It isn’t just the pedaling

[Louis]

Something occurred to me last night as I recovered from my first real day of heat for this summer – you don’t have to be pedaling a bike to be wiped out from time out in the heat or sun. This is not breaking news, but probably worth repeating at this time of year.

Yesterday I showed the Alfa at the St Louis area European Car Show. It was in a large parking lot, but our spot was near a grassy area, so it wasn’t all asphalt as far as the eye could see. Bright sun nearly the entire time, from 11:00 to 3:00, with air temp ranging from 85*-90* and dew point pretty much constant at 73* (that’s high, but typical for this area; the table below is from Wikipedia). Two Alfa club members had brought tents so we had plenty of shade, but I did do a little bit of walking around. I tried to get plenty to drink (no alcohol) and didn’t get too dehydrated. Most of the time I was just sitting under the tent chatting.

Nevertheless, by around 2:00 I was feeling pretty beat up and when I got home at 3:30 I felt dead, and all I could do is drink some more water and collapse on the bed for a nap.

Later that night I thought to myself, “Wow, it's a good thing I wasn’t also trying to do any significant riding today.”

Moral of the story is that if you’re going to ride at elevated dew points, be careful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_point

[Kirk007]

interesting. I was just riding in Virginia on Saturday and the 3 hour, very hilly ride was hard, but much harder than I thought it should have been, but looking back at the weather, the dew point, while only 61, combined with temps in the 80s was very different that my typical Seattle weather. I was toast afterwards.

And now I have a good excuse for feeling that way other than lack of conditioning ; )

[benb]

Sun tan lotion actually seems to help when riding.. I actually feel less wiped out on long/hot/sunny rides if I use it.

It doesn't really help for some of these other activities. For a car show I am sure I would want to take my camera gear. And I absolutely hate handling my expensive camera gear with sun tan lotion smearing everywhere.

I've started wearing a full-brim hat for non cycling stuff in the sun like going to something like a car show.. you just gotta figure out how to not look like a dork, but I look like a dork anyway.:rolleyes:

[MattTuck]

Just like air conditions in the winter can be dangerous, so too can the air conditions in the summer.

Not so much having to do with humidity, but cultures closer to the equator generally avoid doing stuff in the middle of the day when the sun is directly over head. Much of the US was originally settled by folks from Northern Europe who didn't bring that cultural behavior.

Also, I remember hearing or reading that heat dissipation is actually a significant limiter to athletic performance in cyclists and that they could actually climb faster if they had a better way of removing heat from their bodies. Certainly, humid conditions make it much more difficult to shed heat.

[Dead Man]

One of the pillars of our church straight up passed the fap out from heat stroke at a local high school baseball game, on Saturday. Humid, hot... Said he was uncomfortably warm, but came as a total shock to him to just wake up on the ground, several minutes later.

Watch it on those first few truly hot days!

I did a relatively puny ride on the same day, AND I generally handle heat really well, once acclimated, and I finished with multiple varieties of cramps in multiple legs.

[Red Tornado]

Temps in central Texas haven't been too crazy yet, but I did notice that while riding yesterday morning (8:00 - 10:00) I was sweating NOTICEABLY more than usual and towards the end of the ride seemed to be working harder than my perception tells me is normal for this ride. When I got home & the rest of the day I had a little less energy than typical after a ride of that duration/intensity.
Temp was upper 80's. Humidity was about 70%. Did have some wheezing for a couple hours afterwards. I do have asthma and did not use my inhaler before the ride.
Interesting info in that Wikipedia table.

[paredown]

Timely reminder--and this article in the NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/opinion/sunday/the-deadly-combination-of-heat-and-humidity.html?ref=opinion) gives an explanation--of the dangers of heat plus humidity.
A person who is physically active at a wet-bulb temperature of 80 degrees will have trouble maintaining a constant core temperature and risks overheating. A sedentary person who is naked and in the shade will run into the same problem at a wet-bulb temperature of 92 degrees. A wet-bulb temperature of 95 degrees is lethal after about six hours.

(I'd heard of 'wet bulb' thermometer readings, but had never given it much thought. Think of it as how hot it stays when the water does not evaporate from cloth wrapped around base of a thermometer. Higher the humidity, less evaporation, ergo higher effective temps for those mammals who rely in part on evaporative cooling...)

One little factoid in the article--the wet bulb temps may actually be higher even as the air temps have started to fall.

[azrider]

Ahhh good ole summertime in St.Louis. I read stuff like that and this picture comes to mind

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a-CsvH-T6Lo/UCVJ3PUlYOI/AAAAAAAAAN4/musnWaMsTxo/s1600/swamp+ass.bmp

[Mayhem]

In the summer of '00 I was riding in the middle of nowhere, South Carolina and got lost. I had never ridden that area and it turned out the roads I has written down (pre cell phone) did not have road signs. Ran out of water, started sucking bad, ended up cramping and walking my bike and finally lost my mind, threw my Serotta to the side of the road and collapsed in a fire ant bed with every muscle in my body cramping. Feet, fingers and the worst was my abdominal muscles. I didn't even feel the ants. Pure pain.

After not seeing one vehicle in well over an hour, an angel sent a guy and his son in a truck after I had been down maybe a minute. They saw me and pulled over and holy cow, had a cooler full of ice water. They got me back to my car 30 minutes away and somehow I was able to drive home, though I did throw up all over the dash while I was driving.

Got home and literally crawled on all fours inside my house and into bed. Didn't sleep all night because I was cramping. The cramps in my abs would hit about every five minutes and it was like being stabbed. Made it into work the next day (I was a drill sergeant in the Army) and was immediately sent to the hospital. I took five IV bags and was pissing blood. After a day or so I was good but I came so close to dying that day. But I still like the heat :)

[Louis]

But I still like the heat :)

Obviously the heat affected your head too. ;)

The humidity's one of the main reasons (and weather as whole is most of the reason) I don't plan on living in St Louis when I'm retired (whenever that is).

[choke]

Many years ago I did what ended up being a brutal century in Belleville, IL over the 4th of July weekend (Firecracker 100). The temp was in the high 90s and the humidity had to have been close to that; along with numerous bottles of water I consumed 2 full Camelbaks yet never made a visit to the Porta-Potty the entire ride. I had salt on my jersey and shorts in spots that I've never seen before or since.

When I got home and turned on the news, one of the main stories was about several heat casualties at the VP Fair that day. I was rather amazed that people just walking around the fair could end up that way.

Louis: one of the main things I don't miss at all is the humidity. I still have relatives in southern IL and every trip reminds me of how stuffy and thick the air is there.

[Bstone]

Grew up on a farm in southern Indiana. We had to fill five or six barns with hay during the summer in order to feed the cows all winter.

The worst was when we had to stand inside the barn and stack the bales. Temps in the 90s + tin roofed barns + being covered with loose hay= the hottest, most miserable conditions imaginable. Like working inside an oven.

I live in Florida now and have never experienced heat that bad here.

Luckily, that experience seemed to have set my misery ceiling so high that nothing ever seems that bad.

Shut up legs.

[11.4]

Ran finance once at a company doing large injection molded and blow molded components in a huge sheet metal factory in Houston. The blow- and injection-molders ran at about 450 F, there was no air conditioning, and people were falling over at the rate of a couple an hour. Safety issues were rampant and as part of a team that came in to fix all the problems, there was nothing to be done about the factory or the equipment short-term, just to protect the workers there. I was on the floor most of the day and discovered another interesting side-effect to this kind of humid heat. You lose water and even if you drink your body doesn't necessarily absorb as rapidly as needed. And you end up precipitating out oxalates and other stuff in your urine and getting kidney stones. A urologist explained that he hardly ever saw kidney stones while a resident in Boston, but when he moved to Texas, he saw them daily. It's a curse among people who have to work in the heat a lot. And once you have your first stone, you've also created micro crystals that seed new stones if you abuse your hydration levels again so you become more prone to them.

[Louis]

And once you have your first stone, you've also created micro crystals that seed new stones if you abuse your hydration levels again so you become more prone to them.

I've never had one, but from what I've heard, this is probably the 2nd best reason of all to stay hydrated. (not dying from heat stroke is presumably #1)

[bironi]

I am always amazed by the range of response to heat in my long time riding group. I melt in the heat, but fortunately do not have to deal with humidity. Most in my riding group deal with it quite well, but I have a few with whom to commiserate.

Cramping within the group is varied as well. Unfortunately, I suffer both.

[F150]

Ran finance once at a company doing large injection molded and blow molded components in a huge sheet metal factory in Houston. The blow- and injection-molders ran at about 450 F, there was no air conditioning, and people were falling over at the rate of a couple an hour. Safety issues were rampant and as part of a team that came in to fix all the problems, there was nothing to be done about the factory or the equipment short-term, just to protect the workers there. I was on the floor most of the day and discovered another interesting side-effect to this kind of humid heat. You lose water and even if you drink your body doesn't necessarily absorb as rapidly as needed. And you end up precipitating out oxalates and other stuff in your urine and getting kidney stones. A urologist explained that he hardly ever saw kidney stones while a resident in Boston, but when he moved to Texas, he saw them daily. It's a curse among people who have to work in the heat a lot. And once you have your first stone, you've also created micro crystals that seed new stones if you abuse your hydration levels again so you become more prone to them.

Love to visit client's secondary aluminum processing facility in August, furnaces running at 1,400+, sows of molten aluminum cooling all around, high bay building feels like 140. Never been on top of a coke oven, but I hear it's as close to hell as you might care to get.

[Red Tornado]

Grew up on a farm in southern Indiana. We had to fill five or six barns with hay during the summer in order to feed the cows all winter.

The worst was when we had to stand inside the barn and stack the bales. Temps in the 90s + tin roofed barns + being covered with loose hay= the hottest, most miserable conditions imaginable. Like working inside an oven.

I live in Florida now and have never experienced heat that bad here.

Luckily, that experience seemed to have set my misery ceiling so high that nothing ever seems that bad.

Shut up legs.

Grew up in NE Indiana working on friends' farms. I definitley know the feeling. Made baling that hay & straw to not seem so bad; at least we had a breeze on the wagon or tractor. The farmers I helped always had a cooler or two of ice water handy and we consumed all of it.
Had to laugh at the other guys crying about the heat when 2-a-days started for football. Those of us that did that kind of work got a pretty good jump start on the other players, in terms of heat/humidity tolerance.

[saf-t]

Beginning of heat season is always an issue when you're talking about physical activity, whether occupational or recreational, and can be dangerous until you become somewhat acclimatized.

Here's a reference or two that might be useful:

https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/heatillness/heat_index/heat_app.html

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/heat/

And as mentioned above, don't forget about UV

I frequently ride with sun sleeves in the summer, which shields UV and limits radiant heat gain.

[Dead Man]

I have a nice layer of sarcoma to keep the UVs off.

[Derailer]

I've got a number of stories about heat-related cramping and barfing. Yet I still like riding in the heat. I feel like I'm getting a better workout even though I'm riding slower and for shorter distances.

[Red Tornado]

Felt the bonk coming on while riding to work this morning. It's a 12 mile commute and I usually don't hit it too hard going in, I'd say 17 mph avg speed most of the time. I have NEVER EVER come even close to bonking while commuting, so this is a big first for me.
Starting temp/humidity was 72 deg/89%.
Finishing temp/humidity was 73 deg/85%.
10-12 mph head/cross wind; nothing I'd normally be concerned about.
I usually only drink about 1/2 of my bottle riding in; today I had it emptied at mile 9. I have been hydrating like normal. Always make sure I have plenty of fluids going in.
I have not done anything different than normal in the last several days (or couple weeks for that matter), and have felt great the past 3-4 rides. After 24 years of cycling, much of it competitive, I've learned to recognize signs my body is giving me when something's not quite right (if I'm over trained/not enough sleep/too much stress/etc.) and everything's been good.
Guess I'll try to eat some fruit and get some carbs + a Gatorade or equivalent before lunch and see what happens on the way home.
Kinda wonder if weather conditions played a part in this; but I've ridden in these conditions for years without any problems.
Strange.......

[paredown]

...
Starting temp/humidity was 72 deg/89%.
Finishing temp/humidity was 73 deg/85%.
...
Kinda wonder if weather conditions played a part in this; but I've ridden in these conditions for years without any problems.

I've highlighted teh problem.:banana:

To be fair, those are probably no worse than typical Gulf weather (which we used to get in Arkansas as well)--so maybe you started dehydrated???

[Red Tornado]

Could be. I guess its possible.
I'll be hydrating like a boss at work today.....

[shovelhd]

I've got a number of stories about heat-related cramping and barfing. Yet I still like riding in the heat. I feel like I'm getting a better workout even though I'm riding slower and for shorter distances.

I think the general concern is valid, but how one is affected by it varies. I have traditionally performed very well racing in high heat and humidity. My body just deals with it after a reasonable period of adaptation.

[bobswire]

I sometimes envy friends in the surrounding areas of San Francisco who have real summers while those of us in San Francisco are left with foggy/overcast weather for most of the summer. Reading posts like this helps keep me grounded in reality on how good I really have it.

This was taken two days ago, one of the few days it was clear but clouds soon appeared giving us a moderate temperature. We also experience heavy cool winds from the Ocean cutting through the city on the way to the East Bay.


Bernal Heights Hill with the East Bay in the background. If I had panned left towards the GG Bridge/Marin Headlands you would have seen a low fog bank encroaching the area.

http://i61.tinypic.com/5ocfg4.jpg http://i61.tinypic.com/2ztg129.jpg