Australian Triathlete – July-August 2017

72 | AustrAliAn triAthlete

hoT

STUff

I think the finger can be pointed

three ways -

1. Lack of plain language communication
   by scientists.


2. Coaches are busily writing programs for
   too many athletes to keep up with
   current best practice.


3. Athletes who too often focus on the
   latest and greatest equipment, rather
   than the critical skills associated with
   swim/bike/run.

W

hen it comes to adapting

for racing in the heat, I feel

like a stuck record.

It’s low hanging fruit: at

least a three percent improvement on race

day if you can acclimate effectively in the

two weeks leading into your event.

The science has been published over and

over. From the seminal work of Greenleaf

et al. in the 70s to Armstrong and Maresh

(1991), heat acclimatisation has been

widely studied and accepted in the

physiology world.

Since we already know that heat

acclimation improves performance

(summarised well in Guy et al. 2014),

there’s a great deal of interest in how to

optimise benefit to time spent on

acclimation - especially in a world where

140 characters is an essay! Short or

Medium Term Heat Acclimation (STHA or

MTHA) both work well, with the weight of

literature backing MTHA as superior. So

why aren’t athletes executing a simple

task for this performance benefit?

text by dR MItcH andeRSon

IllUStrAtIon by SHutteRStocK.coM

Now that I have clipped the whole

community (sorry!), let’s get to the nuts

and bolts of heat acclimation.

To clarify, heat acclimation benefits

racing in cool-temperate climates, as well

as hot/humid conditions. But I really want

athletes and coaches to focus on

executing MTHA or STHA protocols

effectively for racing in the heat (i.e.

Ironman Cairns or Ironman 70.3 Cairns),

rather than getting bogged down

comparing the minutiae of performance

WANT To IMProve

YoUr^ rAce DAY

PerforMANce^ BY

3%?^

Try new heat

acclimatisation

and receive a free

set of run legs!

Training TOOLBOX