Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Hi there,

Yesterday afternoon a friend and I went on a bike ride which took 4 or 5 hours (Hamilton to Toronto, Ontario.. his home to mine, pretty much). I'm pretty sure I had heat exhaustion by the end of it, but I got over it by drinking lots of cold water, taking a cold shower or two, and lying naked in front of my fan for a while.

I seem to still be quite sensitive to heat, even though I got over the exhaustion. My apartment is third floor (top floor) above a sushi restaurant with no air conditioning in downtown Toronto, so it isn't particularly tolerable at the best of times, but it seems to be even less tolerable than usual. I couldn't get to sleep at all last night because it was just too damn hot. I'm also finding it ridiculously hot right now. A quick google search reveals that there is a high likelihood of being more sensitive to heat than usual for about a week afterwards, so I guess that is probably what I'm experiencing.

None of the sources I found gave an explanation about why this residual heat sensitivity happens, or ways to get over it faster. What's the deal? Is there anything I can do to speed up getting over it? I'm signed up for a run next weekend and want to be able to do it without dying (figuratively).

Hmm I'm not sure about this residual heat stress thing but I've been trying to deal with high heat here in NJ lately so I feel your pain. I think it has been really tough on my 20 mos. old baby (he has thrown up his dinner for no good reason several times now).

Ways we've tried to beat the triple digit temps:
-stay wet! go under the sprinkler, to a lake, or just make your shirt wet and sit in front of a fan. You wouldn't believe how chilly you can get with a wet shirt in front of a fan! It works well in the bath - I put my son in a cool water bath, then turn the fan on for myself and he gets chilly!
-eat high water content things - like cucumbers, berries, watermelon, ice pops made from 100% juice. the trick here, at least for my son, is to do it as snacks inbetween meals - if he has the fruit as dessert, he'll just throw up. So just a little bit at a time.

Umm, I guess that's it! The heat has been so brutal lately, I don't know what else to do.

Hope you feel better soon.
-

Oh also, probably obvious but stay away from caffeinated beverages. Those dehydrate you.

webmd said it so it must be true: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/heat-exhaustion


Those sound like good suggestions... I'll give the wet t-shirt a try, especially!

I have things to say about this! Last weekend I rode up Mt. Diablo, a nearby "mountain" in the Bay Area. It was 30 - 35 degrees C, and very exposed. I tried to drink lots of water, but I felt like hell the whole way up. I thought it was heatstroke BUT when I talked to my coach about it later, it seems I was actually bonking from not eating enough, and probably dehydrated from drinking water only.

Things she recommended that might be helpful to you:
1. eat lots - if you're active, your body needs lots of fuel to recover, and that includes recovering from heat, etc.
2. drink electrolyte drinks as well as water. I always thought they were bullshiitake, but they really do help. I recently discovered the hydration mixes from Skratch labs, and I like them a lot: http://www.skratchlabs.com/collections/all In hot temperatures, it's recommended to drink 2 bottles of water per hour during exercise.
3. Make sure to eat throughout workouts longer than 90 minutes or so.

Yeah, it is possible I didn't eat well enough yesterday. I had a bunch of water, a sports beverage, a granola bar, half of a large apple, and a bagel. At the halfway point we stopped for coffee, which in retrospect may have been a bad idea. If I was on my own I think I would have grabbed more food, but my friend is significantly faster than me so I was often playing catch-up instead of having an additional snack when I needed one.

editted to add: Yesterday it was roughly 30 degrees celsius towards the end of the ride, plus humidity bringing it up to an apparently 36. The ride was roughly 75k

Yeah, you probably didn't eat enough. I was SHOCKED to learn I should be aiming to take in 100 calories every 20 minutes while riding!