Heat is a weird thing. I live in the southern USA and it can get very hot and is always humid. We whine when the temp gets below 50F. We stay acclimated to the heat but it still effects us when it gets really hot. (See IM Chattanooga 2019 DNF stats. It was 104 degrees heat index when most people were starting the marathon).

I'm not sure that I buy all these 14 days heat sessions to get read for the hot races. I'm sure they help but it takes time, as in a couple of months to really get used to the heat. Humid heat is even worse. If the dew point is 65 or higher (rule of thumb, because wind matters) your sweat will not evaporate and your screwed.

The problem with "heat training" is your HR is higher and it effects your performance negatively which causes people to freak out when their power drops and/or HR goes up while training. Where I live we have no choice in the matter. 90-100 degrees is normal, with humidity, in the summer months so I pretty much ignore the increase in HR because I know its artificial. There real effect is on running and you simply have to slow down. You have no choice in the matter and this is after a few months of training daily in the heat.

Overall its expectation management (hard for type "A's"). The younger you are the better you can tolerate the heat. Humidity is the trump card. Dew point is a very good measure of what the heat will really do to you. Heat training is a must but in hot races but it effects everyone a little different except for one point.............it will slow everyone down no matter how much heat training you do.

Thanks for the reply, I totally agree on the management of expectations at hot races. And in as far as getting used to heat, I recall when I would spend summers in Annapolis MD with my folks (school in NH). The first two months of running were super shit, only in the last month was I finally getting around to a few quality sets. And yes, I know its not even that hot there compared to many, many places.

However, my question (or theory) is that given I'm traning in a consistently very cool temperature if I increase the temperature (and humidty) by 10-15% as a baseline I (worst case) remove some of the variablity or lack of effectiveness of a heat adaption program or (best case) make such a program that much more effective becuase I've exposed my body to the slightly higher temperature/humidty as a baseline/over the long term.

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Taylor Rogers

2024: IM Hamburg

There are a lot of things, hot baths right after a session to name one, that can trigger heat adaptation one such being an increases in plasma volume. I'd not worry about it right now, especially if you're doing quality work, and worry more about it as you get closer to races that you know are going to have a significant temperature deviant from what you're used to.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
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