Heat training

5 watchers

Fleece and Dust Jun 2015 5:57pm, 26 Jun 2015 21,924 posts	0 Fleece and Dust The problem with English weather is it's really bloody unpredictable! I've run in Italy in the summer and after a week or so it started getting easier, but then I came home and it was August and 15c FFS so then you lose any benefit and if race day happens to be freakily hot then you're a bit stuffed. You're right, you do adjust to different temperature ranges over the seasons.
mblnFERCr Jun 2015 6:15pm, 26 Jun 2015 703 posts	0 mblnFERCr Blood volume increases (more plasma) and sweat concentration reduces as you become acclimatised to the heat. If you want to read loads about it, google 'heat acclimation'. It's what the 'merkins call acclimatisation for some unknown reason
J2R Jun 2015 6:48pm, 26 Jun 2015 102 posts	0 J2R Very interesting, mblnFERCr! I followed up on your Google suggestion and came upon this: http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Heat_Acclimation_Training. Having seen the 'Fellrnr Heat Suit', I feel positively sane again!
mblnFERCr Jun 2015 6:53pm, 26 Jun 2015 704 posts	0 mblnFERCr The suit is cool (ahem), but I think the take-away from most articles is expect to do less well when it's hot, even with acclimatisation the stress on your body is increased - so be good to yourself
J2R Jun 2015 9:26am, 30 Jun 2015 105 posts	0 J2R I'm booked in to do a city centre 5K race late Saturday afternoon, and the temperature is forecast to be 27C! I think I'd better get started on the heat acclimation/acclimatisation (please delete as appropriate)..
Autumnleaves Jun 2015 9:30am, 30 Jun 2015 6,350 posts	0 Autumnleaves There is an article in the new issue of RW that talks about acclimatising for hotter race conditions.
Gobi Jun 2015 9:38am, 30 Jun 2015 56,411 posts	0 Gobi it's sunny so go running
mblnFERCr Jun 2015 10:11am, 30 Jun 2015 711 posts	0 mblnFERCr Suffered pretty badly wth heat at the Giants Head mara on Saturday. After the first 8-10 miles I just had to back off. The humidity was the real problem, my shirt was soaked, but nowhere for the water to evaporate to. This article may be better than the RW one : http://www.theendurancestore.com/blog/blog/2015/04/28/beat-the-heat-this-summer-part-1/. But I guess with the RW one you could also beat your 5k pb in 5 easy seconds or summink
J2R Jun 2015 1:41pm, 30 Jun 2015 106 posts	0 J2R Yes, humidity got me too at the weekend. I was well down on my target time for a 10K. I knew it wasn't going to go well when I was already a bit sweaty and uncomfortable just doing an easy warmup jog around the playing field before the race. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get drier heat on Saturday.
J2R Jul 2015 4:16pm, 1 Jul 2015 107 posts	0 J2R Did an easy paced 5 miler in 31C just now and it wasn't too bad at all, confirming for me that humidity rather than heat per se is the real culprit.