Australian Triathlete — December 2017

88 | AustrAliAn triAthlete

Adapting To The Heat

Heat Acclimation

text by sam Betten | photogrAphy by reBeCCa ohlweIn

strategy. It goes without saying that when

the temperatures rise, your body will

sweat more and therefore you will need to

consume more fluids in order to combat

this. In addition to this, we not only need

to replace the water loss itself but also

sodium and calories. When you are racing

in the heat, it is much harder for your

stomach to process the increased

nutritional and hydration demands, which

is why it is very important to be practising

your strategy in training to test what you

can handle. Too much and you will

experience gut fatigue where your

stomach will not be able to process the

higher volume of fluids and nutrition.

Too little and you will not get the fluid and

calories that are needed in order to stay

well hydrated and fuelled.

A

s a professional athlete for

over a decade, one of the

hardest and most complex

aspects of racing that I have

struggled to get right is racing in the

heat. Racing in the heat and humidity

has the ability to completely humble you

as an athlete as it is so easy to fall into

the trap of going past your limits and

‘cooking’ yourself to the point of no return.

Getting the heat equation right takes a

lot of planning, preparation and mental

discipline that can take years to master

correctly. If you need evidence of this just

look at past years of the Ironman World

Championships in Hawaii and how many

of the world’s best triathletes have fallen

apart during the race as a result of the

extreme heat. It took the greats of the

sport like Chris McCormack and Mark

Allen many years to crack the code before

they perfected their strategy of racing in

the heat and humidity of Kona.

There are several components that are

important to consider in the lead up to

racing in hot and humid conditions.

The first and foremost is how you

approach your hydration and nutrition