Monday, November 3, 2008

Things I learned - Heat WILL slow you down, even if you train for it!

* Florida heat can REALLY affect your training, even if you are acclimated to it. This mainly applies to running.

The beginning of my season, early March and April, was great. In sprints I was PRing on my runs faster than a 5k that I ran in November. Then came the Florida summer. I just thought I had been overtraining when my run times started to drop drastically.

I thought it might be attributed to a poor training routine (And I'm sure this didn't help). Then I did some research and came across an article stating that your run can drop as much as 10% in the heat of the summer. This described me exactly. There is a similar article in the NY Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/03/health/nutrition/03Best.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Just to back up my theory. I was out in California, and I ran 10 miles easily. I was struggling to run 6 miles in Florida, even with hydrating well.

When I figured this out late in the season. I started training on the treadmill, which helped, but due to some life situations I didn't get to really expand on this.

After learning this I plan to do more training early in the mornings or head to the treadmill at the gym. If I do end up going out in the heat, I am going to stick to workouts I know I can finish while fatigued and not get on myself for not accomplishing goals in the heat.

No comments: