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Training to improve our physical performance is a game of breaking down and recovering. We are applying a stressor (training), to stimulate a response (recovery), that leads to an adaptation (gains).

In this game, we have several variables that we can manipulate to shape the type of stressor we are applying and ultimately affect the nature of the adaptation we are aiming for.

In this current article, we will focus on intensity as our training variable of choice. This post will look specifically at cardiovascular training, with a future post covering resistance training.

Within those two training types, we will look at what intensity means, how intensity can be changed, and what the outcome is of changing intensity.

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Starting out with endurance training can seem both simple and daunting.

On the simple side, you can just go out and go as hard as you can for a set amount of time or distance. Or just go out at whatever pace you can for as long as you can. Then over time you look to go further, or faster.

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For someone new to endurance training with will undoubtedly get you some initial results. Anything works if done consistently, but this method has limitations beyond those initial improvements. You will soon reach plateaus of being unable to go faster or further without something having to give.

On the daunting side, getting into the details and weeds of tracking metrics and complicated and high volume training programs can be a big step and confusing.

Tempos, thresholds, VO2 max, paces, speeds, cadence etc, etc.

There is a lot there to unpack and understand and it can be hard to see an easy way to get into this more complicated side of endurance training.

What I’ll aim to lay out here is a more basic approach to building an endurance program that bridges the gap between the ‘just go and do whatever you can at whatever effort’ and the specifics of paces, intensity zones, and thresholds.

Breaking down our physiology and training intensities into 3 zones or levels is a good starting point.

A simple way to think of this is our floor, our stairs, and our ceiling.

The floor is our low intensity, longer duration base level work. This is where we build the endurance and largely aerobic capacity to go further for longer. This is easy work, done generally for longer durations.

The stairs is where we build in our mid level intensities. It is where we will likely include our ‘race pace’ work and maintaining moderate speeds for mid-long durations. This is where we would typically see tempo used to describe this level. Using the stairs analogy ties this together well as this is our link between low and easy and hard and fast. It is our more race specific pacing (in most cases) and is where we get exposure to paces we want to hold in any race or event we plan to do.

The ceiling is our high intensity work. This is speed work or VO2 max/max effort work. It will predominantly involve intervals of shorter duration done for multiple repeats, with longer rest periods between. This is where we are sharpening the top end of our physiology. It is usually at or near to max efforts for whatever durations are relevant.

We can now see clearer distinctions between intensity levels that we can use to start developing different sessions and stimuli from our endurance program.

We now have easy work to develop our aerobic capacity, we have moderate work to challenge our ability to hold specific paces or intensities we likely will race at, and we have high end speed or power work to sharpen up the top end, our ceiling.

How these fit into a program is a further and more in depth discussion, there are many different schools of thought and approaches that will mix these together in different ways, but here are some general guidelines to apply.

The bulk of your training time/volume will be made up of the low intensity/floor work. This stuff takes longer to adapt to and can be done at much higher volumes than the high intensity work. We want this work to be EASY, which means we should finish and feel like we could have gone further or faster. This is the whole point, it shouldn’t feel excessively hard, even when we are going for long durations. A pace you can hold a conversation at is a good starting point here.

The moderate intensity/tempo/stairs work will be layered in sparingly at first and then become more of a factor as we get closer to an event or race. This work has a higher fatigue cost than other training generally so needs to be used in the right way at the right times. Focusing on going from lower volumes to higher volumes over a program is a good way to approach this. Find an intensity that is relatively comfortable but would get harder over time and you’re at about the right intensity. Intervals should be at about a time frame that they get harder towards the end but initially, should still be way short of failure.

The high intensity/ceiling work can be a great and potent stimulus but is hard to do lots of and should be sensibly applied. This is where we want to dedicate more time to in the beginning of a program alongside the easy work. Think of this as raising the floor and ceiling together to build a complete approach to endurance performance.

Short durations and high intensity is the game here. If intensity is dropping because we are going too long or taking too little rest then we are starting to water down the effectiveness of this training. It should be near max effort, and we need to rest long enough so we can repeat these efforts at the same level. Aim for these sessions to be separated from the longer, easier work to allow for you to be fresh for them and get the most from them.

With these 3 building blocks, you can go a long way with your endurance training. As a priority, we would generally look to include plenty low intensity work and sprinkle in some of the high intensity work. This is floor and ceiling work and is the basis of any endurance program.

We can then layer in the stair work to bridge our gap to real world performance in our respective disciplines as we get closer to race/event day.

We want to build the base wide (wide capacity), we want to build the ceiling high (big peak) and then over time build the stairs to link these together (strong threshold).

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These notes will largely serve as a personal unloading of the whole experience from my head. It may also be interesting, useful and possibly entertaining to read through and vicariously suffer a little bit back through all the kilometres with me.

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Firstly, here is the low-down on what the event entailed:

* 107.3km total distance covered, 7 of the complete 13 valleys (180km/100mile) route in the Lake District.

* Starting in Ambleside, north of Lake Windermere, into the central valleys around Seathwaite, back to Ambleside, then looping up to Keswick where it finished.

* Climbing up 3632m (max elevation 752m)

* Descending down 3,590m (min elevation 45m)

* Starting at 6 a.m. on a Saturday, and finishing at around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday.

* 20 hours and 24 minutes total time out on the trail.

* Awake for a total of about 22 hours.

* Some relevant stats according to Garmin (maybe some inaccuracies, but does display a good overall picture of my pacing) :

* Total running time: 6 hours 33 mins

* Total walking time: 10 hours 29 mins

* Total idle time (spent stationary): 3 hours 21 mins

* Average moving pace: 9:13 mins per km

* Average pace overall: 11:24 mins per km

For simplicity's sake, I will write these as a list. Some may overlap and there will unlikely be any specific order to these points.

A small disclaimer, I am writing these from my own perceptions and thoughts, they may not be true or even helpful for everyone. Everyone has their own ways of coping with hard events, dealing with discomfort, and preparing themselves to push physical/mental limits.

* This took way longer than I was expecting.

I had a time of 12-16 hours in my head which was based on very little other than a rough estimate of what I thought I could hold as a relatively achievable average pace. This was thought up in consideration of going much slower uphill and then running the flats and downhills at faster paces.

Whilst I was able to run good chunks of the flat sections, at least in the early stages of the race, a huge chunk of the course was just un-runnable for me. This was through a combination of being too steep uphill, too technical for me downhill, too slippery as the day went on, then too dark to really see where I was going properly, and finally just the overall fatigue slowing me down a lot in the second half.

This meant the overall pace was slower, but with a much longer duration, I spent a significantly longer time on my feet than expected. This came with its own challenges, including fuelling and foot/body condition.

* Pain and discomfort are similar, but not the same.

This one may be unique to me, in this race, at that distance but it was true for me here so I think it’s valuable to share.

Of course, running 100km is uncomfortable. This I believe is true for everyone entering and completing these distances, it’s just a matter of pacing and context for those at each end of the field. But it still gets uncomfortable at some point.

There was a definite distinction between discomfort and pain though. It became uncomfortable as the distance wore on with legs becoming fatigued, but this discomfort seemed to have a threshold. It gets to a certain point and then just endures. Sure your feet, legs, and body feel sore, but they don’t tend to get too much more sore past a certain point.

Understanding and embracing this discomfort is just a natural part of ultra-distance events. It comes and goes, it changes, but it doesn’t really tip over from bad to worse in many cases.

The mental side of this is more challenging, knowing you will be uncomfortable for a very long time can wear you down pretty quickly if you’re not used to it or unprepared to accept that fact.

Pain to me generally signifies something is wrong and damage is being caused. This does start to creep in towards the latter stages of any event I’ve done, the blisters get worse, and the aches and soreness turn to sharper pains. But I am never sure how much of this is physical, and how much mental in anticipation of the last stretches to be covered.

* Fuelling and mental state are very closely linked.

A big part of the draw to endurance is how it drags you into the present, sometimes kicking and screaming! You are drawn into all of the subtle shifts and changes your body goes through as it negotiates the task at hand.

Now again, this comes with experience and time spent doing hard things and knowing how your body copes and responds. I have a fairly broad spectrum understanding of what my body feels like during a variety of different exposures and I know when I am pushing hard or can push harder in most cases.In training, I played around with different fuelling strategies to understand how the use of gels/food etc would help keep fuelled during the race. Ultra running is often described as an eating contest with a bit of running on the side and this is definitely true in my case!

I knew what to expect from training and past events around fuelling and knew that I had a fairly good plan in place to achieve the right levels of intake to keep me performing and moving forward.

Something I hadn’t foreseen and something that really interested me was how my mental state was so closely linked with my fuelling. Whenever I found my mind dipping a bit into one of the natural lows of events like this I realised I hadn’t taken on any fuel for a while. This could be in part placebo, but by then taking on a gel or food my mental state lifted along with my physical and it was plain sailing again for a while.

This is largely speculation but based on a fundamental understanding of fuel usage. The brain predominantly needs glucose to fuel itself, and during endurance activity so do the working muscles to a much higher degree than at rest. It would make sense then that the brain is receiving a relatively lower concentration of glucose than normal and so these large fluctuations in blood glucose could occur. I think to combat this, aiming to intake more sources of fats earlier on in an ultra-distance race and including some lower carb-higher fat training miles could help with this diversification of fuel sources and help in maintaining more even mental and physical energy levels.

* Wet feet could be a show-stopper at longer distances without good foot care.

