Olympians seem like a different breed to the rest of us. Their sporting abilities are superhuman, their dedication immense.
There might seem to be little that unites us mere mortals and those going for Gold for the country and yet, scratch beneath the surface and we're not so different after all.
Olympians you see have mundane problems and concerns similar to those that occupy our thoughts. They have to put the bins out, they have to go shopping for groceries, they have to wait patiently in traffic jams. They also, in one case at least, also know what it's like to have a conservatory that is too hot to use.
We were reminded of this on the BBC Sport pages recently in an article in which Jonny Brownlee, he of the triathlon brothers who won Gold and Silver in Rio between them, revealed that he has found a novel use for his conservatory. He uses it for heat training, the fact that the room gets uncomfortably hot actually a benefit as he looks to replicate the climate of summer months in some of the world's hottest countries.
Of his homemade heat chamber, Jonny said: “It's actually easy to do in your conservatory. I can train on my stationary bike or treadmill at probably 32, 35 degrees sometimes. And it's very humid - once you start sweating you create your own humidity.
"At the end of the day, hot is hot. It's all about getting your core temperature hot for about an hour. It doesn't matter how you do that."
Whether Jonny knew his conservatory would be a heat chamber in summer months when he bought it is unknown, but it has worked out quite well for him. He lives in Leeds, he competes around the globe, a conservatory which goes some way towards replicating the most uncomfortable of conditions is to be welcomed.
However, most conservatory owners aren't going to be competing in triathlons and, even if they are, they're not at Olympic level in South America. There is little need to acclimatise.
Most conservatory owners have a simpler set of requirements for their conservatory, in fact they might just have a singular requirement. They want it to be a great space all year round, but perhaps especially when the sun shines.
That they aren't this great space is well known, most conservatories are too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. The problem is the roof, that lump of glass or polycarbonate on top of the conservatory which is wholly unsuited to regulating the temperature.
At Guardian Warm Roof, we developed a lightweight, solid tiled replacement roof that can be fitted to any conservatory. This roof has full Local Area Building Control approval (LABC) and a U-value of 0.18. It is superb at regulating temperature, ensuring the conservatory can be used all year round.
The roofs also improve the aesthetic appeal of he conservatory, they come in a range of styles and subtle colours and so create a conservatory that blends in with the rest of the house rather than looking like a bolt-on. The conservatory effectively becomes a sympathetic extension rather than a flawed conservatory.
If you want a conservatory that is suitable for heat training, there is no need to do anything - it is perfect as it is.
However, if you want a conservatory that is usable all year round, has the appeal of an extension and adds value then please contact us at Guardian Warm Roof.
Call us on 0800 066 5832 or visit our Contact Page.
