Heat

In theory we will get a storm this afternoon and I am impatient for it. I am impatient for heavy rain to cool the roof and walls of this nightmare minergie building. As great as it is to have a cheap building to heat in winter, it is a deadly building in summer, especially when neighbours open their windows to aerate and let hot air in.

In normal buildings, if you open windows you get a draft, and that draft circulates air and it’s refreshing, and when you close windows that freshness lingers. In a minergie building, if you leave the window blinds open the sun heats every surface, and the air. The space heats up just like a car.

I was very sad to see that tomorrow’s evening storm is cancelled due to lack of interest. I am very interested in rain falling heavily from the sky. I want it to drench and cool the minergie building within which I live. I want the cool air to help make this building I live in liveable again.

This morning I woke at 6am or so, to go for a group run at 0800 with Décathlon Chavannes and the conditions were good. It was around 23°c and felt like 25°c, so nice and fresh. We ran, and during the run the temperature rose a little. When we got to the forest it felt nice to be sheltered somewhere nice and cool. Evapotranspiration is fantastic for cooling down humans during a heat wave. It’s especially good that we could end the run in the shade.

Yesterday as I cycled from Nyon to Geneva I felt my mouth become dry so I drank, felt it get dry again, and drank again. The wind that is usually cooling, or cold was warm. I was having a hair dryer ride. This is a term I use when the air is so warm that it offers no cooling effect.

We Ride at Dawn

One solution to avoid such a ride is simply to ride at sunrise like I did with Tête de Course. You wake up before sunrise and head towards the meeting point as the sky starts to gain some colour. The ride itself takes place at dawn, so you’re in 20°c rather than 34°c. It’s 10°c cooler than my bedroom so I wore layers to stay warm. If you don’t like the heat then this is an excellent way of getting a bike ride in before it gets too hot. It’s also a way of getting a bike ride before work.

One of the strangest things, in my observation of other people, is that they dress as if it was warm when it was cold. They dress in shorts and t-shirts to walk in the mountains in spring. That’s quite absurd, given how the mountains, in April tend to be cold.

Others dress in shorts and a t-shirt to go running when it is barely above freezing and I find this behaviour absurd too. In theory you don’t need to dress if your body is going to be hot and sweaty after a quick run.

Over the last week I have cycled, and climbed over 3000m. Yesterday I climbed 1664 meters over an 89 kilometre ride. It was divided into the first climb, from the Léman towards La Cure, then a flat bit, ridden fast, before getting to the climb to Marchairuz and that is when I ran out of power.

I wasn’t hungry, or thirsty. My legs were fatigued, after climbing up the Jura on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. Thursday was a very hard ride, after which I felt fine, until the sprint back to Nyon. That’s when I was knackered.

People think that to be comfortable on a hot day you need to rush to an air conditioned room or building but that idea is wrong. When I worked on one building, for three years, I called it “air conditioned hell” for a simple reason. For the body to cool it needs air flow to help evaporate water. When there is no air flow it feels stuffy, and we interpret this as being too hot.

Usually I like to go out in the afternoon because that was often when I felt the need for a mental break. This morning, and yesterday, or a day or two I went out in the morning. Part of the reason for this is that summer temperatures are arriving. We are getting back to 30°c or more, and running in that temperature is not as pleasant.

Noise and Comfort

There was little noise pollution yesterday so I opened the balcony door in the morning, and a velux and I had a nice cooling draft in my apartment. When there is little noise pollution, and when the neighbour who smoked has moved away summer is slightly less uncomfortable. The temperature in my bedroom is still 28°c but at least I can cool down the lower floor. I also made sure to get a draft from the stairwell to evacuate the heat from the centre of the building.

Recently it has been feeling warmer as spring is making an appearance. I noticed that buds and leaves are getting ready. Orchids are flowering and trees are ready. I also noticed that there is quite a bit of pollen in the air and it’s warmer. Warm enough to start thinking about cycling.

I went for a bike yesterday and I felt warm enough for almost the entire bike ride. This feels good. It feels good to be able to leave the boring winter. Boring for the lack of snow. It’s not that winter is boring, but that mild winters are. I like when winter looks and feels like winter.

This weekend when I hiked to Valangin I thought that I would found a water fountain along the way, so I took just 600ml of water. A few weeks ago when I went to Charmey I took the same amount of water because I didn’t want too much weight for the Via Ferrata. The result is that I have run out of water twice recently.

The paradox is that this isn’t because I lack water bottles. I have a collection of them. I have 1l bottles, 500ml water bottles, 600, 850, and more. I have one 1L water camelbak and one 2L camelbak. I could easily use them in rotation.

I live in a Minergie, which, in theory, means that I never need to worry about climatisation because the building keeps itself warm in winter and cold in summer. In practice the features that make a flat fantastic winter make it awful in summer.

Good in Winter

Large windows, in winter allow heat radiation in, so you use the sun to heat your apartment. From Spring until Autumn it has the opposite feature. It turns a room into a sauna, rather than giving an enjoyable temperature.