Pre-cooling for a 2K?

[Olde School]

Apologies if this has been covered elsewehere in this forum - If it has please reply with relevant link(s).

I am a sweaty dude, always have been. The upside is that during mtb competitions in the heat, when others are suffering, I am not quite as much.
As a recent convert to rowing, and erging in particular, I am wondering about the effects of body heat when working hard.
My current set up has 3 20" box fans pointing at me when erging. Noisy and somewhat effective.
I've read about cardiac drift.
I have also read about pre-cooling https://runnersconnect.net/running-in-t ... e-cooling/

Here is my question: how on earth does one employ pre-cooling for a 2k trial after a lifetime of adhering to the need for a warmup prior to competition?

[Dangerscouse]

I haven't ever heard of anyone pre-cooling for a 2k race. Could you warm up a bit slower or earlier? In Europe all of the erging comps are in winter so I assume that follows in other countries too?

As it's over relatively quickly I wonder if it's more of a psychological issue as you start worrying about it and it then starts to dominate your thoughts?

[uk gearmuncher]

The science of pre-cooling is well known and cited. Ice vests have been used by a range of athletes in a variety of sports to good effect. I wouldn't worry for training but if i were racing erg's seriously, I most certainly would.

[ukaserex]

I row in my garage. Further, I live in the Gulf Coast area, and in the Summer, it can get to 95 fahrenheit routinely. I always put my water in the freezer for about 45 minutes before the workout so it's slushy. It doesn't stay that way, for sure, but it certainly helps keep my cooler than if I had just pulled it out of the fridge. A lot lower tech than a cooling vest, and certainly not as effective, but keeping cool is certainly a proven way to extend performance.

[Gammmmo]

Here is my question: how on earth does one employ pre-cooling for a 2k trial after a lifetime of adhering to the need for a warmup prior to competition?

Wear the ice-vest while you warm up?

EDIT: if you really want to go to town on making yourself more heat resistant then look into active heat acclimation in a sauna. I've tried passive heat acclimation and although that does get your body more used to heat (I went from being able to withstand 25mins to 45mins at 80C) it didn't give me a bump in performance from expanding blood plasma volume and getting an up-regulation of red blood cell production to preserve homeostasis. There is a thread on here all about heat. One way you can train yourself is by wearing extra clothing. Obviously you have to be careful with such things and you do it at your own risk!! There is a "RowProShow" podcast on iTunes that is all about heat training. It's well worth a listen.

[Nomath]

Maybe take some clues from the warm-up for the Prologue in the Tour de France. This is a short time trial where the cyclists must be fully warmed up. They use ice vests while warming up on the rollers or a circulation cooling vest like used by surgeons, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D5rSAedHYY

Here is some science behind it https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... p00089.pdf

[Olde School]

Thank you for all of the replies!