It is one of the most recurring questions at this time of year: Is it good to run in the heat? Summer is a time when there are as many objectives as there are runners:
- There are those who dedicate it to active rest after a season at full throttle, alternating other sports and running more sporadically and at low intensity or even without doing so.
- For others it is the time to finish getting hooked on running, taking advantage of the long days, the vacations and the good weather.
- Some start a hard preparation for goals in late summer or early autumn and even find themselves already immersed in competitions.
- There are also runners who are coming back from injuries, who want to maintain their fitness, etc...
For training in cold weather, there are those who only need to put on a second garment over the shirt and there are those who, despite being equipped with long tights, thermal clothing, gloves and hat, do not start to warm up until after a while, but in general it is enough to wear the right coat for each person's needs to enjoy the training.
But in summer and with the heat everything changes, even if we go with good technical garments, these will give us limited protection so we must take into account a number of recommendations based mainly on common sense to try to get the most out of the workouts, recommendations that we all know, the classic, but very true, such as wearing light clothing, hydrate well before, during and after exercise, avoid the central hours of the day, lower the intensity, ... and use the head for something more than to wear the cap.
Each one of us is looking for a way to try to combine our objective with the schedules and the heat, that is, how to perform the training we have to do under the weather conditions of summer and personal circumstances.
Obviously it will be more difficult for those who are in the preparatory period of an important race, either because they have to endure high temperatures, or because they have to change their training schedule or both at the same time.
Running first thing in the morning?
First thing in the morning, as soon as you wake up when your body is still a little sleepy, it will probably be difficult to get your pace, that should not be forgotten at any time.
If, for example, we can run an average of 4:50 in our usual schedule, it is likely that as soon as we get up it will be more difficult to warm up and it will be more difficult to get the body vaya. We should not be surprised if the average pace vaya between 5 and 15 seconds slower.
And if we have to do a series, what do we do?
In case we have to do intervals, series, changes of pace, hills, etc ... we must do a more thorough warm-up than usual in this type of sessions to help wake up our body and also to minimize the risk of injury. Even so it is difficult for us to achieve the planned rhythms for this training in our usual schedule, but we must be convinced that the workouts we do in these conditions have a lot of valor both in terms of progression in fitness as well as in terms of mood.
Extreme precautions
For those who have no choice but to go out in the hottest hours, the main thing, the most important thing above all is to take extreme precautions: hydration, good clothing, hat, sunglasses... and listen to our body. We know that it is not advisable to exercise in these conditions, we will not encourage anyone to do so, but in case of training we must take into account that we will react differently as well. The heart rate will be higher due to the effect of helping our body to dissipate the excess heat produced and the feeling of wear and tear and / or exhaustion will come earlier than in normal conditions. Do not be afraid to change the plan on the fly, lower the intensity or even terminate it prematurely. In extreme weather conditions the effort we are going to make for the same exercise will be greater and the recovery worse and maybe it is not worth asking us to overexert ourselves because it can be counterproductive and its consequences more negative than positive.
The good and the bad of training late in the afternoon
Late in the afternoon when the sun goes down and temperatures are dropping is, a priori, a good time to train, although there are people who, because of their biological rhythms or their habits, prefer other time slots. The latter who have decided to move to this time to avoid the heat may find that they will not be able to get the performance they are used to in their usual schedule. An added factor to take into account is that, after finishing, especially if the training has been demanding, our body will be tired from the effort, but with a certain degree of excitement that will cause a long time to pass before we can fall asleep.
In conclusion, do not stop training in summer, of course, it is a time to enjoy this sport, but keep in mind how the combination of your goals, environmental conditions and the possible change in the usual training schedule will affect your performance.
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