There is the hot heat and then there is the very hot heat, the one that gives you no respite and threatens to win against your desire to run. WHEREAS, the first thing to consider when running in hot weather is common sense (there are conditions that are just not indicated), there are some tricks that can be taken even when conditions get a little more extreme than usual.<\/p>\n
The person giving this advice is someone who does it by trade and is trained especially in certain conditions, but it is not out of the question that his advice may inspire or come in handy. He is Patrick Reagan, someone accustomed to running for 300 days a year in extreme heat and winner three years in a row of the Javelina Jundred, a 100-mile race that is run in Phoenix in temperatures exceeding 38\u00b0C (consistently above, not “spiking to 38\u00b0). In short, one who has some experience in the field. How does he make it? He tells us in points.<\/p>\n
That means not just “feeling” in a generic way but measuring one’s vitals during training, keeping in mind that the response to heat also varies so much for the individual athlete who may perform one way one day and behave differently the next. All we need to do this is a heart rate monitor (preferable to the less accurate wrist-mounted optical readout) because heart rate is an excellent indicator of our body’s exertion and whether certain guard thresholds have been exceeded. Being able to hold up well to certain regimens then teaches us that exceeding them means overstressing our bodies, putting them at risk.<\/p>\n
The body is a machine that slowly adapts to different environmental conditions. Don’t ask him to run today in normal temperatures and tomorrow in high temperatures and be surprised that he doesn’t want to do it. Instead, it is wiser to introduce a couple of workouts per week under heavier conditions and then increase little by little. What he cannot do in one session he will be able to do over a longer period of time. Just give them time to adjust.<\/p>\n
Which is another way of saying “use your head”: if you have to do particularly heavy workouts–like repeats or fast work–don’t schedule them during the hottest hours but use these (if you must) for slower, less physically demanding work.<\/p>\n
Other advice that seems obvious and instead. Hydration must be taken care of and especially increased as the heat increases. Patrick’s advice is to double the normal dose, getting to more than half a liter per hour to which he also adds 200 Kcal of dietary supplementation. To train to run in hot weather-it sounds like a pun but it’s the truth-you also need to train to drink and eat more without making yourself heavy or experiencing physical discomfort (read: stomach discomfort). This also needs to be done progressively.<\/p>\n
The extremities are known to heat the most, and the head, among them, is the most important to cool, partly because it is the most exposed. The most commonly used trick is to soak your hat (which you must always use when running in the sun!!!) in ice water. If that is not enough you can fill a bandana or buff with ice cubes and put it around your neck: this is an ingenious slow-release cooling method. Or you can invent some new system yourself and propose it in the comments, right?<\/p>\n
Exposure to the sun overheats surfaces, increases heat exchange and thus increases body temperature and subsequent dehydration. A simple system to limit this phenomenon is to cover the most exposed parts: not only the head with a hat but also the nape of the neck, the neck and the shoulders with a fabric that, fixed in the hat, comes down over the shoulders covering them.<\/p>\n
And don’t neglect protective creams (not tanning: protective) at all hours and especially on the most directly exposed surfaces of your body.<\/p>\n
Marked everything? Calmness, method, and a lot of patience: even if the heat is a lot, it doesn’t mean there are no remedies or tricks. The first is of course to use your head and not to expose yourself to unnecessary risks.<\/p>\n