I thought I would resurface this thread as Summer is in full swing in Texas (and most of the South and Southwest) with more brutal temps to come. That said, did my Thursday long run this am and holy crap was it rough! Was out the door and running shortly after sunrise and still lost 6 lbs (this includes drinking almost 30 fluid ounces on my run) in less than 90 mins. I am a bigger guy (6'1" 200 lbs) and a heavy sweater, but not sure if I should be forcing the longer efforts... or break up into Morning and Evening run.

Long group rides are another issue. Saturday am group ride last week (2 1/2 hours with LBS crew) had me coming home almost 10 lbs lighter (drank three bottles during the ride) than I left. So far, I have been able to recover and rehydrate reasonably well. But I have Booulder 70.3 coming up in 6-7 weeks and am looking to ramp up my training volume and intensity. With current temps and humidity... worried I am going to kill myself in the process. Any advice... besides stop being a fat a** (working on that one already)?

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In search of the righteous life... we all fall down

Does the heat, humidity, and dewpoint make you more sore due to dehydration? It seems I get more sore even at a lower intensity.

Not really. Soreness for me is directly correlated to intensity of effort. Meaning that 800s leave me with greater soreness than 8-10 miles @ Zn2 in the heat and humidity. Same for the bike. Like I said, I try to be diligent about rehydration and fueling immediately after. I also foam roll and stretch in the evening religiously

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In search of the righteous life... we all fall down

I'm in the Houston area. It's hot and humid, like a lot of places in the South/Southeast. Because of my schedule, I don't do my workouts until 3 or 4pm. I slow WAY down just to keep my HR in z3 or 4. I'm 62 and not fast anyway. My open HM in Feb was 10:30 pace (PR for me).

Wednesday was a run test for me. 30' all out. Normally, I'll be around 9:30-9:45 pace. Wednesday I was 10:58, and I was happy with that.

Yesterday, after a 2k easy swim (10x150 easy intervals plus warm up and cool down), I "jogged" home the three miles. It was 99 with HI of 102 or something like that. There's little shade on this run. I "jog" for 30 minutes and then do a brisk walk the rest of the way. My 30' run pace was 13' and my HR zone got up to z5 for a bit. I almost can't run slow enough to stay in z2 with the heat. I ride with the B group on Saturday mornings in this heat.

This afternoon I have a 1 hr slow run. I'll probably start around 13' pace and see what my heart does. I'll happily slow down and even walk if I have to.

Slow, fluids, electrolytes, slow, fluids, electrolytes, slow, fluids, electrolytes... Can't say it enough. You still get the fitness benefit of being in z2 even if you're moving a lot slower.

Why am I doing this? July 10th Waco TX Oly. It'll be brutally hot and I have to be prepared for that - both physically and mentally. If it's a "cool spell" and in the 90s, I'll be fresh as a daisy.

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

Thank goodness for people who run their sprinklers at 7AM

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

I live in Fort Worth and it’s 108 every day now. I run year-round at 5:30AM but have altered my run program this summer even though the heat is generally tolerable. Instead of 6 mi/5 days per week I run 4.5 mi/6 days per week. My swim and bike have not been affected as I do both indoors.

^^this^^x100

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Let food be thy medicine...

I know Brandon Mcnulty was doing some 4+ hour rides around Phoenix in June. I don’t want to jinx him but it looks like he’s riding out of his mind right now in France.

Today is a conundrum. Forecast is terrible. It's my one freebie night per week to ride. Forecast is for 110 deg "feels like" and level 2 storms. But I'm holding out the storms pass before 6-ish and cool it off so I can ride.

My pain cave I run a fan to the 3-season room from inside to cool it off but in peak summer it just isn't cutting it.

So........it's been sucking.

I did a lunch ride yesterday with a 88 temp and feels like of 95. Had to do the RPE/HR method for some Z2 and ignore power. I'm pretty well adapted but still just despise it.

I do most of my training at lunch time, so the heat is just about at its worst. When running, I wet my shirt with cold water before I head out the door. This keeps me cool for at least the first mile or so. I've also started wearing a camelback with ice water. I drink some and pour some on my head, groin, other parts as needed. There are times I'll wear a longsleeve tech shirt that I'll keep wet with this cold water.

When I'm done I have to go back to work. The fastest way I've found to cool off is to drink as much ice cold water as I can as soon as I walk in the door. Then drink more ice cold water. This cools my core quickly and after I clean up I don't feel like I'm still sweating.

Good luck. It's been murder out there lately. The bike is more bearable with the air movement, but cooling with the ice water afterwards is still my go to as soon as I stop moving.

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Great things never come from comfort zones.

