This past week it’s been hotter than normal in NC for this time of the year. Temperatures were mid to high 90’s accompanied by the Carolinas high humidity. I walk 18 holes of golf every morning. We start before 8:00 and generally finish around 11:30, before it’s super hot.

I’ve lived in the Carolinas my whole life and have tolerated the heat really well. I actually prefer it. Nothing like a good sweat! Never had any issues, until this week.

It got me this week. I could feel my energy levels dropping later in the week. I went out to mow the grass with my push mower Thursday afternoon and thought I was going to have to call 911! My yard is not big and it generally takes me about an hour to mow it. I had to stop 3 times, go inside, drink fluids and cool down. I felt really light headed with little energy.

I have been drinking a lot of water playing golf. I carry one of my cycling water bottles with me and try and always have water in it. As an afterthought I’m thinking I just have been adding electrolytes as well. I can carry the capsules or even packets of powder. Maybe I’ll try that and see how it goes.

Cycling was affected as well. I felt awful and just had to go slow. Maybe anything that elevated the heart rate was affected???

Just wondering if our tolerance for heat (and cold) changes as we mature???

Certainly sounds like dehydration/low electrolytes. Could be age related. I loved the heat when I was young. That is no longer true. When it gets into the mid 80s and 90s I do not ride my bike unless I get in my miles early in the morning. Be sure to monitor yourself and see a doctor if feeling bad continues.

I've also certainly noticed a decrease in my limit of exertion on hot days in recent years. Fortunately, we generally don't get too much of that. Some of it is my own fault for being under-hydrated at times. I generally don't like to drink too much since with my general prostate issues it can lead to a lot of urgent gotta-find-a-restroom moments along the way. But this year I am being more conscientious about it and trying to stay ahead of my thirst. I'm also taking in more in the way of electrolytes and maybe an energy bar or two on a long ride.

I went for my first short ride in several weeks - other health issues, mine and my wife’s got in the way for a month - and discovered I’d not been drinking enough water. I was so dehydrated I got dizzy and actually vomited. Not fun. Quit the ride after only a couple of miles and had to go home.

Been drinking water regularly since and am feeling much better.

Learned my lesson

I've never tolerated heat well.
Looking back on childhood, I don't know how we survived without some air conditioning in a big, old house in Nashville.

I survived 4 years in Missouri, not too long ago, but hated it. I'm a left coast person, the Pacific Ocean is a great climate stabilizer, I'll stay close going forward

Take care yourself, it's only going to be worse in the coming years.

In local news today, a 76yo cyclist was hit by a CSX train, but it sounds like he was amazingly not injured all that seriously. The train was traveling at "only" 15mph, but something that size doesn't have to be going very fast at all to do some serious damage! I always wonder why people don't see something that large bearing down on them.


OTOH, there's another local suburb that has a very active downtown that unfortunately has a major track running right through it at grade level (with lights, gates, and bells). Seems like every year some pedestrian is killed by a (slow moving) freight train due to either being drunk (lots of bars in the area) or looking down at their smartphone and with earbuds in their ears...

Fitness and acclimation are the primary factors. To the extent that fitness drops with age, heat tolerance would be affected; however for an active senior this should not be significant. My take is that you (and I) have not yet acclimated well to this rather early heat wave in NC. As we progress into real summer our tolerance will improve.

Hello DougG,
I drink lots of cranberry juice for the bladder and prostate issues. (Doctors orders) Please tell me exactly what are electrolytes.?
Regards.

"Electrolytes are minerals in your body that have an electric charge. They are in your blood, urine, tissues, and other body fluids." Read all about it: https://medlineplus.gov/fluidandelectrolytebalance.html

New member here. 67 y/o male, 5'10" 235#. I have a new Huffy Cranbrook on the UPS truck for delivery this afternoon, along with an EyeGlow "Stylish Adult Road Bike Helmet." I haven't routinely ridden a bike for decades. Wish me luck.
I'm just looking for some mild exercise and a little fun in my neighborhood -- not going way across town or on busy streets. Do you folks ever carry pepper spray or "stun guns" while riding? I'm more worried about random dogs than random people bothering me. I think carrying my gun would be over the top and unwise for a lot of reasons.

In nearly 200,000 miles on road bikes I have never carried a weapon or spray but people are a much greater threat than dogs. A lot of the loose dogs will stop chasing if you yell "NO" at them.
I have, however, been in a paceline when a large dog bolted from the roadside and straight into the third rider, ejecting him from his bike and onto the road.

Good luck, btw.

You must live in a rough neighborhood. For dogs, I carry a spray made for that purpose. Never had to use it because getting off the bike and reasoning with the dog has always defused the situation. I’m mindful that more aggressive tactics, if not absolutely warranted, could lead to a confrontation with the dog’s owner. I don’t have a spray for that.

I have a police whistle I can wear around my neck. Handy that way. The sound is supposed to deter them, though I haven't had to use it.

Strangely enough, it’s illegal in Indiana and other locations to use a whistle when bicycling. Probably going back to olden times when police used whistles.
i have carried Halt for dogs in the past but only used it a couple of times. Very few dog problems in recent years. Amazing how many dogs out in Hoosier country land are contained by invisible fences. Can’t remember a single issue with Indianapolis urban/suburban dogs for a long time.

Yesterday I was riding on a bike trail in a large park in my city.

I came around a corner to find a big coyote on the path. I didn`t have much time to think. I figured he`d get scared and run off. He didn`t, he just stepped off the path, and I came riding right by him. It didn`t dawn on me until a few minutes had passed that he could of easily ran up to my bike and taken a bite out my leg.

They have attacked many dogs in the area, and last year a buck pierced a black lab with it`s antlers.

I lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for 12 years or so. The typical temps during summer months, day after day, was 93F and the relative humidity was also 93%. At first I thought I was going to die. I did, mostly, get used to the heat eventually. I played tennis regularly in those days three or four times each week. I could play tennis all day but I did drink a great deal of water and never had a problem with cramping but I did sweat buckets. One of my frequent tennis partners was a born and bred Southern boy. When i was sweating copiously, he would get a light sheen on his brow.

On one occasion, work for several people at our composite shop took us for one week to Mississippi State University at Starkville which had a large autoclave to cook a project under pressure. The campus was several hours drive further North and not being subject to the temperature moderating influence of the Gulf of Mexico was hotter by 4 or 5 degrees F. Naturally I brought along tennis rackets to work on my twist serve. So after work one day I found the campus tennis courts and proceeded to pound serves. Within 10 minutes I felt ill and had to stop even though I did not feel it was that hot. I was surprised a few degrees more of heat would have such an immediate effect. I'm even more surprised that professional world class tour players can play five set matches lasting 4 hours or more, under the same conditions.

Years ago but I remember something similar - wife and I attended our yearly pilgrimage to the river at the hottest time of year (late August, Lake Havasu-Mohave AZ area) AND WE THOUGHT WE HAD PERHAPS, GOTTEN TOO OLD FOR THIS VACATION REGIMEN... It turned out later it was the hottest day on record, over 120 degrees. I remember when I walked up to get my car to pick up the boat on the launch ramp, I could not start it because the ignition was so hot it burned my fingertips.

I can attest that I'm definitely more affected by the heat now that I was when I was younger. I did a bike tour a few years ago when the temps were hitting the 90s (this is in Michigan, where that's relatively rare -- or used to be), but out on the roads in the sun I wouldn't want to guess what the temperature radiating up from the asphalt was. I thought I was doing OK until I got to the day's finish and found myself lightheaded and dizzy. Even a cold shower didn't totally relieve that feeling and the thought of spending another night in a tent when the lows were in the mid-80s was too much for me. I called my wife and she drove over and picked me up (to her immense relief also!).

It's been hot here again the last few days -- similar to that other year -- and I'm already a bit anxious for a ride I'm signed up to do in early August. Fortunately, this one is a couple hundred miles north of here and at the end of the day I'll be in a nice, cool hotel room, so maybe not too bad. I'm also not too proud at my age to use the SAG van to skip a segment if I'm feeling the heat.

Good luck with your new adventure sparkydog.
I'm 65 and just got myself an Electra Cruiser 1 and a helmet this morning at the local bike shop. I have not ridden in more than 20 years myself.

