Extreme hot conditions can be daunting and less appealing for Bike Riders that can impact your ride and stamina, but with proper techniques, you can overcome the challenge nicely.
Here are 10 Tips on how to deal with extreme heat during your summer rides.
- Drink Water
- Wear Helmet
- Avoid Water Pours
- Healthy Diet
- Insulated Water Bottle
- Use Ice
- Proper Biking Attire
- Skin Protection
- Wear Sunglasses
- Ride Timing
Let’s explore each of these in more detail for better understanding.
1. Drink Water
Drink water regularly to keep yourself hydrated, one can always get caught by lets push that one more mile so on and so forth without quenching your thirst but the longer you push the weaker your performance gets and with constant sweating your body loses water levels, hence it’s always to sip on to keep going. Dehydration is the last thing you’d ever want to have during your rides, so avoid it by all costs. Best is to keep drinking small amounts throughout your ride rather than all of it at the start or wait till the end of your ride.
2. Wear Helmet
Helmet is a must have item for keeping your head safe from any injuries, while on the other hand it also keeps your head cool from hot sun shinning away. Look for an aerated design that helps the air flow through your head to keep it cool.
3. Avoid Water Pours
Avoid it if you can, as they are not very effective way of cooling off due to warm air and conditions it quickly warms up, so instead of cooling you off, it adds more of a problem than solving it.
4. Healthy Diet
Sounds like a nobrainer, isn’t it? Keeping a healthy diet will help your body retain water content better as your metabolism functions through in normal manner. Eating more veggies and fruits in your diet can help dealing with longer rides during heat. I don’t want to sound like a dietitian here but truth be told even if you know it already. It’s recommended to keep a snack of orange and apple in your pack rather than dry bars.
5. Insulated Water Bottle
Investing in an insulated water bottle is a great idea that can help, or you can make an insulation for your bottle by yourself to add a protective layer and keep water cool for longer period of time.
6. Use Ice
Using ice in your water bottle can help retaining the temperature for longer period of time in extreme hot conditions. It is best to use a 60/40 ratio of Ice/Water in your water bottle that will help keeping the water cold for long as you ride through your track.
7. Proper Biking Attire
Attire may be one of the overlooked items in the anticipation of just getting out to ride, but you certainly don’t want to be pulling a T-shirts with heat absorbing materials and dark colors in hot conditions to make things worst. So, your attire being airy and light with light colors to repel light would help you keeping cool through your ride. Wicking materials are best suited to wear that can reduce the sweat build up and help maintaining normal body temperature.
8. Skin Protection
Protecting your skin in extreme sunny conditions has to be #1 priority as sun’s ultraviolet rays can damage your skin and potentially cause skin cancer if taken lightly. Make sure your apply a generous amount of sunblock on your body especially the areas that are exposed to direct sunlight.
9. Wear Sun Glasses
Sun glasses always helps by protecting your eyes from debris flying around, while in hot sunny conditions a good pair of sun glasses with UV protection can drastically improve your vision and have a positive impact on your perception of heat. I’ve tried it, and it works wonders when an extreme bright day gives you a feel of getting hot already, just all of a sudden look completely cool and full of shade, hey it’s all in the head how we deal with hot and cold weather. The key is to get a pair that does what it says, I was blown by the results when I found the right pair.
10. Ride Timing
If you have the choice to pick a time for your ride, it’s always recommended to pick either morning times or evenings. End of the day you want to avoid extremely hot sun shinning on your head where you have to pull a lot of things to overcome the impact, so why not just avoid it all together if you can. I can understand it cannot always be the cause, but where you can, would help you enjoy your rides better.
