Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Hot Running Tips

As the days hit 90 degrees and humid, its time to consider how to run safely in this heat.


There are the standard tips from Runners World and Active.com. Its all their boring, typical, obvious advice like:

- Run early or late (not in the direct sun)
- Wear loose, light clothes
- Hydrate
- Don't put sunscreen in your eyes
- Run in the shade

Then I came across the awesome expert tip:

 - Lower The Bar

*thats more like it

A less scientific chat I found said things like:

- Brace yourself for suffering
- Run as naked as possible
- Rig up a system of ice under a hat, a slow trickle mechanism

*now we're getting closer...

From personal experience, I would like to add:

- Thank the coffee shop employee when you steal water from their pitchers
- Apologize to them for the swampy dollar you've placed in their tip jar
- See a sprinkler, make friends with it. (and the Neighbors that own it)
- Call it a day when you don't know if you're peeing or sweating
- Invest in fabreeze


Any other warm weather running advice you'd like to add? Its that time of year and I love a little help!

4 comments:

  1. I'm such a fool this time of year, I'm in a constant state of wonder as to why I can't hold my normal pace and then why I'm seeing stars at the end of my runs. The other night I just threw in the towel. I'm gonna run 1 minute slower per mile in the heat. That's just the way it's gotta be.

    I love the measure of not knowing whether you're peeing or sweating. HAHAHA!

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  2. How about this one: Just like in winter, you lose most of your body heat through your head. So, don't wear a hat that will trap all that heat. Swap it for a visor or headband. And lots of sun screen for the follicly-challenged, like me.

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  3. Slow down!! You're supposed to run MUCH slower in the heat; you're not even supposed to check your pace in 85+ degrees. Your body still trains/improves based on its perceived effort, so your typical cool-weather runs should feel the same EFFORT-wise as your hotter runs, which means slowing your pace down. Most people also include longer or more walking breaks during the summer, to keep effort/body heat at the right level.

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  4. Thanks for all the great advice! when it gets hot your body slows you down whether you like it or not! but I agree (with above) and I usually drop down 1.5 to 2 minutes off my pace when the humidity and heat go up. And for a lot of reasons I take walk breaks no matter the temps.

    After reading through all this again, have to wonder sometimes "why do we do this again?" haha! anyway, thanks for the input and happy summer running friends!!

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