Long story short, i did a 17 mile long run this am in miami. It was probably some 28 degrees C OR 80ish F and pretty humid. I live in Chile and down there its winter now. I was sweating like a mad man. Had planned to do 13 miles at easy pace (in my case just slightly faster than 8 min mile) and 4 miles at 3h marathon race pace
First 6.5 miles went fine although hot. Next 6.5 miles were tougher but managed to stay at planned pace. The final 4 miles were just a struggle. A mix of marathon race pace, easy pace and walking.
Usually that type of workout is a challenge but managable. Today not even close to managable
I think im a bit fatigued from some travel last weeks, a lot of biking and and increase in run volume - but im starting to think that the heat and humidity is the main reason and that not only did my workout didnt go as planned but i also went way to hard considering the heat the first 13 miles and also pushed it to hard in the last 4.
In any case, next few days will be easy training.
Wondering what STers experience w heat is:
– how much does it slow you down
– how domyou mitigate it
– do you run by pace or effort (im thinking i should have run by effort to avoid doing the session to hard but im kinda obsessed by pace when i run (and swim and bike for that matter))
There’s only one thing I can do when it gets hot: slow down. I’ve always got to be adjusting my pace with the thought of what I can manage over the remaining distance. (Isn’t that what everyone does?) Occasionally I miscalculate as I’m sure we all do from time to time. This should happen less with routine training.
I’ve found on very humid days I will have to drop my pace by upwards of 90 sec per mile to see the same HR and feel the same RPE. This is even vs hot by drier days. I think it has to do mainly with your inability to cool yourself properly in high humidity as the sweat won’t evaporate into the air fast enough. Whatever you can do to cool yourself faster will help but the options are limited. I can remember shoveling a tray of ice into my trisuit at a race once and the feeling of re-invogration that came with it as my body temp dropped (ice in crotch, basically on the femoral artery?).
Read the same on the web just now altough pace adjustment seem to vary a lot
In any case, give or take, effort wise i probably ran marathon effort for 22 km and then tried to run last 6 km at 5-10 km race pace. Being somewhat fatigued before the run didnt help either. No wonder it was more than tough
Not sure when you travelled but I also find flying kicks the crap out of me. Always feel sluggish for a day or two after a long flight. Dehydration maybe?
There are guys I can run circles around in cool, dry weather who smoke me when it’s hot and humid. That is actually the reason I started doing tris: It’s sort of a break from serious running during a time when I know my running is going to suck anyway.
It kills me, I just bake and can’t cool off. Kinda funny for a guy that grew up in GA. I can slow down by up to 90 seconds per mile also. And typically I just cap it at an hour. Past that i become a walking mess and look like I just stepped out of a shower in full clothing. I’ve pretty much given up on summer racing (or giving a crap about summer races)
Marathon pace is different for different people. Some people think that marathon pace is the pace they can do a marathon everyday. Some people think marathon pace lets them do a marathon and then function for the rest odf the day. Some people think marathon pace lets them do a marathon and die.
I think you are in the last group.
Do your 8 minute miles then go home and take a cold shower.
Honestly, there is very little that you can do other than to avoid it. We commonly break 100 here and won’t even get below 90 until well after 8 -when you’re starting to lose daylight. I read somewhere that running can increase your body temp by 15 degrees F (don’t remember the source, but want to say “Runner’s World Magazine” -could be wrong both on source and fact though). Regardless, I try to add 15 degrees to the outside temperature when I’m thinking about the effect on my body.
I try to get my runs in the morning or treat the summers like some runners in colder climates treat the winter, focusing more on treadmill workouts and shorter distances with higher intensity.
On managing the heat, I do the following:
*Wear a technical shirt. It helps wick the sweat off of you and let your body cool. Much better than running without a shirt.
*Don’t underestimate your need for water. Don’t wait until you think you need it or feel thirsty. Go by time or distance. Every X meters drink a couple of sips.
*Wear a visor, not a hat.
*Sunglasses and anything else that will help reflect the sun off you instead of pulling it in.
*Above all, listen to your body. I use a heart rate monitor and pay attention to it. You’ll get more by backing off the pace and getting your distance than you will maintaining your pace and having to walk the rest at best, or risking heat stroke at worst. Don’t be a slave to the numbers though and if your body is “telling” you to stop, stop.
