consume 2 large water bottles during the rides. When I get back home I drink a large gatorade or OJ

[rkimble]

Thanks for all the advice! I did ride last night for one hour. It was not bad while riding because of the wind flowing through the helmet. When I stopped though back at the house you could defintely feel the heat.

I took a 100 ounce camelback full of ice water and a 28ounce bottle with me I was fine. I also drank quite a bit after the ride to make sure I was hydrated for today. Did not want to wake up with a headache. Instead I had to wake up three times to go the bathroom...lol

[rkimble]

Hey rkimble, I live in Nashville. It is so hot it will take your breath away. I have to be at work at 5:30a.m. so I cant ride in the a.m. I have been starting at 6:30-6:45p.m. and riding till 8:00p.m. Drinking plenty of water during day and using a camelback filled with ice so my water is cold when im riding. I might be wrong but it seems I read somewhere you body aborbs cold water better then hot. Also the electrolyte replacement is really important now. Use a front light and a blinkie on the rear and you can ride till 8:15 or so. The days are really getting shorter. I rode in Ashland City last Saturday with 3 people from church-Bicentennal Trail- Chapmansboro Rd.- Hwy12-about 20 miles-Catfish at Riverview Resturant. Good Luck.

So you rode down and ate catfish at the river very cool. I have rode highway 12 from my house down to Briley Parkway and back it was a nice 30 miles ride.

What other places do you ride around Nashville?

[e0richt]

has anyone tried using evaporative neck kerchiefs to help keep cool?
I also read a tip using a bandanna that you tie around your neck with a couple of ice cubes to help
keep your cool...

http://industrialsavings.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=940&Category_Code=bandanas

[Scummer]

I rode 3 hours last Sunday in 95 degree weather. I gulped down 4 quarts of water and some vitamin drink... but that didn't help much as I still dropped 4 lbs during the ride. I also had an oncoming headache.

I think the best thing to ride in the heat is to take tons of water and electrolyte and some salty food with you to replace the sodium and fill up on electrolytes.

[jaxgtr]

I went out for 30 miles last night but did not leave the house until 11:34 pm and rode just under 2 hrs. About the 1 hr mark, I had already drained both 24 oz bottles and had to refill at a local gas station, but I ended up getting gatorade versus plain water, cause I could feel the heat taking effect. I accidentally left my camelbak in the freezer and could not use it so lesson learned. It was just oppressive last night and by the time I pulled back up to the house at 1:25 am, the temp was a balmy 80 and the heat index was still 91.

[theetruscan]

As you all probably have seen on the news it is extremely hot here in the Southeast (Nashville,TN). I ride by myself on country roads and I'm wondering how you all deal with the heat. I'm real good about staying hydrated thanks to military experience. But I still get nervous about going out and riding in the heat.

Right now it is 102 degrees outside with no wind.

Should I ride?

I just moved to Nashville, I'm used to biking in Portland, OR. It's a brutal transition. But, it's manageable. I've been trying to stick to fast paced one hour rides, get a quick (for me) 15 miles knocked out, take a cold shower, and feel better. But, as has been mentioned, bring a lot of water. I've bought more water on two of my three rides so far. Hasn't killed me yet, but I'm a bike commuter despite the beer physique.

[hassel50]

Hey Rkimble, I live in Donelson near the airport, I try to ride from my house. Lebanon rd. allows me to ride to mt. juliet ,gladeville,lebanon area. I ride in the pennington bend area near opryland hotel. If i drive i like to go to natchez trace pkwy. The greenway in nashville shelby bottoms-stones river is good riding. The bridge across the cumberland river connecting two rivers and shelby bottoms is supposed to be open by october. They are working on it 7 days a week. I would like to ride Hwy12, park around briley and ride to ashland city and back but I haven't done it yet. I was on a hunting lease in cumberland furnace for several years and Hwy12 has always looked like a good ride. Do you have any good rides 20+ miles around ashland city? I would like to know about them. Make A Great Day!