Embrocate and overheat
Atleast during warmer months.
I raced a while back. It was hot and humid and I popped at the end. I was shaking and could barely pedal. This never happens to me.
After speaking with my fitness guru and a tad of research to enforce his comments it looks like I overheated. Over dressed and drilling hard for the last 11 miles.
When it’s humid you do not cool as well from sweating. Your sweat does not evaporate well and your body works harder to try to cool down.
What made things worse for me was sunscreen. Sunscreen holds moisture to your body like hand lotion. Not good if you want to cool off. My guru forwarded this article that backs up what he was saying. I found similar articles with an easy Yahoo search.
What’s more important to you? Over heating or burning from the sun? Mabe you don’t burn and sunscreen doesn’t matter. Then the answer is easy.
You may argue the loss of cooling from sunscreen is negligible. Maybe it is but I need all the help I can. Especially here in the hot humid summer. Not as hot and humid as Bill’s neck of the woods, but enough to add to the pain.
Ask yourself this: Is it worth rubbing fancy body butter on your legs before a race to be more core? I’m not bashing embro. I make my own and love it for the winter. Because it does: warm my legs and offer a barrier to water.
But it seems silly to cover the hardest working part of you body with a lotion or rub that will hold in the heat and rob your body of energy. heat is energy, don’t forget it.
Save the embro for the summer. I don’t care how good it smells or how cool you feel rubbing it on. Trust me, I too will miss the smell of it in the peleton, but the benefits far outway the odor of liniment.
