racing in heat

I know what you mean.  I used to live in Texas and I don't know how those folks deal with it.

I train a lot in heat.  Yeah, hydration is important.  And yeah, it affects you running more than biking (no cooling wind in your face).

In my experience (and nothing more) getting used to it is the main adaption.  But there's no way it won't affect you even if you are used to it.  I run considerably slower and bike somewhat slower in the heat.

Down here in the south...a Fuel Belt is a man's best friend!  I do 3/4 of my runs at lunch time in god aweful heat and humidity.  I have to bring a fuel belt on anything over 4 miles in the summer time.  When I do long runs, just the standard gu every 45m.  On a long bike, just a bottle of Gu2o (along with two other water bottle).  A lot of is also a matter of "heat conditioning".   When you do it all summer, you just get used to it.  

For the first time this weekend I tried the Hammer Electolite pills (it was literly 98% humidity when I went out)...not sure if it was a placebo effect or not, but was able to maintain negative splits the second half of a 15 miler and felt good after the run.

+2

My run splits are at least :30/m slower in the summer than spring/fall. 

Last Sunday it was 96 degrees during the run of my HIM.  Besides drinking LOTS on the bike, I drank at every aid station on the run, and got ice that I put under my hat and in my tri top to try help keep me from over heating.  It seemed to help.

Drink alot of water in the hours leading up to your workout to make sure you are really hydrated.

a few 2-3pm long runs shuld do it;-)


in all honesty, you will prob need to slow down a bit.

I practice at the same time I will be running in the tri. A lot of folks will run early or late to avoid heat and then find in a race they run around 8:30am in a sprint or later for Olympic or HIM. I do not suggest running all training sessions at these times, but it helped me to do it at least once a week. As someone said, you never get truly used to it. But you will not be overwelmed and you will be better able to pace yourself knowing what the heat does to your heart rate etc. After spending a few weeks away on vacation and running in cooler climate, it took me about 2-3 weeks to reaclimate to the heat and humidity here in South Florida.

To stay cool in the race, I have tried running with bags of ice kept in transition (bad idea), fuel belt, etc. at water stations ussualyl take one over the head and the other to drink. Nothing REALLY has worked other than motivate me to get to finish line faster so I can grab a bottle of water and sit in the shade

oh MAN do I know what you mean. I did an IM in April in 113 degree heat and my heart rate was around 160 when I was biking at 24kph (sometimes even less than that to control the HR).

I just recently bought a longsleeved shirt that is like magic - it actually makes me feel cooler than if I were wearing a normal t-shirt. I don't know the name of the material off hand but I will update you when I check the label (it's something that I bought in Korea so I don't even remember the brand).

In any case, I'm under a strong impression that even if you might be a little cooler if you are wearing less clothing, the heat ultimately gets to you much less if more of your skin is covered up. My advice would be to definitely invest in some cool long-sleeved gear - and that will prevent you from the sun's wrath as well.

Performance is only partially physical though, and especially in triathlons, how you tolerate conditions is very much influenced by your mind's biased assessment (aka 'omg it's so hot, I can't do this' could make you feel like you feel worse than you actually do). Thus, getting out there on the hottest days merely for mental training that you can use for confidence when you find yourself in abnormally hot races can be the best type of training.



Edited by cam224 2009-08-17 10:37 PM

To the OP:

I was destroyed yesterday during my long run of the week - I was supposed to run 8.5, had to cut it short to 7.5 and still ended up walking a bit.  From how I felt going into it, I'd been hoping for 8.5 at a pace I hadn't accomplished before.  I'm in MA so I'm hit w/ the same heat wave as you... it's insanity! I don't know how people down South train.

Thanks for starting the thread - it made me feel a bit better about how yesterday went.

  For racing
I'll freeze water in a baggie shaped so that it more or less fits the contour of my head and put it under a hat.  Yes one extra thing to do in T2 but were talking >90F heat index on the body here in FL and I always pray for a headwind on the way to the finish.  For run training I'll dump water on my head, I wear a 2 bottle belt and one bottle is filled just for this reason.  But when the wind is light is a tail wind and the humidity is high there is not much you can do other than slow down, this is where knowing RPE comes into play, forget pacing.

Glad to hear summer finally showed up in the NE, it was the worst summer I had on vacation up there this year.  Only went >80F twice while I was up that way in July.

Late afternoon runs in the sun when it's hottest get me ready for racing in heat. Just getting your body and mind acclimated to the increase suffering and hydration issues helps.

x2
I suffered on my 9 mile run on Sunday -I hope we are back to normal on the 30th for my race -