Subject: RE: Long-sleeved tri clothing for heat.I did a few trials of heat management clothing last year at the height of summer running in temps above 110 here in Tucson. I think the warmest day I could manage may have been about 113. I tried a number of cooling garments from several brands. I recorded speed and heart rate with a Garmin GPS to get some impression (this was NOT science) of their effectiveness. In general I found the most effective strategy for running in the heat was to carry a half frozen water bottle, one of the types with a hand strap on it. There is a lot of vascularity in the hands so the return of veinous blood from the hands cooled by the frozen bottle in each hand seemed to help. I actually heard that from a poster on this forum- it was a good idea. Another thing I found was a round fabric tube filled with a gel that you soaked in water then froze. You wore this around your neck like a bandana. Because it was frozen and around your neck- where a lot of blood flow passes to and from your head- it was super effective in keeping me cool. It was almost too effective- I was freezing with the darn thing on at first. Finally, of the cooling garments I used most had some moderate perceived benefit. Some didn't though, and I just got hotter with them on. The key for every one of them was to keep them wet. When they were wet the evaporating water kept me more comfortable. Another find I made recently was Schoeller's Coldblack fabric, a fabric that blocks UV and heat absorption. I ran in a black colored Coldblack running top on three successive days well above 90 recently here in Tucson and it seemed temperature neutral. It wasn't excessively hot. I've done ultra-distance races in the hottest places in the world (jungles of Vietnam, Sahara desert, desert on Iraqi/Jordanian border) and used loose fitting tops to regulate temperature there, like the Beduins do. Mostly, that helps with sun. - hope those insights help. |