Heat acclimation for running

I have been working on the same thing.  I think the most important things you learn from running in the heat in preparation for a hot weather race are proper amount of hydration and pacing.  You may develope some physiological adaptations over time running in the heat but over a month or two I think the biggest take away is knowledge.  How much do you need to drink to maintain hydration?  What drinks can you tolerate?  At what rate do you drink to keep from getting bloaty?  How much do you reduce your normal pace to compensate for the heat?  Should you supplement with electolytes?

I've done most of my training at very comfortably cool temperatures but with several weeks to go we've had unusually high temps which I have timed some of my key workouts to be in the heat of the day so I can experiment with pacing and hydration.  I still want to go faster than I should and I know that I do not drink as much as I should but I am making improvements and come race day I hope I have the patience and presence of mind to make the right choices.

At Vineman, you have aid stations at every mile and you have some small hills.  You might want to think about walking through the aid stations so that you are able to drink what you need, get ice, dump some water on your head.  Also think about walking at the hills and running the flats and downhills.  I've done the full there twice and was much, much faster on the run the second time after better managing my run/walk segments. 

Good luck.  Hope they have enough water in the river to swim in.

I made the mistake of not adjusting my pacing for the heat and hills last weekend.  I ended up walking 4 times in a little 4 mile run.  I wound up 7th in my AG...33 seconds out of 4th and 2:30 out of 3rd...proper pacing would have gotten me close to a podium spot.

I've been looking for an article I read a couple of weeks ago so I could share it but I can't find it now!  I'm doing IM70.3 Buffalo Springs in three weeks (Lubbock!!) and was getting worried about the 70* training days in May.  The article talked about your plasma getting accustomed to moving heat from your core out.  They mentioned that it can take 8 or so workouts in the heat to get acclimated (if I remember correctly).  Suggestion was to dress warmer than you would normally if running in the early morning or at night.  I did this a few times but now that we're in the 90's and my workouts are at 5-6 PM because of my work schedule I'm not sure it made a difference.  But today we're supposed to hit 95*F with a RealFeel of 109* with time to left to train, yippee! 

Live in FL and normally run in the early morning (5:30AM) to avoid the heat.

When approaching a race, I'll either try do some runs at the same time of day as the race or run in the afternoon heat after work.  

I follow a Galloway run/walk strategy for the half marathon distance (due to some chronic knee and Achilles issues) and will adjust my walk/run ratio depending on conditions.  I try to follow a conservative strategy until I get past  nine miles to put myself in a position to finish strong the 5K .

Also, I find that some of my tech gear works better than others.  I have some shirts that will wick away sweat, but end up feeling like a weight vest when they get damp. 

Mark

The simplest thing is to do as many of your training runs in the hottest time of the day in the weeks before the race.

Specificity is simple, yet often overlooked.

Advice:  

1.  Grab an extra cup at each aid station to pour over yourself.

2.  Make sure it's not gatorade.

I've also yelled "splash me" and have had aid workers just toss the water right on me.  they seemed to enjoy that for some reason.