Training in Heat for Cold Race

Audio Transcript

Claire: Welcome to the Runners Connect, Run to the Top Extra Kick Podcast. Today’s question is from Jerry, in Bermuda.

And now here’s our question from Jerry.

Jerry: Good afternoon coaches. This is Jerry, in Bermuda. I listened to a podcast a week or so ago, and you were talking about how to train for a warm weather marathon when you’re training in the cold.

I would ask the precise opposite.

How would I train for a cold weather marathon when I’m training in the heat, in the extreme humidity of Bermuda, in the summer?

Training specifically for the New York Marathon in November, which is, from memory, very, very cold. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Claire: Thanks, Jerry. Out of all the weather related issues, you probably have one of the better ones.

It’s a lot harder when you are training in the cold for a hot marathon verses the other way around, but you do have to take some things into consideration.

When it’s cold, the body doesn’t have to work as hard to cool itself, so you do feel better.

But your body will be using energy to warm itself, so you have to think about how you’re going to stay warm, especially when you’re in the starting corral.

If you use too much energy while you’re standing there waiting around, that might cause you to slow your pace later or perhaps even bonk prematurely.

So, we don’t want you to do that.

While you are in the corral waiting or while you’re walking to the starting line, make sure you bring old clothes with you to wear at the start, and maybe even for the first couple of miles.

These should be clothes that you don’t care about, that you can just toss away, and most races will donate those to charity.

Underneath those layers, you want to have your technical gear, your wicking layers, technical fabric that will get the sweat off of you, and evaporate quickly so that you’re not eventually getting too hot.

Even in cold weather, you will sweat if you are layered properly or if your wear too much.

One good option for cold weather is something that is more convertible. So, instead of a long sleeve shirt, you might want to consider arm sleeves.

When it gets hot, you can push those down or even take them off and toss them out, but it’s a lot easier to push down some arm sleeves than to try to take a long sleeve shirt off of your head.

You definitely want to remember to bring your gloves.

Now, I don’t like the cold either so I wear gloves on training runs, anything lower than 58 degrees Fahrenheit, but everybody is a little bit different.

So, what you want to do is have a pair of gloves that you can either toss away, or a very thin layer, a thin fabric glove that you can wear even if it’s a little bit warmer.

Then maybe tuck those into a pocket or in your waistband so that you can keep those later. If it’s very cold, you’d want heavier gloves that you’ll keep on, probably for the entire race.

Now, if the weather is going to be cold and rainy, that’s probably some of the most uncomfortable racing weather.

But what you need to do is first accept that you are going to get wet.

You can’t stay dry when it’s raining, no matter what you’re wearing, but you need to make sure that you stay warm.

So, what you’ll see a lot of people doing at the start of races is wearing an old trash bag or a cheap poncho for the start, and that’ll keep you as dry as possible while you’re standing around.

But be sure to remove that plastic layer before you run.

I can’t tell you how many races I’ve seen people running with trash bags or who are running with plastic rain ponchos on.

That’s not a great idea because the moisture from your sweat will build up, and make you very uncomfortable, and if there’s any kind of wind, that could make you very cold during the race.

So, you don’t want to run with a plastic layer.

What you want is light thin layers that you can remove, and consider a hat or a visor with the brim, to keep the rain out of your eyes.

Now, as far as pacing is concerned, you want to make sure that you are properly warmed up for a cold race.

So, while you’re standing there in the corral waiting for the start, if you’ve got a little bit of room around you, you might want to do some of the lunge matrix, which basically is some lunge exercises in the forward motion, backward, side to side.

Don’t want to use too much energy, but you don’t want to start the race cold, and, unfortunately, if it is a very cold race, that’s just going to happen.

What you want to do is be extra slow on those first few miles, so that your body gets properly warmed up.

When you run very fast on cold muscles, that’s a recipe for injuries, so you want to be careful with that and make sure you are feeling warm before you go up to your race pace.

Now, because you are training in hot weather, your training paces are not going to be as fast as optimal.

In Bermuda, it’s hot and you simply can’t get to the intensity that you would in an optimal training temperature.

When you go to New York, you might be tempted, because you are feeling good and it’s cooler, to push a little bit faster than your ability.

So, be aware of that phenomenon and be careful about pushing beyond your ability, because that could spell disaster in your race.

Keep your pacing nice and even, but hopefully you’ll get a temperature that makes you feel refreshed and makes you feel energetic and is not too cold for you.

While you are training, always remember that the heat affects the ability to perform at intensity.

That’s why at Runners Connect, we have a temperature conversion calculator, and that helps you translate your prescribed paces into temperature adjusted paces.

That helps you get the prescribed workout, but it won’t be as fast as you would do, on say a 55 degree day.

You will have to go a lot more by effort when you are training in the heat, because every pace will feel harder when your body is working so hard to cool itself down.

What you don’t want to do in training, in the heat, is reduce your volume or frequency, because that will make you not quite as competitive as you could be, while you’re training in the heat.

The short rule is drop the intensity a little bit, but keep up the volume and the frequency.

There are a lot of benefits to training in the heat, once you have been heat adapted. And heat adaptation can happen in one to two weeks, so you’ll have a long season of training in the heat to be adapted to it.

But what it does, is it makes it easier to maintain a faster pace, and your perceived effort will drop.

Part of this is because your blood plasma volume is increasing. In blood plasma, there is more red blood cells which will bring more oxygen to your muscles, and therefore you can work harder in the cooler weather, because you have such oxygenated blood and your muscles are able to work more efficiently.

But when it starts getting really hot, there’s a law of diminishing returns here.

So, when you are training, you might want to choose the cooler times of day, or when it’s really bad, you might want to go indoors.

Heat only improves you so much and pushing harder than you should, obviously could get you into trouble.

Heat exhaustion, heat stroke, dehydration, all sorts of things can happen when you push too hard in the heat.

When you are out there, use reasonable caution and don’t go beyond your ability when it’s really blazing hot and humid out there.

So, Jerry, I hope this helped answer your question and thanks for sending it in.

Good luck in New York.

If you would like to send in a question, go to runnersconnect.net/daily, to record your own and we’d be happy to answer it.

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