Today was the first of 3 planned sessions in Bangor Uni's heat chamber under the supervision of Adrian the student. After a quick greeting I was presented with my old friend the rectal thermometer. It was pleasing to see that this appeared to be a brand new one this time and not one that had been inserted in many previous rectums (rectae?). My nude body mass was measured at 77.7kg or 12st3lb in old money and then I re-dressed and entered the chamber.
The plan was for 2 hours treadmill running at 10.1kph with the chamber set at 33degC and 30% humidity, which seemed fine by me. The only condition was from the good old risk assessment that if my core temperature went above 39.5 then I would have to be cooled down by minimising the exertion plus fans and water spray. Keeping my fluids topped up would also help.
I set off at the prescribed pace and, although the chamber was fairly warm and I was sweating a good deal, it never felt uncomfortable and the 10.1kph pace was more than fine. After 40 minutes however Adrian popped in to say that my core temperature was close to the maximum permitted and that he would have to switch the cooling fan on and lower the speed of the treadmill. This was compensated by an increase in gradient.
The cooling down period lasted for about 20 minutes and then it was back up to the 10.1kph. Another 30 minutes or so later the core again went back up the max. All this time I had never felt in any discomfort and was running quite freely but rules is rules. This time I coooled down in 15 mins and then went back to the run for the last 15mins.
All in all I felt this was a good session and I am looking forward to session number 2 tomorrow afternoon when I hope my body will be a little bit more attuned so that I can go longer before the necessity for cooling down. Good news was my water intake was not far off spot on. Having consumed 2 litres over the 2 hours, I had only dropped 0.3kg.
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