Distance stars turn on hothouse tactics

GUERNSEY'S endurance athletes have been preparing for the soaring temperatures of Rhodes by sweating it out on treadmills under glass. Rather than wait to get to Rhodes and with no flaming June temperatures here, the distance stars used their initiative to emulate the blistering temperatures, possibly in the mid-90Fs, they will face at the Games.

Half of a metal glasshouse at Avondale Nursery on a vinery site that belongs to Guernsey Clematis is being utilised by the island's top distance runners and triathletes.

They can jog around the perimeter inside the 40m x 40m block and have been interspersing this with time on a treadmill, which goes up to 10mph.

'The endurance athletes are getting inside the environment two or three times a week in extreme heat conditions and will be prepared for all eventualities,' said experienced runner Paul Ingrouille.

Some have been training under glass for more than 90 minutes in temperatures above 35C.

The glasshouse idea evolved after a recent talk given by a doctor to the whole Island Games team.

'The advice was you would live at that temperature but you need three weeks' acclimatisation as a second option,' said Ingrouille, 43, a horticultural manager.

'We are expecting 30C-plus and we quite regularly get 42 to 45C under the glass - that is just solar gain.

Ingrouille will be competing in the half-marathon.

'On the day itself it may not be that warm - we don't know but you have to cover all the bases in case. Personally, having made the effort to prepare in hot conditions, I'm almost hoping it will be hot.

'Athletes like Louise Perrio and Steve Dawes are in tip-top condition and can't prepare any more,' said Ingrouille.

He predicts that if the sun gets above 30C for the half-marathon, most times will probably be down by about three minutes on what they would normally expect to run at 20C.

The heat will play a major role for anyone in any sport for an hour or more, he believes.

'It's not the sort of fitness that is easy to attain and it's going to hurt.'

Of the Dodecanese Islands, Rhodes is the largest and its weather forecast is famous because it holds the European sunshine record for having 330 days a year.

A five-day forecast yesterday predicted hot and blazing sunshine to reach 96F (35.5C) at the weekend.