HOW TO TRAIN AND RACE IN THE HEAT

It seems to be a simple question, but the answer is complicated. Heat is a complex problem, which should be approached from the points of view of your mental, psychological and physiological conditions, your technique, your food and drink, your outfit, shoes, your time of training and training load, the weather conditions during the race you are preparing for. Heat could be complicated by dry or humid air. If you live in a place where heat is normal, such as Arizona, South Florida, or Texas and you are supposed to race there, it is one story. But if you live somewhere with much lower temperature and have to race in heat, then it is another story. So there are lots of questions, but few answers.

Where do we start? As you understand, this topic is not for one article, but for several, so it's just an approach to the further discussions. We need to put some benchmarks, define the field of our interest and determine the major components of the system, which we call training and racing in heat. It is not about one day training, but about a longer period of time, such as a month or more, when we have to live in such climate and train, as well. The final goal of this training is to adapt your mind and body to constant heat condition and develop your ability to produce high quality of training and racing performance.

OK, first things first, it is about our mindset, attitude or how you perceive the heat. Is it a dangerous thing or something you can deal with? If you can deal with it, then the question is how? Fear could be the first and the main obstacle to overcome. Your mind could perceive things as so dangerous, that your physiology would fail even before the heat hits you. It would appear as your predisposed reactions on danger. You could become very concerned, run with much precaution, overestimate the weather conditions and underestimate your own condition. Your heart rate may go high and your running pace could seem too difficult, and your desire to drink to keep you from dehydration could dominate over everything else.

So what are you supposed to do? First thing is come down and understand that it is up to you how long you can stay and train under this condition. You don't need to kill yourself at the first training session or any sessions after that. So this is the testing training of what you can handle from the beginning to the end. After that each training is a research and a discovery of yourself as to what your strength is and where your limits are. Following your plan is a good thing, but in such cases it's better to first find out what you are capable of and then correct your plans accordingly.

The simplest question is about defining the time of training. Most long distance races take place in the morning, so your training should happen at this time, as well. It doesn't mean that the weather would be comfortable at that time, but at least a little less heat. Only some of the triathlon races, such as Ironman Hawaii happen in severe heat weather conditions and therefore training for them requires the same weather condition, as well. The time of your training should, at least partially, coincide with the time of your future race. To which extent is the question of your adaptation abilities.

The next thing is your training load. You have to define for yourself, how long could be your training distance in heat condition, which you can run without having panic attacks that after this mark each step could be your last one. I call it the method of training under the fear level. It should be clear that once fear is settling in your mind, there is no adaptation of your body's systems anymore. Fear is not adaptable. It could be acceptable, but not adaptable. Fearful reactions are for your protection and defense, but not for your development. But before we even reach this level, our running technique will deteriorate and we need to know the signs of deterioration, recognize them on time and make corrections, if it's still possible or stop training, if corrections are impossible. Technique is very vulnerable to heat because of an impact on our mind and physiological systems.

This topic will be continued…

Dr.Romanov