Originally Posted by
albertmoreno
Okay, can you explain that bit about hot days having two dangers? the heat, itself, and sunburn? Sun block only works for sunburn, so what do you do to protect yourself against heat stroke?
Sunburn is when the sun's rays burn your skin. Putting sunblock on can protect against it, as can wearing enough clothes to cover your skin. In hot weather you probably don't want to go with the clothing option.
Heat exhaustion, heat stroke etc are caused by your body's core temperature rising. When you get hot you sweat, as the body attempts to cool itself. If the sweating fails to cool you then your body temperature starts to rise. If it rises too high you get heatstroke which, depending on just how high your temperature rises, can be very serious (and I believe it can be fatal in extreme cases)
Originally Posted by
albertmoreno
Any guidelines for how much water to drink, per mile or per hour? I drank 3x 27oz bottles in about 4 hours. Not enough!
Hard to say without knowing how hard you're pushing, prevailing conditions and your body's needs. Here in the UK I cycled 30-odd miles and stopped once to drink a couple of mouthfuls of water. I refilled my water bottle at my friend's house and on the way home I drank the whole 750ml bottle. That obviously wasn't in CA-style heatwaves, just shows how much it can vary.