how the marathon runner Hassan Chahdi trains in an overheated room

Ten thousand steps and more. We remember the athletics worlds in Doha (Qatar) in September 2019, where twenty-eight marathon participants out of sixty-eight had to give up. The race had been organized at night, but the temperature was still over 30 ° C, more than 40 ° C felt, and a humidity rate of over 70%. How to prepare to face such heat? How to apprehend the next events of the Olympic Games in Tokyo which must take place from July 23 to August 8, if they are not postponed once again because of the Covid-19? The marathon and walking events will take place in Sapporo, on the island of Hokkaido, in northern Japan, where the temperature is expected to be milder, although hot weather is to be expected. Experts from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have just published recommendations.

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This Tuesday morning May 25, the French marathoner Hassan Chahdi practice a heat acclimatization session in the thermal chamber of the National Sports Institute (Insep). The temperature is 33.8 ° C and the humidity is 70%. Objective: to reproduce as much as possible the conditions of Sapporo, where the athlete will go on July 26.

The shock of the first experience

Before starting, Hassan Chahdi weighs himself, and weighs his gourd. A patch with a compress is applied to him to collect his sweat, to measure his sweat flow (sweat production per unit of time) and the concentration of sodium and potassium. Then he enters the room, where a damp heat assails him. Athletes often say they are shocked by the first experience. He doesn’t seem disturbed. He says he copes with the heat quite well, with everyone reacting differently. He also did a good performance (he arrived 8e at 1 h 5 min 5 s) in the half-marathon which took place in Djibouti at the beginning of March, under an overwhelming heat.

Franck Brocherie, responsible for scientific support for performance at the Insep laboratory, supervises the session; checks urine to ensure proper hydration; is concerned with the runner’s state of fatigue; asks him, using a scale, to report his perception of heat, of his sensations – and that every fifteen minutes. Hassan Chahdi’s heart rate is checked throughout.

An hour later, with a smile on his face, the marathon runner quietly descends from the treadmill. He ran at 13.5 km / hour, peaking at 15 km / hour. “The goal is to get used to the heat. We are very hot the first fifteen minutes, then we adapt, he said with a smile. These sessions help reduce stress. “ Franck Brocherie recommends training for 60 to 90 minutes each day, for about two weeks, passively or at low intensity, generally at 50% of the maximum aerobic speed (MAS), the lowest speed at which a person consumes the maximum amount of oxygen. “Acclimatization remains the gold standard in hot and humid conditions. It is an essential tool ”, continues the researcher in exercise physiology.

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