Hi all…. Figured I would share this ‘newsletter’ from last year.
Please look at the comments of the scheduled practice for updates / changes to scheduled rides.
For up to the minute real time readings, go to https://map.purpleair.com/1/m/mAQI/a0/p604800/cC59.2/42.2876/-121.9725
At the very top left part of the map, click the white box for Data Layer settings.
Select "US EPA PM 2.5 AQI
Apply conversion: “US EPA”
Averaging period: either Real-time, 10 minutes, 1 hour

Anybody notice it’s been warm and a little smokey?
Many may wonder, how we modify our practices and wonder what our guidelines/policy is regarding when to cancel practice, or make changes.

I have attached the NICA Weather Team Practice Guidelines document. Since I know you all can read, I’m not going to rehash all of the contents/guidelines. It is also available in our “Document” section, that you can always refer to or download.

Depending on the severity of the weather condition, we either cancel practice, or modify practice. It codes each weather/climate condition as Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.
Green= no changes
Yellow= depending on condition, it will modify duration and/or intensity, or to proceed with caution.
Orange = major change in activity intensity and/or reduction of activity time
Red= practice outside is canceled, but may have an alternative safe practice venue or time change.

First, I am ALWAYS checking weather forecasts and AQI’s (Air Quality Indexes) for the week, the day before, that morning, and by the hour…. so, I’m on top of what is going on, so no need to send me texts, letting me know things, unless, it’s radio silence on my end…. then that means, I’m buried with work (my day job), and haven’t made my morning/mid-day update, concerning heat/weather and AQI concerns. I use weather.gov and the AQI website that has the latest updated reading. I believe their is a website that provides live AQI updates. I will note this in the comments.

By noon, if there is a concern, I will send out a team chat message, for weather/AQI concerns, and on the scheduled practice comments. However, if you do not have the phone app of TeamApp, you will not get notifications of the comments, so you will need to manually check for these. If you have the phone app, make sure notifications are set up in TeamApp and your phone’s settings to receive these. Having the phone app, also allows for you to view “chat” messages on the website version, too!

An hour before practice, I will send out another message via the Team Chat message thread and comments, with an update. If I have to, I will cancel practice based on the NICA guidelines. With this said, I rely on parents and teens to know their own health conditions, ie heat sensitivity, hydration levels, fatigue, and asthma. Sometimes, the best plan for “you”, may be a rest day, or an indoor workout.

I will look at alternative ideas for group indoor activities, if heat/smoke is too bad for outside. These may have size limits, so preference will be given to those who RSVP to the scheduled practice. If any parent and/or coach has any ideas regarding a facility that will allow us to utilize indoor spin bikes, let me know. But, we may have to shift our practice time for that day, to accommodate their facility….

For Saturday practices – if forecast show heat indexes impacting the hours scheduled, I may move the practice to an earlier time. If this heat wave continues, we may need to do this, otherwise, it really hinders our endurance and sustained efforts training.

Hope this is helpful. I believe these guidelines correlate with the Oregon State athletic guidelines.