The lake district had had a named storm roll through days before the race and so there was a lot of water present everywhere we ran. On many of the paths, this was unavoidable and so my feet got essentially saturated with water from about 10km onwards and stayed wet nearly the whole duration of the race. I changed socks at the halfway point (~55km) but this made little difference with my feet soaked again pretty soon afterwards.

This started to affect my feet into the last 10-15km as the constant water softened the skin, along with grit and mud from the very boggy terrain, and I had a few bigger blisters form. I was able to adjust my gait, (turning my feet out like a duck, helped to relieve some pressure but probably made my walking/jogging gait worse!) to finish the race without too many issues.

This was helpful learning for longer distance or multi-day events though where foot conditions could easily become a show-stopper if not treated properly.

So some thoughts and takeaways for this one would be to trial some different sock options to avoid rubbing even when feet are wet, more regular sock changes potentially (although not always practical or possible), or the use of gaiters to avoid as much water/mud getting into my socks.

* Being present helps me keep moving. But an eye on the future helps.

I find that thinking too much about either side of the present can be unhelpful in longer-duration events when you're actually in the middle of it. Thinking about the past and what you could’ve or should’ve done is rarely helpful as you can’t control any of that now, you can only think about now and what you can do to change things going forward.

Thinking too far into the future can bring along with it all the dread and uncertainty of what’s to come and how much further you have left to go.

I like to settle into a happy medium, thinking about the present and the immediate future. Having a mind on where you’re at now, what you need to do at the moment to keep yourself moving forward, navigating effectively, fuelling right etc. Then think of the immediate future of the next few km’s or the next food station. What will you do when you get there, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to you once you arrive.

Time can get away from you if you spend too much time on the past or future, and you can get flustered or get into a bit of paralysis-by-analysis if you’re planning out the next 3-4+ hours.

These things are all helped by keeping calm, keeping yourself in the present, having an outline plan ahead of time, and controlling what you can at the moment!

* Uphills burned my legs, downhills hurt my legs.

I feel that I get away with quite a lot by being relatively strong. I have gotten myself through hard things by just being physically strong enough to muscle my way through sometimes. This is by no means a foolproof plan or even a reasonable substitute for proper training beforehand. That said, being 5-10% stronger is likely to be more help than a hindrance when things get hard.

That played into things when going uphill and downhill in the race. Whilst I’m not that fast uphill, I can keep going. It’s a familiar burn that I know and understand, it’s just muscular effort repeated on a loop until you hit the top. Being stronger helps here by making each step just slightly more efficient, you might end up saving a few % effort on each step if you are just slightly stronger. This mostly comes from concentric strength work in the gym. This can be done in a variety of ways and is beyond the scope of this report to go into detail, but broad picture heavy resistance training from 5-10 reps both double- and single-legged will go a long way here.

I was less prepared for the repeated and challenging eccentric loading on the downhills. My knees and hips took a bit of a battering over the first few descents and then were lagging behind for a lot of the rest of the race. More time spent practising the downhills, the specific skills of descending, the very specialised actions of the lower leg during downhill running, and getting stronger eccentrically (the lowering or negative phase of a movement) would’ve helped here massively in the lead into the race day. Additionally, using my poles more and earlier on would’ve helped distribute this load across my body. This leads to the next point…

* Poles are great. Use them early.

I bought poles before this race but didn’t use them in training. They were a bit of an afterthought that I thought might be useful if my legs gave up at any point.

In reality, I ended up using them pretty much constantly after about the 3rd quarter mark.

They help distribute some of the load away from your legs on the uphills saving the muscles for the flats and downhills. They provide beneficial stability and support on the downhills so your knees don’t knacker out early on. On the flats, they provide additional support and momentum, to keep you in a solid rhythm that you would be unlikely to maintain without.

In hindsight, I should’ve used them earlier on to help save my legs for the latter stages. I should also have used them in training more as my arms got pretty fatigued by the end as I just wasn’t used to the movement and motion for that duration.

* Suffering solo vs. Shared suffering.

I have always done 99% of my running and other endurance training alone. I have entered most of my events alone and not actively run with anyone for extended periods.

It was an interesting change of pace and mental headspace to do about the second half of this event as a group. Having people to pace off of, provide moral support, and just talk to kept me moving at a pace much faster than I was likely to have alone.

I think there is a lot of value in doing hard things alone. It’s a different challenge, even if it means paces are slower, but equally some shared suffering in a group of like-minded and even abilities is also beneficial.

They are different entities, both with value. Time alone in the dark, in crap weather, doing something physically/mentally challenging is good for your mind, body, and soul. But also doing those same things as part of a group helps you develop empathy, challenge teamwork skills, and have a laugh whilst doing it!

* Perpetual forward motion beats all.

Run, hike, walk it doesn't really matter. In ultra-distance events, the only currency that matters is forward motion.