I’ve been sort of experimenting with this heat thing. I live in NC so Jun-Aug is always bad. Usually, I don’t enjoy a run until Sep but I’m trying to take it head on this summer bc I have a an A race HIM in Sep. I am traditionally horrible in the heat.
I was really skeptical that you could adjust but I’m coming around. I’ve been making myself do runs during the week outside instead of on the treadmill. Slowly, the runs are feeling better in the heat. Not necessarily faster, but at least I feel better. I ran 14 today at nearly 90 degrees and while my pace was slow, I felt strong throughout.
So the biggest thing is to not beat yourself up over the slower pace. Depending on how long you’re in FL you might even be able to adjust.
I’m definitely not built for the heat. Grew up in the UK, this year doing my most consistent block of summer running in DC. The heat sucks, but I am finding that I’m adjusting to it, at least in some ways. I slow a little at the same effort level, but not a whole lot (no more than 10-15s/mile). The sweat on my face and upper body is annoying, but I deal with it. And I get adequate hydration, either from water fountains along the route, or from a hydration belt (amphipod - I like it much more than I expected). I generally run in the morning when it’s not quite so hot.
But the part that I really hate is the squishy shoes that kick in after the rest of the clothing is drenched. That’s just gross, and it slows me down more due to the heavy feet. I’ve followed advice to get different socks (Balegas) and to wear calf sleeves to delay the squishiness, and they do seem to help. But only so much.
I can manage the heat if I’m just out for an easy run, but I really struggle when I’m doing track/interval workouts. On a couple of workouts this summer I’ve tried to push my usual (cooler) pace despite increasing discomfort, and have ended up having to quit and make my way to a creek near home to cool down; some mile repeats a few weeks back had me worried I would pass out before making it home.
The good news is that in my last race I was definitely slower than usual due to the heat, but almost everyone else was slower as well
Heres a basic rundown of what happens in the heat.
An extremely important factor affecting exercise heart rate is temperature. Warmer temperatures cause the heart to beat faster and place considerable strain on the body. Simply put, when it is hot, the body must move more blood to the skin to cool it while also maintaining blood flow to the muscles. The only way to do both of these things is to increase overall blood flow, which means that the heart must beat faster.
What I’m not sure about is can you maintain a high heart rate in the heat without getting fatigued as quickly.
It’s 35c and 37-40c at noon here Bangkok Thailand
So i train at noon. I swim at noon. I run at noon. I bike from 8:00-12:00
Too figure our my race pace and use it as a base line.
That’s mean on a race day heat will not effect me(my time) at all. (and if it was a cloudy day I can go faster)
Heat has 2 different meanings to me, 1 worse then the other.
18-20°C outside and no clouds in sight and just sun.
This is hard, but I can maintain my normal extensive pace (4:20 min/km), although at a elevated HR (+ 8-10bpm) for anything heading downwind. I can recup when picking up the pace and heading against the wind.
Basically anything over 25°C for me:
It get’s warm, I can maintain easy pace (4:45min/km) at slightly elevated HR (+ 5-7bpm). Extensive pace is hard and pushes HR up by as much as 15bpm. Depending on humidity (anything over 80%), I’m just running out of air and I have to throttle back, sometimes even to walking.
I learned the lesson about my body being not suitable for heat the hard way in this year St-Croix during the run… 96°F - 95% humidty. Only after 18km and buckets of water-ice and whatever was available, I felt my core-temp drop to a “operational” state rather then survial state" and I could start running to finish my run in 1:59. 35min slower then target pace
It’s more the humidity than the heat that affects performance. When it’s really hot and humid, from the humidity it prevents you’re sweat from evaporating properly which is what cools you off. This therefore prevents you from properly regulating temperature (also incidentally why on a really hot and humid day, you will sweat a little during your workout, but as soon as you get inside to the air conditioning, it’s like Niagara Falls of sweat for a few minutes…).
There’s a good body of research (that’s constantly growing) on thermoregulatory physiology, and how our bodies react in extreme temperatures. I know that personally I tend to struggle when the mercury gets high, although, with the summer we’ve had, I have acclimatized a bit (to get used to it, I started by doing a lot of shorter runs at the warmest times of the day, before lengthening things out). Now I’m to the point that when I race in the heat, I might still feel like crap, but can at least still milk a decent performance out of it.
