Mad dogs, Englishmen and fitness obsessed nutters...

I've often heard visitors to Melbourne question, what is it with you people from Melbourne, you're always talking about the weather.  Weather makes great small talk, but when the weather is the news we're all in it together.  Everyone is sleep deprived. Suddenly the office is the place you’d rather be because it’s warmer inside your house than outside and you feel as withered as the drying leaves on our deciduous trees.

In the temperate climes of Melbourne there's a saying that if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes.  Melbourne is also known as the city famous for four seasons in one day.  However a few weeks ago Melbourne experienced 4 consecutive days of 40 plus degrees Celsius, topping out at 44 and it was more a case of wait five days.  Even the night time temperatures barely dropped below 25C.  It was the hottest consecutive weather for over 100 years.

To paint a picture for those of you not from Melbourne or South East Australia, here's how bad it was 

·        Roads literally melted.  The Westgate Bridge connecting the CBD to the Western suburbs developed gaps where the concrete and bitumen expanded and then contracted at different rates.

·        Tram lines warped and several major tram routes were shutdown and replaced with buses 

·        Train lines buckled and were forced to travel at a third the speed or shut down and replaced with buses until they contracted

·        At the Australian Open tennis, players’ tempers could only be matched by the temperature on court which is typically 8 degrees hotter in the sun than the shade.  Arguments about wet bulb temperatures turned sports fans into amateur meteorologists.  It turned out that more spectators were treated for heat related conditions than players.

·        The local outdoor pool reported a water temperature of 31 degrees, rather than the regular 26.  It was more soup than splash.

·        Even half the local bay beaches were issued with health warnings because the e coli readings soared with the warm and relatively still conditions.

·        Suburbs and shopping centres suffered power outages as the power companies had to shed load to keep the grid alive.

·        And unfortunately the mortality rate amongst the elderly soared.

Scorching hot weather from mid morning to way beyond sunset and yet people were still out exercising.  I grew up hearing the saying only mad dogs and Englishmen would go out in this heat, but it appears the fitness obsessed nutters of Melbourne must be added to the list.  Every time I saw a person out exercising, mainly running or riding, I had to restrain myself from wanting to try and talk some sense into them or at least offer them a lift in the car to point B, where ever that might be.  Perhaps they're training for the Marathon des sables an ultra marathon across sub-Saharan Africa or maybe the upcoming Challenge Melbourne a half Ironman by the bay in early February or perhaps they're just obsessed by some new year’s resolution they're afraid if they break just one day it will all fall apart. 

Hopefully by now you don't need to be convinced or dragged off to the nearest asylum to know that exercising in extreme heat is placing your body at risk of severe dehydration, heat stroke or potentially muscle meltdown.  As I mentioned in an earlier post about my Heat Chamber Horror experience, it's important to adjust your expectations about exercising in the heat.  The thought of my usual cycling commute to work held no joy at all, so I took the opportunity to do a spin class in the air conditioned comfort of the local gym.  A 50 minute session under the guidance of spin coach mad Mike on the stationary bike with heart rates I'd never been able to achieve on the bike was probably close to the equivalent of a 40km return ride.  Other days I did no exercise, drove to work and enjoyed a few cold beers at the end of the day.  

It was insightful to read an article published online by the Sports Scientist about the pros and cons of exercising in heat in response to the debate going on at the Australian Open.  A gradual adaptation to heat does prepare athletes better and hence is the reason why athletes who travel and acclimatise to a region's weather often do better.  Most of the cyclists here for the recent Tour Down Under arrived three weeks beforehand to prepare for whatever Mother Nature would throw at them. For the rest of us the message is clear, if you're not used to exercising in extreme heat or cold, then don't go out and do anything way over and above what you know your body is capable of doing.  Other than that just enjoy the fact you’re working up a sweat even if it is just walking from the air-conditioned office to the air-conditioned car and hopefully into an air-conditioned house. 

I'm always keen to hear your ideas on what you do when the weather is the news and you need to find alternative paths to exercise.