The only guaranteed pace that isn’t actively moving you towards the finish is staying still!

Something I realised very early on in my endurance training is that ultra-running is basically a lot of stuff that might sound like running but often isn’t running. Essentially, you move at any pace that you can or that is possible at the time based on how you are feeling, what the terrain is doing, and how far you have left to go!

No one other than the very elite end of the field is running the uphills in these races. Power hiking mode is very much engaged. Me and the group I ran with kept joking that what we qualified as a ‘hill’ and therefore one we walked changed significantly as time went on. By the end, anything that even had a suggestion of an incline very much qualified as a hill and was hiked up not run!

All the inevitable small stops to adjust kit, eat, drink, restock food etc that come with these races add up to significant times over a whole race. My idle time (according to Garmin) shows this with over 3 hours of my total race duration being spent still. The more you can minimise this time and do things whilst still moving the better.

* Eat/drink small and often.

Taking in too much food/water in one go during races always makes me feel sick. Little and often is the best strategy that works for me. This was through a combination of gels and energy bars whilst moving and then more substantial food at the feed stations (sweets, fruit, bagels, chorizo, peanut butter, pasta as some examples.)

Your body is undergoing a fair amount of external stress and isn’t going to be diverting large amounts of blood flow to digestion. If you eat big amounts of food, your body will likely just make you feel sick to get rid of this when it can’t digest it all effectively. Small amounts often help to keep your fuelling more even and aid your slightly compromised digestion.

Issues with an inability to keep eating, feeling sick, or other GI issues are one of the most common reasons for people dropping out of races. If you can’t eat, digest, and refuel you can’t keep going for very long!

* Pain is often temporary and random. Ride the wave.

Pains and aches throughout the race came and went. Something would start hurting, it would stay for a while, then it would disappear and seemingly get better. I’ve had a similar experience in lots of races I have done. It might be a case of adrenaline overcoming the pains or it could just be your body settling into a section of the race and getting used to its new ‘normal’.

Pain is highly multi-faceted and not all of it means you’re body is about to give out or explode. Understanding different types of pain, and riding the wave a little bit before you decide there is a major issue often lets your body overcome the pain and move onwards.

This may again just be something that I experienced and might not be true for everyone. So I’m not saying to ignore pain and do nothing about it! Just don’t get worried if something unexpected pops up. It may very well just be a temporary ache that will disappear with a little time.

That said, if something does begin to develop beyond that point, do something about it early and don’t let it drag on and get worse. Hot spots can become blisters, pains can become injuries etc. Ride the wave, but know when to call it and get off!

* Good kit is worth it.

Simply, a good kit pays for itself in saved effort, efficiency and ease of use. This doesn’t always mean the most expensive kit, but the kit that does its job well and works every time.

If a jacket isn’t properly waterproof you will get wetter than necessary. This means you’ll likely get rubbing and chafing, or you’ll get much colder when the pace slows or at night time.

If your pack doesn’t fit right or distribute kit well your running gait will have to change or you’ll be pretty uncomfortable.

If your shoes don’t work for you then you’ll get blisters, slip too much, or get other issues up your legs.

Take the time in training to test and trial your kit. Find the things that work best for you, from trainers to fuelling. Except that you won’t always get it right, or unexpected things will pop up, but good training beforehand will let you manage these things as they come up.

* Focus on what needs to be done, not what you feel about doing it.

Feelings and emotions are obviously an important part of the process of doing challenging things. It’s necessary to allow your feelings to help push you through tough times and to understand how they can affect you when you hit those inevitable lows during the race.

That said, getting angry, frustrated, upset, or falling into self-pity does nothing to help when you are in the middle of these big challenging events.

This point may be something more specific to my own personal methods for dealing with physically challenging events, but I tend to try and keep my emotions separate from what I need to do in the moment. Keeping this dissociation from having uncontrolled emotional responses lets me stay in the moment and focus on what needs to be done, not how I feel about it.

* You chose to be here, so do it.

Running ultras is a strange thing to do. It can be very challenging, it can be very uncomfortable, and it can require a lot of time, effort and energy from those supporting you.

I think it is good to remember that you chose to be here in that moment when it all seems too hard to continue. You made the choice to put yourself in that moment, so you might as well get it done!

Being able to choose to be uncomfortable is a privilege, I often think about this when running long events or doing hard things. Others have to do challenging things daily and they don’t get that choice. So some temporary discomfort, that you have chosen to endure, that will inevitably end at some point, doesn’t seem so bad!

This is just a collection of some thoughts, feelings, and a bit of post-race analysis for what I need to work on in future.

Some of this might be helpful, or interesting, but plenty might not be!

Overall, I am happy with how my race went under the conditions and enjoyed the process of getting it done.

