sweat replacement

[Atsuko]

I am a girl but I sweat excessively.  I know this because I get comments from my friends about salt patches on face, arms and black shorts after workouts.  Because I am not strong in the heat, I probably end up sweating a lot to cool down my body heat.  Losing so much salt and water concerns me.  Since I have to do my race in hot weather, I'll sweat excessively and I feel that I'll need extra salt and water intake to make up for the loss.  I also got comments from a friend that I should not use a fan for spinning indoors to simulate working out in the heat.  So today, I did spinning without a fan and I probably sweated twice as much as I do. I also reached my target HR with lower wattage.  Now, I feel that I should simulate race enviroments for my training - not using a fan for indoor spinning, so my body can get used to working out in the heat and I can see better of my hydration/electrolytes needs.

Any suggestions?

Atsuko

[Andrew]

Heat acclimatization is a much studies area of sports science, especially with the Ironman crowd. The idea that we can retrain our bodies to adapt to the heat is well founded. What we don;t have are many studies that show how long-term acclimation works. So, these are just my thoughts.

If you have recognized the salt and water loss as a personal limitation, it makes sense to us to try to address this in training. But, we would suggest you measure your results to see if what you are doing is actually working. It is not that hard to do. If your house remains relatively the same temperature, it is fairly easy to measure how much sweat you lose in an hour, by measuring your weight before and after training. That is take an accurate weight, before the session, and repeat every hour until your session is complete. This way, you can see how much water you have lost each hour, and at different intensities. Over the next few weeks, if you notice you are losing less sweat each hour, then your acclimation process is actually working. NOTE: be sure to weigh yourself before you pee, and you must measure the amount of fluid you take in each session to be sure your own testing is standardized. The easiest way to do this it to drink exactly the same amount (one water bottle) each hour.

One other think to remember. The body will first respond to heat acclimation by sweating MORE. So, don;t be surprised if in fact you develop a period of time (2 or 3 days) where you sweat more  than when you first started. The the trend may reverse for a period of time.

Also, we have a great sponsor in E-Load, which makes very good electrolyte replacement products. I will give some samples to Mike to donate for trial purposes to the Revy crew.

And one last thing. If the goal for the session is to challenge the body adapting to heat, then do not worry that your wattage is a bit lower for the time being. If the goal of the session is power development, then switch on the fan, keep your body temp down, and crank out some big numbers.
 
Sweat on sister...