Did another 9 miles this am and holy hell was it tough! I was out running before sunrise (6:45 am) so the temps weren't bad here in Dallas-area at that time (86F), but the humidity was off the charts. Overcast and looked like it wanted to rain (no dice), so grinded through close to 80% humidity all run. Was forced to take it easy and even walk a hill or two (shame!!) to avoid blowing up. Only saving grace, I like getting on the scale post-run and seeing how much water my fat a** sweated out. I am averaging more than 6 lbs per long run... and that includes me taking a 24 oz bottle with me! FML!

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In search of the righteous life... we all fall down

12) Carry water with you. I prefer to hand carry a one-liter bottle, but a hydration apparatus like the Camelbacks are probably fine too.
13) Avoid the sun. Either use shaded routes or go when the sun is down (or low).

I also thought of this old quote that I'd posted in a long-disappeared forum someplace, but Archived for my Blog [which also stopped updating about a dozen years ago]


Whike searching to see if I'd ever posted that HERE before [nope], I found this post from another Heat Wave thread [from 2013]

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=4643466#p4643466




It's "wooder" Roger

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Heat paradox:

I have a concussion so I am making some questionable choices....

For instance...
"It's 108. How about I try to do my weekly hard hour of cycling. The wind will keep me cool.

I did learn...

THAT THERE IS A GIVEN TEMPERATURE, AT WHICH A GIVEN TAILWIND BECOMES AN OBSTACLE.

Example at 108F - I will ride slower in a time trial position with an 6 mph tailwind than I will ride with a 6 mph headwind.

Ran past two crews of landscapers and a crew of roofers this morning; gentlemen (and ladies) from "warmer climates" shall we say, wearing safety neon yellow or green cotton t-shirts, wide-brimmed straw hats, heavy gloves & boots

They looked at me like *I* was fucking nuts

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Working for survival vs. running about for fun. Not quite the same thing...

Exactly - they have to be out there

I'm just an idiot

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Not sure how you are thinking here. Unless your body temperature is an extreme outlier, any wind at 108F will make you feel warmer, not colder. Heat goes from hot to cold which makes it hard for your body heat to go anywhere.

If you dont believe me, try bringing a fan into the sauna.

This would be true if one didn't sweat.

Water going from liquid to gas, leaves the surface it is moving off of much cooler.

Even at 108, water evaporating makes the skin much cooler than the body temperature.
The faster the water evaporates the cooler the skin gets.

This relates to the paradox.
If there is a lot of sweat and a lot of wind there is a lot of cooling (even at 108). Less wind, less cooling more internal cooking.

There is a point at which the benefit if having a tailwind is off-set by having less wind.


Of course, non of this is true in very high humidity as sweat doesn't evaporate much.

https://dumbrunner.com/...rave-70-degree-temps

“It’s rough, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do,” said Charlotte Brontë, 42, a runner training for a fall marathon. “I’ve been waking up at 5:00 a.m. to do my long runs, just to miss the worst of it.”

Even that strategy, though, has its limits.

“When I started my run yesterday, at 5:45 a.m., it was already 58 degrees,” she said. “I had to remove my gloves almost immediately.”

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

With running it was always clear to me that heat lowers the pace.

Yesterday I did my long easy bike (I control that over HR: I try to stay at 125) and it was not so hot (< 30°C instead of >30°C which it had often in the last couple of weeks).
The power was about 20W higher compared to other trainings in the last couple of weeks. Can that be, that you have 20W difference only because of the heat, biking at the same intensity?

Unlikely. I can't imagine the heat requiring an extra 20W to hit the same avg speed. That is unless your roads are negatively impacted by extreme heat (chip seal) and they are slower themselves. Outside of that, maybe there is another variable you aren't thinking of

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In search of the righteous life... we all fall down

I'm going to have to read more of the dumb runner :)

One of the scariest moments of my life was a long ultra ride in ~120F heat in the remote Arizona desert. I was totally fine until I flatted. But then as I was changing the flat, with brutally hot asphalt reflecting heat back onto me, and a total loss of convective cooling while sitting still, things went downhill quick. Fortunately I had a buddy there, and we had a SAG car only a few miles away. But I was veering on the edge of unconsciousness, and if I've been alone, pretty sure I'd be dead.

Yesterday morning was a "get in the shower with my running clothes still on" kinda morning - 80 degrees at 7AM and about the same humidity, or maybe more

Ran most of the route in the wake of a half-full trash truck - on a warm Summer morning, they can produce a fragrance like no other. Nothing could compare, however, to running around Philly after work in the middle of a heat wave in '86, during the Trash Strike, as not only did I get to enjoy the rotting garbage, but also SEPTA bus exhaust, and occasional homeless people

At some point, I wised up and altered my route to go through Center City, specifically Walnut Street, where I could run by as people were going in & out of air-conditioned buildings, producing little zephyrs of wonderfully cool air

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin