Training in the Heat. What Asian Cyclists Get Wrong.
Training
in the Heat.
What Asian
Cyclists Get
Wrong.
"The heat does not care about your training plan. But it will respect you if you prepare for it."
You're pushing hard. Your power numbers look fine on the screen. But your heart rate is 15 beats higher than it should be, you're burning through your carbohydrates faster than expected, and by kilometre 60 you feel like a different person.
This is not a bad day. This is heat — and it is working against you in ways most cyclists in Asia have never been taught to understand.
Training in Southeast Asia, Korea, Taiwan, and across the Asian racing circuit means heat is not an occasional problem. It's a permanent condition. And yet most training programs that athletes follow here were designed in Europe, for European weather, by coaches who have never built a training block around 35°C and 85% humidity.
That's a problem. And it's one we see every season.
The Mistake: Treating Heat Like Bad Weather
The first thing most cyclists do when it's hot is slow down, shorten the ride, or wait for a cooler time of day. That's not wrong — but it is incomplete.
The real mistake is thinking about heat reactively rather than training for it deliberately.
"Your body can adapt to heat. Significantly. But only if you train for those adaptations systematically. Hiding from the heat means your body never learns to manage it."
Plasma volume increases, sweat rate improves, your core temperature threshold rises, and cardiovascular efficiency at high ambient temperatures gets measurably better — but only through deliberate, structured exposure. When you race in Thailand in April and your European competitors are struggling by kilometre 40, that's not bad luck for them. That's an adaptation gap — and it's one you can train.
What the Data Actually Shows
Heat acclimatisation produces real, measurable adaptations in trained athletes. These are not marginal gains — they are significant physiological shifts that transfer directly to race performance.
In our work with riders on the Roojai Insurance Winspace team, we've seen the difference between athletes who arrive to a hot race prepared and those who arrive fit but unprepared for the conditions. The fitness gap is often smaller than the heat adaptation gap.
The Five Mistakes We See Most Often
Skipping warm-up because it's already hot
In a hot weather time trial or criterium, cutting your warm-up feels logical — you're already sweating before you start. But your physiological readiness has nothing to do with ambient temperature. A shorter, smarter warm-up is the answer, not no warm-up. Your neuromuscular system still needs activation regardless of what the thermometer says.
Using power targets designed for cool conditions
If your training zones were set in December and you're now training in April, they're wrong. Heat adds a significant cardiac cost to any given power output. Riding to heart rate rather than power on hot days isn't weakness — it's accurate self-management.
Drinking to a schedule instead of to your own signals
Generic advice says drink every 15 minutes. But sweat rate in Bangkok is not the same as sweat rate in Seoul or Kaohsiung, and it's definitely not the same as in Lyon. Individual sweat testing — or even careful observation of your own weight before and after rides — gives you a personal hydration protocol that generic guides can't.
Ignoring pre-cooling entirely
Before a hard effort in extreme heat, 10–15 minutes of deliberate pre-cooling — cold towels on the neck, ice vest if available, cold fluid ingestion — can measurably lower your starting core temperature and give you more room before you hit critical limits. This is not a luxury. For athletes competing in Thai summer conditions, it's a basic tool.
Training indoors to avoid the heat
A Zwift session in a cool room has real training value — but it does nothing for heat acclimatisation. If you're preparing for an outdoor race in hot conditions, at least some of your training must be done in those conditions, at the times of day you'll race. There is no shortcut for this.
Two Ways to Approach Heat
Most cyclists default to one approach without realising there's another. The difference in outcomes over a season — and especially at a key Asian race — is significant.
Train for It Deliberately
Schedule acclimatisation blocks 2–3 weeks before target events. Adjust power targets for conditions. Build a personal hydration protocol. Use pre-cooling as a race tool. Arrive prepared, not just fit.
React to It on Race Day
Train indoors all summer. Arrive at a hot race with cool-weather fitness only. Chase power numbers that don't account for cardiac cost. Drink to a generic schedule. Struggle by kilometre 40 wondering what went wrong.
Ask yourself: when did you last deliberately train in the heat, at race intensity, at the time of day you'll compete? If you can't remember, your acclimatisation block is overdue.
How We Build Heat Into the Training Plan
At The Coaching Philosophy, heat is not an afterthought. For athletes based in Asia or preparing for Asian races, it's a training variable we plan around from day one. This means deliberately scheduling acclimatisation blocks 2–3 weeks before target events, adjusting power targets based on conditions, and using available data to understand what the body is actually experiencing during each session.
It also means being honest. Heat makes training harder. Your numbers will look worse on some days. That's not a failure — that's the correct physiological response to a genuine stressor. The job of a good coach is to help you interpret that data accurately, not to chase the same numbers regardless of conditions.
One size does not fit all. That's true for training plans — and it's especially true for athletes training and racing in some of the hottest conditions in world cycling.
The Takeaway
If you're based in Asia, training in the heat isn't a handicap — it's an opportunity. Your body can become genuinely better at performing in these conditions than athletes who've never been exposed to them systematically. But that adaptation has to be earned through deliberate, structured exposure. Not avoided. Not endured. Trained.
"The cyclists who finish strong in the last 20 kilometres of a hot race aren't just fitter. They prepared for the conditions specifically."
The cyclists who understand this — and train accordingly — are the ones who are still riding strong when everyone else is just trying to survive the temperature.