This is no game when you race at 100-degrees! It can take you out!
Georgia Gould just had her first DNF in Santa Ynez, California.
I have been sick for a week, I am not a virologist, but it is from one of the many 200 viruses in Idaho this spring. We are having weather swings in the west and that means 50 plus temp I was camping, looking at white mts, , snowing, 27F-degrees with high winds not even a week ago in Duck Valley, NV elv. 5'400 ft., and now its 97-degrees with pollutants from all the new growth irritating the lungs, eyes,! The body has a hard time with the temp change! The west can change in a few days or even in one week and not allow you time to adapt to the heat. It can mess up your life or your game!
Georgia Gould led for three quarters of the race but off in the weeds from heat exhaustion and to be taken to the hospital.
We care about our racers and understand what they have to undergo! We are not indifference, when our top mtb gal gets heat exhaustion in 103F temps. We are glad she did not get heat stroke, the worst form of heat illnesses; even victims of heat stroke often die. As we understand it, one of our other gals, stopped racing to be of help!
Georgia Gould has done every thing right! She has won every major mtb race in the US for the past few years. Done well on the World Cup, etc... The only thing that could change is her adaptation time, in which she has little or none! Her job is hard!
Even under conditions of rest, prolonged exposures to hot environments can lead to profound disruptions in the body's ability to maintain a stable internal environment for its cells and tissues. Especially endurance exercise can accelerate the harmful effects, not only because working muscles produce heat and thereby add to the heat load of the organism.
We don't view Georgia Gould as just an organism, rather a very smart person with a very real "motor." We understand why her motor over heated. Georgia's muscles make so much power, that they don't help decrease the body's ability to rid itself of excess heat, and that was the case this last weekend in 103 F temp.
Georgia did her normal thing and raced her heart out, left the field behind, until the last lap. She is a racer and races herself, and gives it her all no matter the temp. Pushing it to her limits! Doing this the whole season in a wide range of temps.
This time, on the last lap, she was seen off trail, laying in the weeds by Pua who was sitting in 2nd place, another WN fitted racer. From what we know, Pua and another gal Heather gave up their race to help Georgia. Good thing, as Georgia could not even stand!
Good sportsmanship by them both!
Understand that certain types of athletic performance are not apt to be hindered by heat. However, the repetition during a prolonged session in hot conditions can easily lead to a failure of the temperature regulating ability of the athlete. Even clothing can hinder heat loss.
Motivation has never been one of Georgia's factors, as she maintains a high level of performance. Since the heart's capacity to pump blood is less than the maximal rate of blood flow to working muscles, plus skin, and since the total blood volume is less than maximal volume capacity of the muscles and skin, either the muscles must be short-changed in their blood supply so that the muscles become fatigued or the skin receives less than the optimal amount of blood needed to cool the organism (Georgia's motor.)
Now she know! Going out too hot can over cook the motor! After being on the World Cup, racing across the pond, the race is hot from the start. Then you have tons of time on planes, you get run down. With all her races, Georgia has learned to attack from the gun. Excess body heat will then cause discomfort and, perhaps, neurological malfunction. In either case, performance suffers.
Does sex make a difference? Yes! Studies have shown, women have lower maximal oxygen uptakes. Women seem to maintain their core temperatures as well as men, but with less sweat loss. Females might be view better suited for exercise in the heat because the sweat less and thus conserve more body water than males while maintaining the same body temperature.
In prolonged exercise a reduction in maximal oxygen uptake is observed. The reduction may be caused by a fall in cardiac output as (venous) return to the heart is reduced by a pooling of blood in dilated skin vessels. The fall in maximal oxygen uptake after prolonged exercise could also be the result of a decreased (arterio-venous) difference in oxygen content of blood. Such a decrease occurs when blood is shifted from working muscles to the skin, where less oxygen uptake occurs.
It does you well to keep the body fluids full, rather than replenished too late. a loss of 2-3 liters of body fluids per hours can be experienced. That is a large per cent of a body that only contains about 40 liters of fluid, only about 5 liters are in the form of blood. True, most of the fluid lost in is sweat from tissue fluids.
Greater losses of plasma volume by females than males have been made. That means a fall in plasma volume contributes to the reduction in stroke volume, cardiac output, and blood pressure during prolonged, vigorous exercise in the heat.
Bottom line - the endurance athlete should learn to drink fluids even before he/she feels thirsty in order to delay dehydration as long as possible.
That is hard to do when you are racing full speed ahead! A good quart of water before competition and a cup of water every 10 minutes can make a difference when exercising in hot.
It is not easy!!!
Then when you travel the world, and you are headed to a race from cold to hot can take you out. Sweating adaptation is very real. It can take up to 14 days of training in the heat to allow the body to adapt, even at sub maximal work to lower skin temperature.
The sweating adaptation is brought about by both an exercise effect and a heat effect. Heat acclimatization causes the brain to begin sending signals to the sweat glands more rapidly to lower the body temperatures.
When you race the World Cup, you don't have time to adapt and that is why it is such a test of the body.
The season is changing, so being aware can be helpful. There are different levels to think about due to the rising temps!
Simple heat exhaustion (heat syncope) hits by a feeling of dizziness or actual fainting.
Heat cramps where the victim condition may be alleviated by commercial electrolyte drinks or taking several glasses of water, each needs 1/2 teaspoon of dissolved table salt.
Heat stroke happens rarely, but we still need to be aware! Hot dry, mental confusion, convulsions, or loss of consciousness. The brain can't control the nerve cells.
There is a lot to the sport and many don't even know what goes on within it.
Thanks gals for the help with Georgia!
We wish Georgia a speedy recovery!
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