After Burn

Training smart through the hot season pays off when temperatures cool down.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011, 12:00 am
Image by Curtis Johnson

Melisa Christian, a dentist and a 2:41 marathoner, has qualified for two Olympic Marathon Trials despite—or perhaps because of—training in the heat of Dallas. To log her 80-plus miles per week through the summer months, when overnight temperatures rarely drop below 75° F and the humidity wraps around her like a blanket, she gets up before dawn and drives her running route, dropping bottles of water and electrolyte mix every few miles. The payoff comes when she runs a fall race, often the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis. Going from the intensity of the Dallas heat to the cool northern climes, Christian gets an instant boost, both physically and psychologically. "You feel a lot more fresh and vibrant," she says. "You're not drenched in sweat just toeing the line. It seems so much easier."

It's well proven that to stand a chance of racing well in the heat, you have to train in the heat. But sauna suffer-fests have another benefit: They prepare you to run faster in cooler weather, too. In 2010, researchers had competitive cyclists spend 10 workouts pedaling at a low intensity in a 104° F room, while another eight duplicated the effort in cool temps. Outside of the lab, everyone maintained their normal training regimens. After two weeks, the performance level of the control group remained the same, but the heat-acclimated group surprised researchers by not only showing gains in hot temperatures but also charting five to seven percent gains in a cool environment.


"That's a huge difference in athletes who are already so well-trained," says Santiago Lorenzo, Ph.D., the exercise physiologist who led the study.

Bob Braman sees similar gains with his men's cross-country team at Florida State University every fall. When his runners arrive in sweltering Tallahassee during August, the coach uses an informal 20-percent calculation for his team. If they're running 70 miles per week in the hot weather, he believes that's worth about 84 miles per week in more temperate conditions. Paces are slower, too. "We've got to be careful," he says. "Running in 80 percent humidity or 88° F, a workout is a lot harder. You don't get to altitude and try to run your workouts at sea-level pace. Same thing with us." When his runners get to their first serious race, in Indiana in the beginning of October, "it feels like someone took a backpack off their backs," he says. The entire team usually races well.

Follow these rules for training safely in the inevitable hot weather, and reap the rewards in the cooler fall days.

Coach Braman's college kids avoid the heat of the day by meeting at 6:30 a.m. and starting the hard part of their workouts by 7. If you can't run that early, look for shaded trails and roads to keep the sun off your skin. Wear a moisture-wicking cap and clothing, preferably in light colors to reflect the sun. Braman carries the sleeve of an old T-shirt with him on every run and uses it to wipe his forehead while he goes.
Christian stows her water bottles along the route beforehand, because if she does a loop course past her house, she'll be too tempted to quit early. She also makes a point of hydrating throughout the day, forcing sips between appointments at the dental practice. In the summer, she cuts her total mileage a little, but she doesn't mind intense workouts at the track, where she has ready access to a water fountain and can rehydrate between intervals.

Physiologically, it's impossible for your body to maintain the same pace in the hot temperature as you do in the cool. When you first start running in the heat, "your paces are going to be slower, and it's going to feel harder," says Dara Wittenberg, a triathlon coach in Delray Beach, Florida. So if you run a 10-minute mile in 90° F, it could feel like an eight-minute mile. "And that's perfectly normal," she says. "Understand that running slower and shorter is smart training. Trying to hold your best pace is stupid training."

Every once in a while, you might start a workout that feels truly miserable, instead of merely unpleasant. If so, listen to your body and try again in a day; it's not worth the risk of heat illness. Or find a treadmill in an air-conditioned room. There, you could instantly see the positive effects of your exposure to hot temperatures.

FEEL better: Headaches are more common in the heat. Running helps prevent pounders; it sets loose painkilling endorphins and eases inflammation.

Cooler Heads Prevail
Talk yourself through hard times on hot-weather runs

Before you head out for a run, remind yourself that each workout you do helps to acclimate you to the heat, which will help you handle race day much better.

Find a mantra you can repeat during a scorcher. Try: "I am fit enough to handle this." Coach Dara Wittenberg loves the words of Haruki Murakami: "Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional."

Imagine you are running in Antarctica. Bring all your senses to bear and make it as real as possible. "Feel your skin tingling from the cold air," Wittenberg says. "It really works."

After two weeks of training in the heat, you'll experience less discomfort and adapt. Athletes in Santiago Lorenzo's study started to feel better after just three exposures.