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Heat & Nutrition for the Sunday Tribune Jeep Hill 2 Hill

[image] 15 September 2011

Well with Hill2Hill around the corner and the weather man predicting some sun and heat for the day, a lot of guys are asking on both blog and in our practices about hydration and nutrition on the day, and tricks to beat the heat.

Firstly breakfast is key, get up early get a solid breakfast in, lots of carbs. Then from breakfast time till race time sip on a carbohydrate drink.

Keri Strachan our dietician at the Center for Sports Medicine recommends on the bike you try and get between 30 to 60 grams of carbs per hour depending on your size, you can get it through drink and food, just check the content of carbs of your drink to figure it out. She advises taking a mouthful at least every 20 minutes to avoid thirst and the start of dehyradtion due to not drinking for long periods.

As far as beating the heat, just ride really fast so the sun is not up by the time you finish. Joking. The key is to not dehydrate so use the advice from Keri above, take in your fluids and food. Clothing plays an important role, if the start is cold wear layers you can remove so if it gets really hot you can remove those layers.

If it's really hot, at the water points put some water down your back or over your head to just cool you down a bit as you battle your way to the finish.  Try if you can to wear lighter colours, the dark colours to tend to attract and keep a bit more heat, a small difference but it all helps. 

It's a bit late now for this weekends ride, but for future events during training go for rides at 10 or 11 to get used to the heat, as age groupers and " fun riders" we tend to do all our training early doors, so on weekends maybe try a long ride in the heat of the day.

Just use common sense, pace yourself, drink and eat and enjoy your ride.

CSM_100

www.centreforsportsmedicine.co.za

Gareth Harrington
Physiotherapist
Holroyd & Goodenough Physio- Hillcrest
Tel: 031 7642918
Email: hillcrest@thephysio.co.za
          www.physiolink.co.za

 

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