A few different things have happened since my last blog; I've completed my first season in the U23's with Tudor Pro Cycling and now quickly approaching my second season in the category. This time switching it up in Italy with Sias Drali.
I have plenty of experiences to reflect on and a Winter of training to talk about but I figured instead of giving the typical speech about how my Winter training has gone I would go with a different approach for this one. ~ don't worry there will be plenty of posts coming with my reflections and training sessions :)
During this Winter I have not been away to a warmer climate (no Zwift does not count!). It's been a cold one here on the Isle of Man, with regular ice coverings on the road and gale force winds to keep the feels like temperature below 0°. To combat this, I've been started up by my coach on some sauna sessions; well not really for this reason but let's just say it keeps you nice and toasty for a few hours afterwards. It's been nice to start this and add a different type of stress on the body which I am not accustomed to. The real reason for this is...
1) Acclimatise to the hot weather #watchthisspace
2) Increase blood plasma volume and red blood cell count
**(a quick google search of "sauna for enduranace athletes" will explain this a lot better than I can)**
Although at first thought this may come across as a pleasant thing to do and it should be effectively free gains, I've found that it is far from this. Feeling on the verge of passing out is not in my mind a nice experience!
How I implement this?
I have 2 options;
a hot bath up to the neck
visit my local leisure centre to use the sauna
For the sessions I get 30-45mins exposure dependent upon whether I have come straight from exercise or not. The aim is to try and have the highest temperature bearable that I can stand without needing to leave before the time is up.
Obviously, it's not the best to push the limits too far during this, but for it to be worthwhile it should definitely be uncomfortable.
Like I said it has been nice to switch it up and implement a new strategy of training. All things come with a cost, for this it is the added time of getting down and spending time in the sauna and also the stress on the body that comes with the sessions. The body can only tolerate so much stress so it's likely that with including 5-6 sauna sessions a week you would need to drop the volume of other methods of training. For myself I'm hoping but also confident that the reward can outweigh this cost but only in time we will know.
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