By Cameron Elford
April 6, 2007 -- If you're just joining us, we're on the third and final day of the Lava Camp in Waikoloa, Hawaii. After covering the Lavaman Triathlon here on Sunday, I spent another few days on the Big Island at the invitation of the LifeSport coaching team.
After Wednesday's burley ride up Hualalai Volcano above Kailua-Kona, the athletes spent the morning at a well-deserved yoga session before taking in an hour-long lecture on nutrition and hydration at the Waikoloa Hilton, led by Olympic and Pan Am
Games coach Paul Regensburg. Following Regensburg's talk, we were off to the famed Natural Energy Lab of Hawaii -- part of the Ford Ironman World Championship course and site of numerous pitched battles among Ironman greats including Peter Reid, Mark Allen, Dave Scott, Normann Stadler and many others.
The out-and-back lab section of the course allows top athletes racing the Ironman to size up the competition and grab a quick split to see how far ahead or behind they are -- or, for the rest us, the lab presents an opportunity to suffer in silence (and often darkness) as the roughly three-mile round-trip is relatively isolated compared to much of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway and frenetic Palani and Alii.
Today's Energy Lab training session was a brick workout under the pounding midday Kona sun with only a light breeze coming off the Pacific. For those of you who have an opportunity to train on the Big Island, the lab is located just before the airport, about seven miles north of Kailua. From town, follow the Queen K north and turn left into the well-marked gates of the lab. Note: Located in the barren lava fields, the Lab offers no shade, so be sure to slap on the sunscreen if you ride or run the 1.5 miles to the turnaround. Also, while it's not an especially busy area, the Natural Energy Lab is a working scientific facility dedicated to researching geothermal heat, so pay attention to vehicle traffic on the narrow road.
As we head into the racing season, Regensburg presented a few core principles on nutrition and heat acclimation. Here's a summary of some key messages from this morning's session:
- Better fitness = improved acclimation. As your exercise intensity increases, your body heat will rise; however, the fitter you are the more effectively you will be able to deal with the heat.
- Acclimatize through immersion: If you are able to head to your race venue a couple of weeks in advance, try to avoid or minimize your exposure to air-conditioning once you arrive. By doing so your body will adapt more quickly to the heat and humidity.
- If you live in the real world and can't get to your race venue a couple of weeks before the event to allow your body to acclimatize, then spend five consecutive days training indoors at home with the heat up. The workouts needn't be intense, but you need to spend a bit of time indoors to simulate your race environment.
- Heat acclimatization may be cumulative: The more you train and race in the heat, the better you can become at dealing with adverse weather conditions from one season to the next.
- Take in 250 to 250ml of fluid every 15 minutes while exercising -- for a total of about one liter per hour. This will vary significantly from athlete to athlete, so pay attention to your own ability to absorb fluids and adjust your nutrition plan accordingly.
- Training or racing in the heat increases your need for carbohydrates. Again, every athlete will have unique tolerances; however, a rule of thumb is 300 calories or 70 grams of carbs per hour while in hot conditions.
- Create a nutrition plan. To account for the dramatic variations in individual nutritional requirements, keep track of what you eat and drink in varying weather conditions before, during and after racing and training.
- It's better to put fluids in you than on you. That said, if you can hydrate effectively and dump a cup of cool water over your head or put ice in your cap, then do so. Plus, a cup of cool water over the head can just feel good. Either way, try to avoid saturating your shoes as this can lead to blistering.