Indoor Heat Management

You might also look to see if there is a damper at the air handler rather than closing individual vents, assuming you have access to the unit in your condo. If there is, you can force less air down one branch and more down another. This would be used to balance the AC if you had a house where one side of the house was hotter due to sun exposure or something than another. I do this because my thermostat is at the back of the house, but the front gets full sun so the it allows the front to cool off more before the thermostat at the back. It also happens that my pain cave is at the front as well.

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De-humidifier. I was able to pick up a good one (the kind you would use in a basement) used for next to nothing. This has been a game-changer for comfort in my training room.

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Houston area? Its a dry heat here in Nor Cal, and our AC is set no lower than 82F. The interesting thing about training in the heat is that you can boost the top-end (increase in plasma volume I believe). My best ramp test was in a garage at 82F after doing a few 4-hour weekends cycling in 100F. So I do the hard stuff in the morning, except for Wed night worlds, and easier workouts outside when its 90+ degrees.

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Yep. Houston. Humidity so thick you can slice it.

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Many years ago in mid November I stepped off an airplane in muggy Houston to visit TI. Back when everybody wore suits and ties to visit customers. To this day I swear that was the hottest day Iā€™ve experienced in Texas (parents have been in west TX and DFW since 1981).

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Any fan upgrade is a good one, and the dehumidifier idea is great - in many ways that is where the cooling effect of AC comes from.

I live in hot/humid VA and shocked by where you guys keep the thermostat and the bills you pay. We regularly have the AC on 68-70 all summer during the day, and 65-68 at night, in addition to 65 for workouts (I do raise it right after back to 68-70). Our bill is lower or on the lower end of what you are describing even at these lower temps. For a good-sized house with nothing special in terms of insulation.

I am cold all the time in normal life. But workouts with the AC on 70+ even with 3 fans sounds AWFUL. Head adaptation maybe? :slight_smile:

I just looked at the weather. Fairfax VA is currently 54% humidity. Houston TX is 81. Thatā€™s the difference.

Would a dehumidifier work better than a portable AC unit, if you had to choose?

Weā€™ve had 90-100* temps with 80-100% humidity all week, and a weekend of rain. Iā€™m a softie so been indoors lol

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It was 76Ā° and 95% humidity in palm beach county this morning at 5:30am :sweat_smile: made over-unders a little tougher than usual.
Summer is here! :man_facepalming:

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I havenā€™t used a portable AC so i couldnā€™t speak to their effectiveness. But i would imagine it would be easier to find a good, cheap used dehumidifier than a portable ac, so it would probably be more cost effective.

I have central AC, but after an hour of training it is still remarkably hotter in the training room than the rest of the house. The big dehumidifier makes it a dry heat though, which i find very tolerable with a big fan blowing.

One bonus of the dehumidifier is it removes a lot of the odor from the air after training as well. It just makes the room a more pleasant place to spend time in.

I think i would stick with the dehumidifier if given the choice.

:rofl:

I lived in Loudon County until 2016. And let me tell you. You dont know what you have.
Summers can be humid, but for maybe a month or soā€¦ then the humidity drops and its still hot but manageable. I used to train for falls marathons (did 3 MCMs) during the summer, and while it was bad some days, it was 100% doable. Now in FL. You know you need to be DONE with LR your run by 9 am or else it will be a pain fest. And this is the case 9 months of the year. We get a break maybe November to MAYBE March. This year was an anomaly and we got decent weather till late April and a some days in May.

Houston I present you Melborne FL, where at 7 am was 74 with 90% humidity.
I have run in days that is 80 and 95% at 5:30 am.

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Yep! My wife loves summer for the heat, but hates that I make her get up so we can be on the road just as the sky starts to brighten. Especially when we drive an hour to the hills :rofl:

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Good to know! I usually donā€™t have a pool of sweat under me, but I think it could still be a training limiter. Iā€™ll check it out.

@Joelrivera I went from Leesburg to FL this year, also training for a marathon. Might need to start a support group :sweat_smile:

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You will probably hate running 20 miles in 85 degrees and 95% humidity and full sun!
But, who knowsā€¦you might like it

I did todayā€™s workout in a pool of perspiration.

My biggest gripe is the sweat dripping all over my glasses.

Iā€™ve never worn a sweat/headband; anyone know if those things actually work to keep sweat out of my eyes and off my glasses, or do they just become saturated and worthless?

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They can work well, but if you are dealing with lots of sweat, having 2 or 3 that you can swap out during the workout may be necessary. I have 2 I use and hang one at a side fan to try and dry it while wearing the other.

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I wear a halo bandit on the trainer. It has a wider brow that I feel like soaks up a bit more sweat. I also have a Lasko blowing in my face and keep a microfiber towel next to me. On rest intervals, I take the halo off, roll it in the towel, squeeze dry (like you do when you wash clothes in the sink when traveling) and then hang it off my Garmin to dry in the fan before the next interval.

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Sorry for the reviving but Iā€™m wondering too. On the one hand cheap quiet dehumidifier(this), on the other - portable AC system. Are they compatible? Humidity is about 80%, then AC is ON