Racing the Elements

Last weekend was a pretty harsh weekend for everyone who raced the Door County half-IM…or even ventured outside for a long workout in the Wisconsin heat and humidity. I am very proud of our Team for being out there, like warriors, and gone though the day.

I then received a few inquiries following that race; email about being worried…what went wrong? “Why did my body did not race faster, better, even though I know I am much stronger than that?” and “What did I do wrong”? “Why did it happen?”

You’ve trained hard, you’re ready to race, you’ve done the proper taper and you are ready to push yourself and achieve goals you set for yourself on race day. You have planned ahead everything you can control, but unfortunately, there are parts of a race where you can’t do anything about.

One of those item that we cannot control is the Weather. Instead, you have to aknowledge it and adapte to it. When it is over 100 degrees outside, no matter how well you are trained, the body might falter, despite being the fittest you ever been.

There is a physical condition called heat exhaustion and heat stroke (one being the more severe form of of the other), where the body’s internal thermostat no longer function properly due to severe heat. Think about it: your internal core temperature is on the rise, and it tries to cool itself down through different mechanisms, only to be heated back up from the environment temperature. You can’t win. The symptoms are generally weakness, dizziness, muscle cramping, mental status changes (confusion and disorientation), increased heart rate, dry skin, goose pumps…There is absolutely nothing that can be done at this point, but cool down, walk, and try to get in as much salt and water as possible.

I guess the point I am trying to get accross is don’t beat yourselves up when a race doesn’t go your way due to external factors that couldn’t be controlled. You have to face those facts, know that your training was right on, and move on. Chuck these days to experience. What you can get out of it is experience. You now know what heat exhaustion feels like. You know now that you have to slow down and “survive”. You know the syptoms. It can then take your body several days to recover, depending on how severe your condition got.

You guys all did fantastic and I am proud of you 🙂

Happy Training  and thanks for reading:)