I've said I love the heat, the hotter the better. If it's below 90, I'm probably complaining I am headed down to the Yucatan Peninsula for diving, running, partying next week ..I guess we'll see how I do with 100 degree days. I did have the experience of playing in a doubles tennis tournament in Maui, 90+ degrees and higher humidity. It was a truly terrible experience, it was like playing underwater. My partner and I were sort of throwing the game by ending the point on the second volley, we just wanted to get off the courts. The tennis balls seemed to weight about a pound.

I am thinking this old fool is about to come face to face with a bit of heat tolerance reality ... we'll see.

I surely do not tolerate the heat/humidity as well as when young. I get my miles in early morning. Today, here on Delmarva, the temps are reading between 96 and 100 the last couple of hours. In the summer, for the past 3 years I drove an open air trolley for the town Bethany Beach. No ac and in the beating down sun for 7 hours and that has lot to do with my quitting that job. I know the drivers are miserable today.

I'm a bit late to this heat discussion but it's my opinion that acclamation is an important factor in tolerating heat. A while back when I was still refereeing soccer games for the state of CT I was working in a steel rolling mill where the temperatures in the summertime were quite high. The week they laid me off I was scheduled to do 2 soccer games in a tournament that turned out to be on a very hot day. We had a number of professional referees to do the games as mids and assistants. These were short games, 25 min halves with a 5 min halftime and 5 min between games. We cautioned the coaches to watch their players closely and to sub them out for fluids often.

To make a long story short, the other referees were failing in the heat and I ended up doing 5 consecutive games as the referee while they served as assistants. I was enjoying the day, running around constantly. The only thing out of the ordinary was chugging down a bottle of power aid (provided by the tournament) every 30 min. It was so bad that I was sloshing for the first few minutes of each new half. At the end of the day I rubbed my hand across my forehead and cut myself with the dried on salt crystals.

But, because of the work in the mill, the upper 90 heat outside during the games seemed like no big deal to me. Cold on the other hand I can't stand.

I hate the heat. Anything above 90°F is too much. On the other hand, I really like cold.

Over fifty years ago I was in the Air Force in North Dakota and spent most of the time out on the flight line. I remember a period of about wo weeks when the temperature never got above 0° F. I loved it. When it warmed up to 25°F I remember walking around in my class B shirt (wool); I was never sick.

The next year I was sent to Thailand, where I was almost always sick with some bug or other.

I am hardly new to BF, but new to this thread (DOB 1949). I am posting this in the category of "how I dealt with some cycling specific, age related pains" (in case it is helpful to others). For reference I ride anywhere from 120 to 240 miles per week (roadie, but not a racer).

1) I have osteoarthritis in both knees, although the left knee is far worse on X-Ray/MRI. Oddly it is the right knee that back in 2016 started to ache about an hour into a long ride. I ended up with one of those high end lateral stability braces (complicated plastic and metal with hinges, etc). And I started getting hyaluronic acid injections (once every 6 to 12 months). I am pretty close to knee pain free when I ride (and I now get injections in both knees). My ortho doc is adamant about me keeping my activity level up, but not running on hard surfaces. He also said that he has seen X-Rays not as bad as my left knee (the less problematic one in my case) who literally could not walk up stairs. You never know about this stuff. He also said that hyaluronic acid has, in his experience, a success rate of around 60%.

2) I was getting a relatively severe pain in my right wrist, to the point that after an hour of riding I had trouble shifting. I could not believe this worked, but this went away completely when I changed to riding gloves with really good padding and got off my Gatorskin tires and dropped my air pressure a bit (unfortunately 23/25 mm is all the room I have in my bike).

In case this helps anyone.

dave

Well I am over 65. 67.5 to be precise. I am new to BF in general as well as having very recently gone back to riding. My husband thought I was crazy. I have talked about it for years but didn’t do it. But now I work only part time and our old dog doesn’t like walks, plus there is a trail a block away. So I bought a bike and attempt to ride daily. It will be 2 weeks since I started. I am up to 5 miles on our rather hilly trail. I want to find a flatter trail to go further. I am feeling more confident. Getting on and off at first caused anxiety. I figure the more miles I put in the more confident I will become. At my age it is pleasant to think I could be getting better at something rather than sliding down hill. Personally I don’t care about the age of the other posters. I do love a thread being devoted to the concerns of this age group.