Protecting your skin

It's easy to remember about sunscreens when you spend the day on the beach, but many people forget that the sun is just as damaging to your skin when you are running, walking or cycling.

If you are one of those people who tend to sweat a lot while you exercise, then you need a waterproof sunscreen, applied thickly before you start, and reapplied during your training if you are out for more than an hour at a time. Ideally, you should do this during a race as well.

Every sunscreen has what is called an SPF or protection factor, and the needs of each person are different. Tanning results from increased amounts of melanin pigment appearing in our skin on exposure to the sun. Melanin is protecting the skin from further sun exposure and damage. But it cannot protect us from all the negative effects of the sun, which is why we also need to use sunscreens.

To calculate which SPF you need, see how many minutes it takes for a bare patch of skin to start to burn in the sun. Divide that number of minutes by the total number of minutes you plan to spend in the sun. The result is the SPF you should use. Most manufacturers have guides on their products, depending on whether you have fair or dark skin and eyes, and whether or not you tan easily.

Your clothing can also provide protection, although if you are exercising you usually want to wear something as light as possible. Use a hat if you are running or walking, and a brim on your cycling helmet to protect your face.

Make sure you are wearing sunglasses which block out 90 to 100 percent of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays.

Remember to put sunscreen on your neck and your ears!

Dehydration

When you are exercising in the heat, you will lose more sweat, and so need more fluid.

Heat-stroke

Most marathons and long cycle races now start early in the day to try and avoid the worst of the heat. However, if you are among the slower participants, you will land up running or cycling in the heat of the day.

It is important to do some of your training in heat in order to acclimatise yourself to this, if you know that you will be competing later in the day. If you normally train early in the morning, or late in the evening when it is cooler, use the weekends to train when it is a bit warmer. Don't go out at midday in extreme heat though!

You will find that you need to drink more, and that you will generally not be as fast as you are in cooler conditions. You must learn your limitations in heat in order to acclimatise. You can only run or cycle conservatively in heat, so be aware of that. If you push yourself too hard, you will run into problems.

You must also learn to recognise the symptoms of impending heat-stroke, and be prepared to stop if you are becoming too hot. The symptoms are weakness, clumsiness, headache, nausea, dizziness, apathy, aggression and any gradual impairment of consciousness. Unfortunately not everyone who suffers heat injury has all, or indeed any, of these symptoms.

According to Tim Noakes in 'The Lore of Running', runners who are most likely to suffer heat-stroke are those who are overweight, poorly trained and not acclimatised to running in the heat, who overestimate their running ability and so run too fast, have suffered heat injury before, are more than 1.79 m tall, become dehydrated, or have recently recovered from an illness in which they had a fever.

What goes for runners tends to apply to cyclists as well.

Summer is the time when outdoor exercise is the most fun, and usually the time when you are training for those big events.

Make sure that you take precautions against the sun and the heat, and you will get more out of your training, without ruining your skin, or decreasing your performance through inadequate preparation.

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