Pushing the Limits: Ambitions in Extreme Endurance Racing

This chapter explores the challenges faced by athletes in extreme running events, particularly the Marathon des Sables and Badwater. It delves into the significance of heat acclimation and management strategies essential for success in these grueling competitions.

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Episode notes

In this episode, we have environmental physiologist and lecturer at Bournemouth University, Dr Becky Neal.

Environmental physiology is fascinating as it's so interesting what happens to the human body when competing in extreme environments. Exercise in the heat is particularly interesting as it is a common factor that can greatly influence performance, particularly those who competed at the Tokyo Olympics, where it was reported to be very hot and humid. In this episode, Becky and I discuss the body’s physiological responses to heat, what can lead to heat injury or illness, and what strategies you can use to acclimate to the heat and improve sporting performance.

In this episode, we discuss:

2:44 - An introduction to Dr Becky Neal
5:20 - How the Body physiologically responds to heat
8:27 - Factors influencing how the body reacts to heat
10:43 - The difference between hot and humid
14:02 - Strategies to acclimate and acclimatise to the heat
17:13 - acclimatisation strategies for different events
19:32 - The use of heat chambers in preparation for an event
24:26 - Is the heat often underestimated?
30:30 - Heat injury and illness
34:01 - Thermal tolerance
37:24 - Differences between men and women
42:40 - Becky’s choice of guest for the Progress Theory

Final Thoughts

Thank you Becky for coming onto The Progress Theory and talking about her ideas and research on how the heat affects us during exercise and what training we can do to improve our thermoregulation. I think we’ve all seen videos where the heat has greatly affected athletes to the point of injury and you see them reduced to a crawl, so it was great to get insight into all the factors which can influence how heat and humidity affect us during exercise.

I just wanted to provide some final thoughts on key areas which really stood out to me.

Firstly, it was amazing to see just how many different factors influence the effect of the heat, particularly that the heat influences different sports in different ways. In cycling, the wind resistance will directly help your body cool, whereas, during running, this is greatly reduced. We need to understand all the factors which will affect athletes during their sport and then understand how environmental conditions such as heat may influence the specifics of the sport.

Secondly, I thought it was interesting that the effect of many cooling strategies can influence the body in negative ways if used inappropriately. For example, an ice vest will be great to cool the body during a run, but also covering the body in this way will hamper the skin’s ability to evaporate sweat. There must be an appropriate length of time to use an ice vest before it becomes counterproductive.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this episode and it allowed you to reflect on your next race or challenge. What environmental factors will you face? Will heat be one of them. If so, I hope this episode provided you with plenty of information to help develop your own acclimatisation strategies. If you enjoyed the show It would be awesome if you could leave us a review and share this episode on your insta story. Feed that algorithm to help the show grow. We’ll see you in the next one.