I sometimes struggle to keep perspective on things and get caught up in what I can do better or where things went wrong rather than what went right and what I was able to achieve.

But I am proud to have been able to achieve this distance in a tough race. Now onto the next!

Thanks for reading Performance at the Edge! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit performanceattheedge.substack.com

Environmental temperature is something that presents a very real challenge to human physiology.

External ambient air temperatures in a single location can vary widely and, across different locations can range from extremes of -94°C (Eastern Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica) to 56.7°C (Furnace Creek Ranch, CA, USA).

Perhaps surprisingly given the above ranges, humans have a relatively narrow bandwidth of internal body temperature that we can endure without adverse effects.

‘Normal’ body temperature is generally seen as averaging 37°C, with clinical hypothermia (too cold) being anything below 35°C, and clinical hyperthermia (too hot) being anything over 40°C.

This looks on the face of it to be a complete mismatch and very surprising that we can deal with even minor fluctuations in environmental temperature. Thankfully, evolution has given us a remarkable ability to regulate our internal body temperature to stay within this narrow goldilocks zone.

In the remainder of this article, we are going to focus on the upper ends of these temperature ranges towards the ‘too hot’ end of the spectrum.

We will look first at how our body regulates and expels heat, then we will look at what happens when this stops working. Finally, we will dig into two case study examples of performance in different extreme heats and how they overcome the rising mercury.

Thermoregulation - dealing with the heat

The part of our brain responsible for thermoregulation (temperature control) is the hypothalamus, which serves the purpose of an internal thermostat by monitoring signals sent from thermoreceptor nerves that detect both heat and cold internally and in the skin.

This ‘thermostat’ is then able to affect and control the necessary actions that occur to regulate body temperature to stay within the normal range.

There are 4 main direct methods through which we can lose heat: convection, conduction, evaporation, and radiation.

Under normal, non-exercise conditions when the surrounding temperature is lower than the skin we lose heat by convection, conduction and radiation where heat is transferred to the air or objects we are in contact with (such as clothing).

When we begin to exercise, or when the surrounding air temperature rises above skin temperature, we begin to lose more heat via evaporation (namely, sweating).

When our body temperature rises, and this is detected by the hypothalamus, several things happen. Primarily, the body attempts to dissipate heat away from the core and organs by directing additional blood flow to the peripheral areas of the body and skin.

This is achieved by vasodilation (expanding) of the skin’s blood vessels. Due to the high surface area of the skin, this allows much of the excess heat to be brought closer to the skin, whereby it can then be dissipated externally through the methods of convection, conduction, radiation, and evaporation. In the cases we will see in extremely high temperatures, this will mainly involve significant sweating.

Additionally, our body reduces the backflow of blood to the core organs that do not directly need a high blood flow during exercise (eg: liver, stomach, digestive system) to prevent the continued rising of the core temperature.

When the skin’s blood vessels dilate the heat is transferred into the water and fluids that surround the cells and blood vessels. This fluid is then excreted from the body through sweat glands. Once on the skin, this fluid (sweat) evaporates and so, the heat is taken along with it.

Human’s ability to sweat so efficiently allows us to cope very well under fluctuations in external temperatures and lays a cornerstone for our ability to perform in extreme heat.

What happens when this heat dissipation stops working?

There are many reasons why this efficient process of heat dissipation might go wrong and we will see what happens when it does.

As we use sweating as a primary method of removing excess heat brought to the surface of the skin, if we stopped sweating we would overheat rapidly. Sweat is produced largely by water and fluids within our body so if we become significantly dehydrated, we will lose the ability to produce more sweat and will be unable to dissipate heat as effectively.

When someone is overheating, becomes dehydrated, and gets to the point that they are no longer sweating they’re in trouble unless they can cool down quickly via external means.

Other issues that directly influence the areas of the brain and body involved with managing and monitoring temperatures can also stop our body’s thermoregulation from running correctly.

When the thermoregulation processes go wrong or cannot cope with rising body temperature then there are a few different conditions that can develop and ultimately lead to death if left untreated.

Heat cramps:

When we sweat, we also lose a significant amount of salt and electrolytes through the fluids lost. In high heat and during physical work these fluid losses can account for 5-10 litres over a whole day, or significant amounts during a shorter period (eg: races, competitions, high activity levels in hot temperatures).

These electrolytes serve an important purpose in facilitating muscle contractions throughout our body and so when the levels drop below a certain point we can begin to experience muscle cramps. These can range from small and inconvenient to largely debilitating and very serious.

Heat collapse:

This is the most common type of heat-illness that is seen in individuals who have become dangerously overheated. When the skin’s blood vessels dilate, they draw more blood towards the skin and away from the core. To account for this, the heart’s output also increases to supply the increased demand.

However, this happens without there being a change in the total volume of blood circulating in the body.

