Up until a few years ago, I could've seen doing this as a worthwhile survival exercise, and to know that I can do it.
Then, without trying, I overheated simply by exercising in a room that I didn't know was 95F.
(Since I've mostly only lived in cold/moderate climates, and had never learned how risky 95F is.)
It was highly unpleasant, in an uh-oh, I can see how people die this way, kind of way.
Now, I actively avoid anywhere much hotter than about 80F.
Just last week, I declined a very interesting recruiting outreach from a CEO in Austin, telling him, sorry, but the weather in Texas is just too hot for me.
I'm ready to repurpose the term "special snowflake".
> A young woman seems to be walking around in a daze. [...] I don't think they believed their guidebooks about how uncomfortably hot it can get in Death Valley.
I hope someone helped the dazed person with first aid. And that other people take the heat seriously. It's right there in the name: Death Valley.
Your reaction to heat is highly dependent on acclimation. I live in Texas and have to re-acclimate every year. Exercising on the first 85º+ day of the year is miserable, but a month later 85º feels quite tolerable, and 95º is doable, though performance suffers.
I grew up playing baseball and tennis in 95-100º weather with high humidity routinely. It wasn't pleasant, but nobody was getting heatstroke, nobody was cancelling games or practices. But on a visit to Montana a few summers ago, I saw that kids' baseball games had been cancelled because the temperatures had reach a dangerous level: 90º (in dry mountain air.) Same human beings, different levels of acclimation, very different safety thresholds.
I've never been in the temperatures described in this article, though, and I don't know what the physical limits of acclimation are.
If the pool is heated, swimming in 15C weather would be fine. If not, I wouldn’t swim in 15C water without spending time in a sauna or hot tub before jumping in; surfers wear wetsuits when the water is that temperature.
The "trick" I used in GA (not quite as hot as TX, but as humid in that part of GA) was to exercise outside year round. It was rarely so cold that winter running was a problem, and as the temperatures warm up or cool down you naturally get acclimated to the new season. It's worked here in CO as well (though due to an injury I didn't this past winter) with getting used to very cold temperatures (I wouldn't exercise outdoors on our very coldest days, but that's about 1-2 weeks out of the entire winter that I'd stick to indoor only training).
I occasionally ride my bicycle to work in Austin and some days when I get home I have a hard time cooling down even after a long cold shower. I've since set a rule for myself that I won't ride on days where the temperature is 98 or higher.
I just turned 55 and have been thinking about this a little, wondering if maybe I should back off on the biking?
Maybe do it more consistently! Heat acclimation takes a week with daily exposure or 2-3 weeks if you get exposure every other day[0]. If you work out in the heat once a week, you might be living that miserable first hot day of the year over and over again all summer.
[0] I don't know how well nailed down this is, but I didn't find any wildly differing opinions in my internet research: you achieve roughly 80+% of the heat adaptation you're capable of in this time period, assuming 90 minute sessions with physical activity.
Not a medical expert by any means, but 98 degree Fahrenheit sounds like a dangerous high temperature for exercise (at high humidity, I'm sure it is). I'd go earlier / later in the day, when temperatures are more reasonable. There is a reason for Siesta.
The first exercise at 105⁰ seems insane. A week later bearable.
I recall with some amusement thinking I was coming down with heat stroke one summerbecause the light wind felt chilly on my skin. But then I realized it was only 95 degrees
What really matters is the wet bulb temp. For example, the Death Valley high today was 114°F (45°C) but at an RH of only 3%. That gives a wet bulb temp of ~ 65°F which isn't a problem with acclimation and adequate hydration.
Now if it had been 50% RH, the web bulb temp would be > 96°F which is not survivable by humans for very long because no amount of sweating in that humidity will cool you down.
That's 114°F in the shade. There is no shade in the desert though ...
Don't want to be projecting, but first time I went to Death Valley happened to be in August. I saw dunes from the car and thought I had to walk up there. Fifteen minutes later I had an unbearable headache and quickly headed back. Sombreros don't look all that ridiculous to me anymore.
Taking a 1 year old on an 8mi/13km hike in an area where temps go to 109F/43C, with inadequate clothing and only 2.5l of water for 2 adults, the child, and the dog is insane.
Bike riding in the heat once caused me to come close to overheating. Stopping, finding shade, pouring water over my head and laying down finally brought my core temperature down in time.
I saw the same things begin to happen to my wife some years later when bike riding in the heat. I did the same for her and all was well.
The real problem is HVAC. You are acclimated, but you acclimated to the thing you spend the most time time. If you want to get used to higher temperatures, spend about 2 weeks without AC, or with the AC only kicking on at a high temperature.
> Now, I actively avoid anywhere much hotter than about 80F.
It is currently - well after sunset - 82°F outside. A couple days ago it was mid-90s in the afternoon, and it should get back to that after the current weather passes in another few days.
Mowing the yard when it's high 90s and muggy and sunny is not as rare an occurrence as I might like.
I get a 401 error with that link, but when I visit it from a search engine it's fine. I think they may have blocked referrals from HN, so if you see that message, try copying-and-pasting the URL into a new tab / window / incognito window. I read this a while ago, and as other say, it's worth it.
Given the design, I reckon they might well be on a tiny hand-crafted server, in which case it makes sense. I seem to remember something similar the last time this was posted.
Maybe that's what I enjoyed about the old-school ultra crowd -- they were a bunch of unpretentious geeks with day jobs, doing outdoor stuff as a serious hobby rather than a calculated bid for attention and sponsorship. You can still find them, but you have to look harder.
Interesting that they didn't find the nights too cold for sleeping out. We camped in Racetrack Playa one spring some years back and the nights were bitterly cold with extreme wind.
Then, without trying, I overheated simply by exercising in a room that I didn't know was 95F.
(Since I've mostly only lived in cold/moderate climates, and had never learned how risky 95F is.)
It was highly unpleasant, in an uh-oh, I can see how people die this way, kind of way.
Now, I actively avoid anywhere much hotter than about 80F.
Just last week, I declined a very interesting recruiting outreach from a CEO in Austin, telling him, sorry, but the weather in Texas is just too hot for me.
I'm ready to repurpose the term "special snowflake".
> A young woman seems to be walking around in a daze. [...] I don't think they believed their guidebooks about how uncomfortably hot it can get in Death Valley.
I hope someone helped the dazed person with first aid. And that other people take the heat seriously. It's right there in the name: Death Valley.
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