A day in the life of a Sport and Exercise Physiology Research Fellow

Martin  0:05
The Marathon Des Sables kind of brands itself is the toughest foot race in the world, it's 253 kilometers across the Sahara Desert. And in preparation for that I contacted Dan and the team here.

Daniel Snape  0:22
Doing heat acclimatisation, there's less chance of us suffering from exertional heat illness or heat stroke, we've got environmental chambers, we can simulate different conditions such as high temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius.

Martin  0:34
Never done anything where you're exercising consistently for a week over that kind of terrain. And in that kind of heat.

Daniel Snape  0:42
Based off how your core temperature your heart rate responds to a heat tolerance assessment that will then inform how long your heat acclimatisation plan needs to be, tend to find that the longer that the acclimation you do at the beginning, the better the maintenance period. So you could do like a 10 day block three weeks out and hold on to those benefits for maybe two to three weeks. So for athletes, like Martin is getting him comfortable in that environment. And then also him then being aware of what his core temperature is at different exercise intensities. So that'll influence his kind of pacing strategy, the hot environment increased physiological strain on the body. So what we tend to see is that the core body temperature is elevated. And then to combat that we have these different responses, such as increasing our skin, blood flow, our sweat rate, to try and cool ourselves down and keep core temperature within safe limits perceptually, you're going to feel uncomfortable in a hot environment. So by doing heat acclimatisation promoting these different physiological adaptations that allow us to claim or regulate more effectively. And also psychologically, to give them that kind of confidence that actually you know what, I'm hot, but I can actually tolerate this and I can still push through and keep going. 

Martin  1:48  
I'm hoping to gain a couple of things. One is, obviously the knowledge which gives me the confidence around hydration, salt intake, and also pacing, you know what my heart rate should be, hopefully, when I get to the start line, the body will be used to the temperatures that we're going to experience.

Daniel Snape  2:07  
Here at the Carnegie School of Sport, we have got a long history of supporting Olympic level athletes, the services that we offer to recreational athletes, are the same strategies that some of these Olympic athletes are doing.

Martin  2:29  
Going for 26 hours through the heat through the night was difficult. Nobody had ever experienced the heat that you do in the Sahara. Physically, I felt really good. I kept saying to myself, well, I've done the preparation. I know if I'm going too fast. And that gave me the reassurance to know that look, if you keep at this pace, you're going to be fine, you're not going to overheat.

Daniel Snape  2:55  
That's a year long project. We're a very small part of it. But I think he's shown that we're quite integral. So allowed him to kind of feel confident that he's done the most he can in his preparation,

Martin  3:07  
The reassurance of knowing what my heart rate should be, was just telling me you're okay, you're okay, you're okay. But actually having that data. For me that was really reassuring, and it stops any kind of self doubt creeping in. And this is a world class facility. There's no question that not only is it a world class facility, but it's operated by people at the top of their game.

Daniel Snape  3:32  
When you come here, we're always making sure that any new research that's been published that we're making sure that informs our heat preparation strategies. It's amazing what he's done, how challenging it was, how hard it was for him. It's great to see him succeed and actually get to the finish line.

Martin  3:49  
It was such a vital part of crossing that finishing line without any shadow of a doubt.