This shift in blood flow distribution causes overall blood pressure in your body to drop, especially towards your core.

The resultant effects of this can include dizziness, vomiting, headaches, fainting/collapse, and neural symptoms (eg: slurred speech, confusion).

Left unchecked and untreated this can become life-threatening. Indirectly, many of these symptoms could also place an individual at increased risk of other injuries and complications depending on the situation.

Heat Stroke:

This represents the most serious heat illness and is potentially life-threatening. It occurs primarily when the internal body temperature exceeds 40°C for extended periods and the body is unable to effectively regulate temperature any longer.

Typically, heat stroke can occur in individuals with compromised circulation or in individuals who are physically exerting themselves in high temperatures for long durations.

The main cause of heat stroke is a failure of, or severe disturbance to, the temperature regulation in the hypothalamus. In these instances, the body reacts oppositely; the blood vessels constrict and you stop producing sweat so that your skin becomes dry and hot.

Blood pressure drops significantly and metabolic rates rapidly increase, all leading to severe symptoms of dizziness, headaches, and confusion. These can further lead to unconsciousness, coma, and eventually fatality.

If external cooling is not provided (eg: shade, cool water, ice baths etc) then body temperature will continue to rise unchecked.

Dealing with the heat: Extreme Real-World Examples

Case Study 1: F1 Singapore Grand Prix (Hot, humid)

The details of the race:

* 61 Laps of a street circuit

* Races here have never taken less than 1 hour 51 minutes, it is, therefore, one of the longest races on the competition calendar.

* 23 corners per lap

* The most of any track in the competition calendar. This exerts a huge physical demand on the driver’s bodies.

* Singapore's environmental conditions during the race: Around 30°C, and 80% humidity.

* Coupled with all of the very hot mechanical components in the car, this causes the temperature of the car’s cockpit to sit around 50-60°C (only slightly cooler than a typical sauna).

What does this mean for the drivers?

Well, it doesn’t take much imagination to understand how challenging it must be to manage body temperature in 60°C heat, with 80% humidity whilst wearing multiple layers of flame-proof clothing, in a car with components reaching hundreds of degrees.

This, along with the extraordinary demands of a 2-hour race with around 25% of each lap spent braking, causes exhausting muscular and cardiovascular demands.

Water loss, from sweat, during the race can be up to 3 litres (3kg) which exacerbates the potential for heat illnesses to occur.

Physically then, this is likely the most demanding race in the competition season.

Why do these race conditions make it so difficult to manage body temperature?

In high humidity, with multiple layers of clothing in a high-heat environment, sweat is unable to effectively evaporate from the skin. The ambient temperature is also so high that little heat can be lost through any of the other methods we have discussed previously.

Any drinking water that is onboard the car for the drivers would also become heated quickly and thus would not serve many benefits in internally cooling their bodies.

The 3L of water loss throughout the race means that large volumes of water must be taken on to maintain the fluid balance in the body and aid in any way possible to heat regulation.

Through all of these factors, heat regulation during the race is very difficult and in reality, little can be done to significantly cool body temperature during the race.

What methods do the teams implement to combat rising internal body temperatures during the race?

There are a few key methods implemented to aid cooling of the drivers, these can be separated into factors used during the race and those done outside of the race.

During the race, there are a few key things that are done to help regulate the driver’s temperature.

Firstly, the driver’s clothing and helmets are designed to be as lightweight as possible within the safety regulations of the race. This helps to reduce the heating effect that bulkier and heavier materials have had in the past.

Secondly, the driver’s helmet includes specific ventilation holes that allow passing air to circulate around the driver’s head during the race. Air that is cooler as the car passes through can help to decrease the heat of the driver’s head slightly.

Before the race, both in the season leading into the race and immediately before the race, there are a few ways they can help prepare the driver for the heat-stress demands.

Physical training and acclimatisation to high-heat environments before the race can help to combat some of the overheating problems that could occur. Greater cardiovascular fitness helps to manage the shifts in circulation that occur to dissipate heat more effectively, so adequately preparing ahead of the race will put the drivers in a stronger position to manage body temperatures.

Additionally, acclimatisation to high-heat environments before racing can go a long way to helping the drivers cope with the heat. This can be done either in the car during normal practice sessions or in specially built environmental chambers that can artificially create high temperature and humidity conditions. Either using this passively, similar to a sauna or by exercising within them the driver can improve their ability to dissipate heat more effectively.

Immediately before the race, pre-cooling of the driver’s body can be used. This involves the use of ice-cooled vests or ice baths. The idea is to cool their body temperature to lower than normal so that they might be able to maintain that lower temperature for longer before it raises significantly. Unfortunately, this is only a short-term fix and will not go a long way to helping hours into a race.

In effect, drivers are fighting a losing battle during this race with rising body temperatures and often finish severely exhausted and near-overheated.

The methods above can go a way to helping but ultimately, this race represents an extreme physiological challenge for the drivers.

Here are a few additional resources on the physical demands of the F1 Singapore Grand Prix:

* FIGHT NIGHT: How brutal Singapore GP pushes drivers to the limit

* The human element – why the Singapore GP represents the biggest physical test of the season

* How Hot Is An F1 Cockpit?

* The physical challenge behind F1 drivers' 'love-hate' relationship with the Singapore GP

Case study 2: Marathon des Sables (Hot, dry)

The details of the event:

* Self-proclaimed ‘Toughest Footrace on Earth’.

* Nearly half the participants drop out of the race each year, and 3 people have died during the race in its time running.

* A 6-day, multistage ultra-marathon event covering 251 km/156 miles over the Sahara Desert.

* Works out to about 6 regular marathons in total, with the longest day being around 80-90km long.

* Endless sand, steep dunes, and temperatures up to 50°C

* The Sahara desert has very high ambient temperatures during the day, made worse by very low humidity, and radiation of heat from the sand.

* All kit needs to be carried including food, water, a sleeping bag, and safety kit.

* Weighing in at around 10kg total.

What does this mean for the runners?

Aside from the extreme physical demands of running the distance in challenging under-foot conditioning over 6-days…

There is a high risk of heat illness occurring, with ambient temperatures topping out at 50°C added to high physical outputs. All whilst carrying a pack that increases the physical demand and body heat further.

As we have seen earlier on, sweating is a primary method of cooling down and during the race, you will potentially sweat up to 2-3 litres of fluid an hour. Dehydration and the implications that can have on heat regulation are a real risk during the race because of the fluid loss.

How do runners prepare for the heat before the race?

Heat acclimatisation is an area of physical preparation that can be vitally important in preparation for this race.

Aside from running training to be able to cope with the distance and running demands, specific heat acclimatisation training can be the final element that brings a competitor’s training to a peak before the race.

It is well researched that acclimating to the heat can help to increase sweating rates, you begin to sweat earlier on, lower body temperatures, and heart rate will decrease.

All these factors contribute to more efficient and effective heat regulation for the same level of physical exertion and help to combat the temperature conditions during the Marathon des Sables.

Specific methods of acclimating to heat can be done in a few ways.

If a runner lives in an area that already has high environmental temperatures, then conducting their training runs in the heat will likely be sufficient to bring about the above heat regulation adaptations.

For most people living in relatively colder climates, this is unlikely to be as feasible.

Similarly to how the F1 drivers can use specially built environmental chambers, so can runners.

This could be as simple as using a sauna before or after training or even potentially conducting some light exercise during a sauna session. Doing this allows you to extend out the time spent in high-heat environments, but in an easily controlled way that can be progressively overloaded through a training program.

Doing so before or after training allows you to raise your overall body temperature for longer. Doing so, combined with light exercise (it would be highly unrecommended to do any heavy physical exertion in a sauna) could help an individual to gain first-hand experience of exercising in hot environments before the race begins.

On the other end, specially built (very expensive and high tech) environmental chambers can be used. These are typically owned and operated by researchers or elite-level sporting organisations (such as F1 teams) so can often be hard to locate or access. But if you can, they would represent the best way to conduct heat acclimatisation training, outside of training in the Sahara itself.

Conducting steadily progressed training sessions within these chambers, building up to the types of conditions you are likely to experience during the race, would be an ideal way to prepare yourself.

What can runners do during the race to keep cooler?

In the first instance, ensuring that lightweight clothing and full-coverage hats are worn will go some way toward mitigating overheating risks.

However, the primary method of heat regulation during the race would be hydration. As previously mentioned, water loss could be anywhere from 2-3 litres (2-3 kg) per hour in the racing conditions. The issue is that our ability to absorb water is lower than our water loss. So runners need to take on significant amounts of water still with the understanding that becoming slightly dehydrated is almost inevitable.

Taking on sufficient water and electrolytes/salts during the race will allow a runner to maintain a relatively consistent sweat output and thus, regulate their heat through evaporative cooling.

Interestingly, in most cases any more than a 2% loss in body weight through dehydration would begin to affect physical and cognitive performance. But in marathon and ultra-endurance events, athletes have been seen to continue the ability to perform at as much as 4-6% dehydration.

Sufficient hydration strategies are a largely individual endeavour and so it would be best advised that runners establish what works best for them in their training leading up to the race, ideally under conditions that simulate the environmental and fluid loss demands of the actual race.

Generally, it would be advised to hydrate sufficiently before the race begins, maintain as much as is feasible during the race, and then sufficiently rehydrate after each racing day. Doing so will allow for adequate fluid balances to keep a consistent sweat rate and regulate body temperature accordingly.

