Running in the heat can be brutal, but you can do it safely and train your body to acclimate. The effects of heat and humidity on training and competitions impact performance both in the long-term and short-term.
Why is running in the heat difficult?
First, the environmental temperatures cause an increase in your body temperature. And just like when you have a fever, the higher your temperature, the worse you will likely feel.
Second, as soon as your body starts to heat up, blood is diverted to the skin, where cooling takes place through sweating and evaporation. Therefore, less blood is available to transport oxygen to the working muscles. Less oxygen means you can’t run as fast or as hard and the effort to maintain or increase your pace dramatically increases.
Finally, you become dehydrated much faster in hot and humid conditions. When fluid levels drop, your body’s cooling methods, mainly the ability to sweat, decline and you will have a harder time controlling your body temperature. Also, improper hydration can lead to muscle cramping, mental fatigue, and other performance-reducing side effects.
How running in the heat affects recovery
Not only does heat and humidity make your workouts harder, it also hampers recovery and your ability to perform on subsequent workouts.
After you exercise in hot conditions, your body needs to spend more energy on cooling itself rather than delivering nutrients to your battered muscles.
When the muscles can’t get the nutrients they need from proper blood flow to repair the damage caused by the workout, recovery is slower and you may not be fully prepared for your next hard set, play, hill, or workout like you normally would be.
Here are three tips as to how to improve your performance in the heat:
Running in the Heat Trick #1 – Adjust Your Paces
It’s a scientific fact that even the most heat acclimatized runner will suffer performance loss in hot conditions.
Therefore, it’s important that you find ways to adjust your workout times and race paces to reflect how you’ll perform in hot conditions. Likewise, sometimes you need to know how much more effort a workout is taking in hot and humid conditions so you can better monitor fitness and progression.
Running in the Heat Trick #2 – Proper Hydration
Hydration is a critical element to staying cool and performing your best in hot conditions.
But, what makes hydrating so difficult is knowing exactly how much fluid you need to stay cool and replenish what you lose through sweating. Pre-hydrating and re-hydrating with the proper fluids are critical to maintaining fluid levels and performing at your best. Every runner sweats at a different rate relative to their conditioning, acclimatization, and individual make-up. But water isn’t the only key ingredient in ensuring your hydration. Electrolytes help your body in hundreds of ways, but fluid regulation is one of its primary functions. Sodium intake is specifically important to ensure your cells are hydrated!
Running in the Heat Trick #3 – Racing in the Heat
The heat is the most difficult element for runners to compete in and race well. With the rise in core body temperature, a runner will have less oxygen available to working muscles, become dehydrated, and suffer a decline in performance.
Running has a ton of health benefits but it also can cause a lot of stress on our bodies, particularly on our feet.
Trail running, sprint running, and hill training all put strain on the arch of your foot. Some of the most common causes of foot pain for runners include:
✔️ Plantar Fasciitis
✔️ Stress Fractures
✔️ Tendonitis
Treat them with STAMINAPRO.
PRO TIP: Place 1-2 STAMINAPRO Patches on the sole of each foot before you go to bed. The patches will work overnight so you'll be ready to go on your feet the next day!
You can also apply your patches right before you start your run and wear them throughout the run to target inflammation as it is caused.
