running in heat vs letting it cool slightly (Read 1693 times)

there's a glo run in dallas this weekend.  Hmm... so running in heat is no good.  I didn't think about high HR not necessarily equating to more oxygen consumption but I guess that's true.  just drink 3 redbulls and watch your HR rise and i don't think that is a good workout.

Here's an article about a study that showed better performance running in cooler temperatures after training in hot temperatures. It was done with bikers, not runners, but personally, I find that it does work. I've been training in very hot temperatures this summer and have seen gains in my race times, and in my aerobic speed (speed at 130 bpm) and anaerobic speed (speed at AT heart rate of 176 bpm), despite the slower paces in the extreme heat.  I also tolerate the hot temperatures better when not running. I always use a heart rate monitor when I train, and play with the same bunch of zones and target heart rates, no matter the temperature. Good luck!

 

click here

Well, this is an interesting study, but it's a little different than the points being made here.

First, the heat training they were doing was all easy work.  This was not at all related to the limitations that heat puts on demanding workouts that has been discussed.  One adaptation to heat training that has NOT been discussed here is increased blood volume.  Once you are acclimated, since the body knows you will demand it to sweat excessively on a constant basis, it will expand blood volume to compensate.  So when you run in cooler weather, this becomes an advantage to you.  It is relatively short-lived, however; but in this study, that's exactly the situation they tested.

As they article itself said, "these were not real-world conditions".

If you have been heat training and suddenly get an unusually cool day, you're going to perform awesomely.  Not because your training has necessarily better though.  Keep those cool temps long enough for your body to ditch the extra blood volume and things will settle back a bit.

Also, 20 subjects?  A bit of a limited sample.  

If you are pregnant, you already have a massively, massively expanded blood volume to feed the greedy parasite.  I doubt you are getting any extra help from the heat.

What about direct sunlight vs an hour later after sun is down behind trees -- what type of physiological difference does sunlight make?

I realize there is probably a confounding factor of dropping temperature correlated to it -- but my subjective feeling is that the direct sunlight is more tiring -- I dunno why.

Well, this is an interesting study, but it's a little different than the points being made here.

 

First, the heat training they were doing was all easy work.  This was not at all related to the limitations that heat puts on demanding workouts that has been discussed.  One adaptation to heat training that has NOT been discussed here is increased blood volume.  Once you are acclimated, since the body knows you will demand it to sweat excessively on a constant basis, it will expand blood volume to compensate.  So when you run in cooler weather, this becomes an advantage to you.  It is relatively short-lived, however; but in this study, that's exactly the situation they tested.

 

As they article itself said, "these were not real-world conditions".

 

If you have been heat training and suddenly get an unusually cool day, you're going to perform awesomely.  Not because your training has necessarily better though.  Keep those cool temps long enough for your body to ditch the extra blood volume and things will settle back a bit.

 

Also, 20 subjects?  A bit of a limited sample.  

 

If you are pregnant, you already have a massively, massively expanded blood volume to feed the greedy parasite.  I doubt you are getting any extra help from the heat.

I'm not pregnant,  but can't say for sure if there any greedy parasites or not existing somewhere  within the confines of this blubber suit.

Good reply, Spaniel.

This is a first time experiment done mostly so I'd be able to handle the heat better down here in Atlanta. I always keep track of my data, so I'll report in at some point in the fall with how things go when I lose my blood volume gains.

On thing to keep in mind is that it takes only ten days to a few weeks to acclimatize (and about the same to lose it) and you can maintain it by making sure you do about 3 runs a week on separate days a week, and getting outdoors for other activity in the heat. That leaves room for doing runs at cooler times of the day. Here in Atlanta, you can run in 72° every morning if you get out early enough. If you are seeing gains in speed from increased blood volume, then the added speed at the same heart rate or effort should get you a better aerobic workout (according to what you wrote about what you believe is a better aerobic workout) than if you were running a slower pace in 72° due to a lower blood volume.

maybe if i just bought an umbrella hat and ran with a fan mister I could escape the heat.  Like 106 heat index today.  Trying to keep my HR at 155 for my aerobic training is brutally slow.  I might as well be walking.  I read about guys with 155 HR's running 5:15 miles.  That seems impossible as i ran 11:00 minutes today.  And my 5k is 19:00.  Seems like if I could get my aerobic level better I could smash my time by minutes.