Hydration-Practice Turbo Session: Racing Rehearsal for Hot Conditions

Session Overview

This 70-minute turbo session rehearses your race-day hydration and fuelling strategy at race-pace power, with reduced airflow used to simulate heat stress so your gut and pacing are tested the way they will be on race day, not in a cool garage.

What You’ll Need

• Turbo trainer with power meter or reliable RPE feel
• Two bottles, one with your race-day electrolyte mix
• Your actual race-day nutrition, gels, chews, or a bar
• A fan you can switch off or turn down for part of the session
• A warm-ish room, or run the session later in the day when it is naturally warmer
• Towel, HR monitor if you have one, timer

Warm-Up (10 minutes)

Spin easy for 6 minutes at RPE 2-3, building gradually. In the final 4 minutes, add three 30-second surges to RPE 6 with 90 seconds easy between them to open up the legs and get fluids moving before the main set starts.

Main Set

Four 10-minute blocks at race-pace effort with 3 minutes of easy spinning between each. Airflow is deliberately reduced for two of the four blocks to simulate heat stress. Your job is to hold power steady while executing your actual fuelling plan, not while resting.

• Block 1, 10 minutes at RPE 6-7 (Zone 3, roughly 75-85% FTP), fan off or turned right down, sip 150-200ml every 3 minutes without letting power drop, no solid food yet
• Block 2, 10 minutes at RPE 6-7, fan back on to recover airflow, eat one gel or equivalent in the first 2 minutes, keep sipping through the rest of the block
• Block 3, 10 minutes at RPE 6-7, fan off again, take 2-3 bites of a bar or a handful of chews in the opening 3 minutes, continue sipping to a running total of roughly 500-600ml for the session so far
• Block 4, 10 minutes at RPE 7, normal airflow, top up fluids to finish close to 750ml-1L total for the session, and practise a clean one-handed bottle grab and food pouch opening without looking down or losing cadence

Cool-Down (10 minutes)

Drop to RPE 2-3 for the full 10 minutes, spinning the legs out. Use this time to finish any remaining fluid and mentally note how your stomach handled fuelling under effort and heat, this is exactly the feedback you want before race day, not on it.

Coaching Notes

• Practise grabbing your bottle and food by feel, glancing down for a split second rather than staring at your hands, this mirrors what you’ll need to do on the race course
• The most common mistake is only drinking or eating during the recovery intervals, that is not race-specific, race day fuelling happens while you are working, so all of this session’s nutrition should go in during the hard blocks
• If four full blocks with heat simulation feels like too much for a first attempt, scale back to three 8-minute blocks and only reduce airflow for one of them, build up the heat exposure over successive sessions
• Target RPE 6-7 (Zone 3, roughly 75-85% FTP or HR Zone 3) for the main set blocks, this should feel like a strong but sustainable race effort, not a threshold interval