Here are a few additional resources on the Marathon des Sables and how runners can prepare/cope with the heat demands:

* Marathon des Sables Website

* Marathon des Sables: how we rapidly acclimatised five runners for the gruelling race

* How Runners can Acclimate to Heat

* How to stay hydrated during the Marathon Des Sables

* Exercise in the heat - Dr Becky Neal

Closing thoughts:

Thank you for reading this article, hopefully, you found it interesting and were able to take something away from how heat can affect our bodies, and how those operating at the extreme ends of high-heat performance can cope with this.

If you had any questions, wanted to know more, or if you wanted to ask anything else please reach out via the links below:

* Email: [email protected]

* Instagram: @Apexdeltacoaching

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit performanceattheedge.substack.com

Adventure, exploration, the unknown, beyond the horizon, the impossible.

These can all evoke thoughts of places thought unreachable, thought impossible to climb, navigate, reach, or overcome.

There are very few places left on planet earth that someone hasn’t reached at this point in time. The golden age of exploration is seemingly fizzingly out.

We have reached the poles, climbed the mountains, reached the bottom of the seas, crossed deserts and mastered oceans.

However…

People are still surpassing the limits previously set. We may not be breaking new physical ground, but we are certainly pushing the boundaries of how high, far, and fast we can go.

“Because it’s there… Everest is the highest mountain in the world, and no man has reached its summit. It's existence is a challenge. The answer is instinctive, a part, I suppose, of man’s desire to conquer the universe.” - George Mallory. (In the NY Times, 1923)

Human potential might be limited by our relatively fragile physiology, we can adapt to a degree but our survivability becomes severely compromised under relatively small environmental variations (eg: heat, cold, altitude, exposure, etc).

But then we still are able to exceed expectations and go beyond.

Much like how sporting records and successes continue to be broken, not through fundamental changes in our human physiology, but with technological and training advances that allow us to augment greater performances.

Human’s from a physiological standpoint are relativelty unchanged from our predecessors and ancestors. We are still dealing with the same hardware as we always have been.

Speak to any elite level performer and they will likely tell you that they are really no different to you or me, they just took the decades to train to a level that allows them to perform at the heights of their own physiologic abilities. Coupled with the latest technological advances and you have a strong drive for better, further, faster etc.

The power then comes in the science and research of our own physiology and that of the extremes in environmental and perfromance boundaries in order to find the avenues that allow us to squeeze out those extra few % degrees of perfromance from our old-school physological hardware.

Some examples of this in practice include…

The use of artifical oxygen tanks allow us to overcome the ‘death-zone’ when climbing at altitude.

Similarly, compressed gas bottles allow us to descend down deeper below the oceans surface.

Altitude training allows runners to raise the ability of their blood to carry and supply oxygen beyond that possible at sea level.

Aerodynamic advances allow cyclists to hold the most efficient positions to beat speed and distance records.

Highly-sophisticated exercise technology allows us to partially combat the severe bone-density degredation that occurs during the micro-gravity experienced in orbit and space.

And many more that we will come on to look at in future.

More than just a sterilised and clinical view of this as pure scientific theory and research though, the most important element is still the person in the suit or completing the impossible.

The mental and physical fortitude of individuals who are performing at the edge of their own and humanities boundaries are unique.

They hear impossible and double down their efforts.

When questioned “why?”, they will invariably answer “Because it’s there…”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit performanceattheedge.substack.com

My name is Kieran Moore, I am a Strength & Conditioning coach with an interest in human performance at the extreme demands of athletic ability, environmental exposures and physiological limits. I have worked in a number of different sports and environments as an S&C coach and have participated competitively and recreationally in a variety of areas.

I began my coaching career in CrossFit and personal training, before leaving to pursue a BSc in Strength and Conditioning Science at St Mary’s University, London. At the time of writing, I am about to graduate with plans to start an MSc in Human and Applied Physiology at King’s College, London, in the coming September.

Over the last few years, I have gained S&C coaching experience in a number of different sports. Across the experiences within these widely varied sports, I have developed an ongoing interest in how performance is mediated by physiology; specifically how the human system is uniquely affected by exposure to different demands and environmental factors and how we can optimise training to best adapt, and ultimately perform, at the highest levels.

My aim for the Performance at the Edge substack is to create multi-media content that provides both my own, and others expriences, thoughts, and practical applications of surviving, thriving and performing at the extremes of human physiological limits.

I will be producing both written and audio content that is both longer-form and deeper than what can be provided via typical social media channels. It will be a mixture of my own thoughts and learnings, as a way of me furthering my knowledge through passing on and teaching information to others, alongside looking into the achievements and experiences of others who are pushing the limits of their own respective fields of performance.

Within this, I hope that I can open up an understanding of how limitations can be overcome for myself and others who are interested from a theoretical or practical standpoint.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit performanceattheedge.substack.com