Since I passed 50 last year, it has gotten really obvious that my ability to handle the heat is dropping to zero. Since I live in South Florida, this is not a good thing.
We finally got some marginally cool weather this week. I just finished a 10 mile run in weather that was just a few degrees cool but way less humid than my half marathon three weeks ago. The difference was day and night. I thoroughly enjoyed a pleasant run at a pace faster than what ground me into dust three weeks ago. I have tried this 10 mile run twice since, only to stop after being cooked half way through.
I never did particularly well in the heat, but this level of difference is just ridiculous. I am really tempted to do that 101 race in Bradenton next year, but May in Bradenton is going to be hot and humid, guaranteed.
I have heard similar problems from a friend in Austin, a real athlete in this case, not a poser like me. Are any other members of the over the hill gang having this problem?
Shoot, I have that problem and I am 39! Whenever I traveled from Florida in July-August to somewhere cooler, I always noticed an immediate improvement in my run. Really big, immediate improvements sometimes. I just don’t race well in the heat. Never have.
Read your Viagra prescription carefully, temperature sensitivity is a direct and long lasting side effect of the drug. You can’t have your cake and be warm too.
Come on Art, you handed me that one. Who let you out of the Lavender Asylum anyway?
I am having some challenges at the opposite end of the temp scale. I am finding as I get older I am becoming much more sensitive to the cold and cooler weather. I am fine once I get rolling - no performance issues at all, but I need to wear more clothing these days at a given temperature than I have in the past, and I also need make sure that I am not left out in the cold, so to speak after training or racing and that there are dry warm cloths to change into immediately post training or racing, whatever the situation or circumstances.
I’m in Fleck’s camp on this one. I’ve lost several pounds over the last couple of years and am much leaner than I used to be. South Carolina summers used to kick my butt. Now I’m much better in the heat and I freeze my butt off in temps that wouldn’t have bothered me at all a couple of years ago.
So, to the OP … have you added a few lbs lately? That may be helping keep your core temp too high.
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Someone please hurt me with those cold weather problems. I never had them. I even remember going out for a run in my jogging shorts one morning after a visit to the local girls school. Started getting cold after a few miles. I eventually learned it was about 20 and windy outside that morning. Had I been stopped by an injury, I could have been in serious trouble. Even if I had cold weather problems now, I would never have a chance to find out.
Extra weight really makes the heat worse, but no, I haven’t gained weight at all. I am maybe four pounds over ideal racing weight, but pretty much normal training weight for me.
Still, I am over 10 pounds heavier than when I was a kid who did NYC under three hours in 90 plus heat without a hint of a problem.
Exactly the opposite…old age has made handling the cold much harder (and it is cold here 345 days a year). When in FL/CA/AZ the heat makes me go so fast. Must wait for global warming I guess; social engineers say it will be here maybe in 1000 years if Al Gore keeps wailing out his rear end.
55 yrs of experience speaking here Art, so listen up.
I’m definately finding it harder at both ends of the temperature scale, but the cold is definately way worse. I could enjoy my winter training in Florida with you, but the summer humidity would serious effect me.
It’s these northern winters that are really getting me however. I can still x-country ski, etc. but everyday winter living is what is really getting to me. Just can’t handle the cold nearly as well any more.
Maybe I should give up this stuff and get fat like everybody else my age that I know. At least the extra thermal fat layer would make winter easier.
I am a girl, so maybe things are different. This is what I have noticed. In 1995 when I trained for my first marathon. The heat didn’t affect me one single little bit. I noticed people in my running group complaining about it though. Now, 11 years later, I can run a lot faster and more comfortable in cooler weather. Now I am not talking about winter weather, I am talking about a 60 degree day compared to a 80+ day. My limit, back in the day, was 15 degrees below zero, today it’s Octoberrrr!
I just want to say that comparing Austin heat to, say, Miami heat is silly. It is hot here. It is humid here (in town at least - near the river), but it is nowhere near the insane humid-hot that Miami is. Since moving here I have definitely lost a good bit of the heat tolerance I had in Miami. So Art, just think of it being akin to altitude training…
Cerveloguy, you need to come down to Florida along with the rest of Canada for the winter.
Actually, if you go to Dade County, you can convince yourself it is not really America, so it should be no problem.
You could all have a point though. Maybe cold weather would be tougher on me now, too. I just never see real cold weather, since we consider 50 degrees at night cold, and I love that.
Currently at 55, last two summers have been absolutely brutal on me. Last year, i had to lay off from July thru Sept, first cool day, came right back strong. this year i tried to factor heat in, but had a couple of race days that were really right on the edge. guess we just do the best we can !!
With age it is not the ambient air temperature that gets me it is the heat from the sun. I was dieing on a long run in September and near the end pulled into my gym to fill up the water bottle and noticed the temperature by the pool in direct sun was 122 (ambient air temp was probably 95 or so). Did a HIM a week later and the run was in the same conditions with no cloud cover, shade or wind and I was in trouble all the way.
Dude - no way! I’m 44 and just finished the local half IM in 44C (111 degrees Farenheit) and enjoyed running past the younger dudes falling by the wayside.
Prompted a lot of discussion after the race - are some people just better in the heat or is it conditioning? Interesting debate, but age never came into the discussion. The dudes fresh back from Kona really rocked in that temp, so there was a strong argument for conditioning…
Anyway, I love the heat - you just gotta back off a bit and let the heat in, become one with the environment and get over the initial discomfort. Myabe it’s some kinda Zen thing…?!
I need to become one with the heat. That is it. Not really working for me though. Even if I cycle back to nine minute miles, I still overheat. In Florida, it is probably actually the humidity that kills me. One day I started out and it seemed relatively cool. Once you start to sweat though, it does nothing to cool you since it doesn’t evaporate at all, so I got cooked.
Become one with the heat. The heat is my friend. Become one with the heat.
