BARKER’S TIPS FOR STAYING COOL ON RACE DAY
Learning how to beat the heat on race day isn’t as difficult as one might expect
You’ve trained and are ready — and then the heat hits. Do you kiss your personal best goodbye? Or do you fall back on tried and true techniques to help take the edge off a day where everyone else is sipping a cool one in the shade?
For years, exercisers have been offered the same sage advice when exercising in the heat: drink lots of water, wear light-coloured clothing, exercise during the coolest part of the day and reduce the intensity and length of your workout.
But if there’s a heat wave on race day, when your ability to modify the conditions is limited, researchers have created new strategies to help you handle the heat. Here’s how you can adapt.
START THE RACE ALREADY COOLED (PRE-COOLING)
Cooling down the body immediately prior to exercise improves its capacity to store heat. Doing so also delays the decrease in performance that occurs when exercising on hot, sticky days. Pre-cooling is an increasingly popular strategy employed by many athletes; the key is finding a method that is practical and effective. While jumping into an ice bath for 30 to 60 minutes before exercising is considered the gold standard of pre-cooling strategies, it’s not practical for the average Joe and Jill who need to show up hours before the start of a race.
Nor is using icy compresses or a cooling vest, which score high in effectiveness, but low in practicality.
What’s practical without compromising effectiveness? A cold drink.
Studies suggest that 4 C is the optimal temperature to fight the heat, and that a cold beverage should be consumed 30 to 60 minutes before exercising. It’s a strategy that has consistently proven to improve exercise tolerance on hot days.
A word of caution: Drinking large quantities of water too close to or during a workout can cause stomach upset, especially for cyclists. The alternative is to drink crushed ice or a slush beverage — the cooling effects are similar to or better than cold water, but require less intake. Consumed within 30 minutes of exercising, research has shown that runners and cyclists benefitted from cooler internal and external body temperatures and improved their ability to maintain intensity throughout their workout.
It’s not just ice’s capacity to cool down the body that makes pre-cooling so effective. Researchers suggest the sensory effect of a cold burst on a hot day sends signals to regions of the brain linked to motivation and reward. So even swirling crushed ice around in your mouth can boost your energy.
Be sure to experiment with drinking cold beverages during training before putting the technique into practice on race day.
STAY COOL DURING THE RACE (MID-COOLING)
Keeping beverages cool enough to be effective during an extended workout isn’t easy on a hot day. Yet for anyone exercising more than 30 minutes in the heat, mid-cooling is important for keeping your goals within reach. In some cases, mid-cooling has proven more effective than pre-cooling.
Some athletic activities allow easy access to ice-cold water or towels dipped in icy water. A cooler filled with ice and cold towels ready to be draped across overheated limbs and around the neck offers the perfect combination of internal and external cooling strategies during football, soccer, baseball or tennis.
But for on-the-go exercisers, like runners and cyclists, access to ice and/or icy beverages is limited. Eliciting the aid of friends or family to supply crushed ice or a slush drink along the race route can make all the difference. Without a support team, the best solution for endurance exercisers is to cool down by dumping water — the cooler the better — over your head, face and neck.
Research suggests overheated skin is the primary cause of deteriorated performance, so dousing yourself with water or running through a sprinkler or misting station along the route is effective.
Also worth noting is that menthol mouth rinse or topical gels seem to provide a sensory stimulus that tricks the mind into believing it’s cooler than it is.
It might be worth experimenting with menthol products during training to see how well it works for you.
Like pre-cooling strategies, it’s best to try any new mid-cooling techniques prior to race day so that when it comes, you’ve found a plan that works for you.
Researchers suggest the sensory effect of a cold burst on a hot day sends signals to regions of the brain linked to motivation and reward.