The heat chamber at the University of Chichester is featured in a film about training for ultramarathons in Death Valley – as the specialist equipment helps runners to acclimatise to extreme heat in training.
BADWATER 135: The Long Way Round is a short documentary by award-winning film maker Max McGee, on runner David Bone’s journey to Badwater, a 135-mile race in Death Valley, California, known as the world’s toughest foot race due to extreme desert heat and steep climbs.
Exercising in the heat chamber allows a runner’s internal body temperature to rise above 38.5°C in order to help get the body used to running in hot temperatures. The sessions are supervised by the University’s sports scientists and are used by athletes training for events in hot climates.
In the film, Andy Briggs, Physiology Lab Technician and PhD student at the University, explained that by using the heat chamber we can measure how much sweat and sodium David had lost during an hour’s running in extreme heat – in this case 41 degrees – and this helps inform the runner how much fluid and electrolytes he’d need during the race.
Andy added: “Having athletes like David visit the university provides a fantastic opportunity for us and our students to support their training and get them in the best possible shape to undertake these incredible challenges.”
The film also featured Laura Watts, a local runner who has recently been training in the heat chamber for her fifth Badwater – and she’s the only British woman to have completed the race more than twice.
The chamber at the University’s Sport Performance and Rehabilitation Unit (SPRU) supports athletes to train for some of the world’s most gruelling endurance events. Staff recently supported four runners heading to the Marathon des Sables – a race across the Sahara Desert.
To find out more about heat acclimation training using the environmental chamber and the other services offered by the Sport Performance and Rehabilitation Unit, visit: www.chi.ac.uk/collaborate/business-and-employers/access-to-expertise/sport-expertise/sports-performance-and-rehabilitation/
To watch BADWATER 135: The Long Way Round on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/MEKdFz5rvb0