TOTW - Training in the heat

I am one of those people that strangly like training in the heat.  I grew up in northern Louisiana and I agree the humidity here is not as bad but Augusta has been pretty humid for the past week.  I sweat like crazy so I make sure I drink lots of water.  If I don't my body kindly lets me know.

I find that I need to schedule my workouts for the week so I have a lighter day after a high sweat day in order to get my hydration back under control.  It's tough to stay hydrated when you enter the workout still dehydrated from yesterday's run.

Doug makes a very good point. You MUST MUST MUST stay on top of your hydration, there is no way that you can have a good workout if you enter it dehydrated already. A few key points to remember when training in the extreme heat.

• As stated before make sure you are adequately hydrated before you even begin working out and make sure that you have enough hydration and nutrition on hand during your workout. Also start the rehydration process immediately after you workout.
• Figure out your sweat rate. An easy way is to weigh yourself nude before and after your workout to see how much water weight you lose during the workout. A good rule of thumb is that you need 16-20 oz of water/sports drink for every pound lost during exercise. Don't forget to take into account the amount of fluids that you consumed during your workout also. Once you figure this out it will give you and idea of how much you should try to consume during your workouts and what a good baseline weight is to figure out if you are rehydrated.
• Be careful on the consumption of sodium/electrolyte suppliments. The average American has more than enough sodium in their everyday diet to alleviate the need for supplimentation. If you are a very heavy salty sweater you may need to suppliment but only a bit. I am firmly convinced that my kidney stone was caused by the excess ingestion of salt/electrolyte tablets while training for IMLOU.
• Expect that your HR will be higher at a slower pace and adjust your workouts as such. A 7 min/mile in March when it is 55* might be at 160bpm where the same 160bpm only gets you 7:30 min/mile in June when it is 90* and 85% humidity.
• Be smart....if it is 93* with high humidity and a heat index of over 100* you may be better off postponing your workout to later in the day or doing it inside if you are able.

Train Safe!

I have become very successful at finding water while I run.  Here are my favorites:

• Parks.  I know, duh!, but there are a ton of parks around with fountains.  I use mapmyrun.com to plan my route form park to park.
• Starbucks!  They are everywhere and they all have a drinking fountain by the restrooms.  Mmm cold water.
• Churches.  Don't worry, you won't burst into flames.  check near the restroom by the sanctuary or the hall where they have Sunday school.
• Quick Trip.  You could go to any gas station, but the QT is cleaner.
• Home Depot, Publix, CVS, Target, etc.  Ok you'll look odd, but they do have water by the bathrooms.
• No schools.  They don't like strange sweaty people wondering around.

Also, if you are getting overheated stop at a place that has AC and use that cool air to drop your core temp enough to get home. 

Funny you should ask, I had a doozy of a time biking on Saturday in Roswell.  Use me as your example of what not to do.

I pre-hydrated (day before and morning of ride) and felt good for the first 2 hours (25-30 miles).  Then, I went downhill fast and limped home in 4 hrs 40 mins.  I took in about 1 bottle of electrolyte drink (20 oz) and about another bottle of water (20oz) per hour for a total of about 160oz of fluids over the whole ride but I still overheated.  In hindsight, I should have (a) stopped to fill up with cool water more often rather than drinking the water that had heated up on my bike, (b) stopped more often anyway to splash water on myself or rinse out my helmet, or (c) just cut this ride short.  Even at the end of the ride, I was still peeing and it was clear so I was plenty hydrated - I just got way too hot. 

Folks who are only outside during the sunny hours on the weekends need to ease into the heat every year.  Last year's hotter-than-heck bike rides didn't make any difference to me on Saturday.

Afrutoz, you do need to acclimate to the heat.  What the other posters has suggested is good.  You can do your rides in the heat but just make sure to be hydrated before you start, do loops from an easy-water-access location, take plenty of water/electrolyte drink and have a no-deviate bail out plan if you start to fry.  Do not allow your heat-addled brain to convince you that it will be better/faster if you don't stop for more water if yours gets hot, that you don't need to eat your nutrition, etc. .  . 

Brian this is a kind of "chicken and egg" question....

If you subscribe to the Daniels method (that would be Jack Daniels PhD, not my method) and train by pace and wear a HRM for recording and comparison purposes you are going to see higher HR during hot and humid training sessions. Your RPE is also going to be higher during these workouts, which poses the question are you training at a higher substrate than was prescribed or should you push pace and force your body to adapt.

The answer is I don't know....

This is where the "art" of coaching comes into play as you need to help your athlete find that place where they can train in the prescribed substrate without blowing up before the end of the workout or trashing themselves so badly that they can't train for a couple of days.

Great and informative thread!

I really honed in on the part about nutrition being the 4th sport in HIM & IM races. With Augusta being my first HIM, I feel this is the area I have the most to learn.

Maybe this should be a new thread, but would anyone mind sharing some tried and true basic nutrition plans for a HIM? I am a heavy sweater and I also seem to respond better to solid foods (like bars) as opposed to sports drink and gels. I'd love to hear some tried and true war stories.

With sprint and olympic distance tris, I htink you can really kind of wing it, but not so with Augusta I'm afraid.

I've also wondered myself about the higher heart rate in heat thing as I am putzing along on my runs in the heat (but my heart rate is in the right zone!) If I am running to heart rate, then I stay in the zone I'm supposed to be in even if it means going slower, but not sure if this is efficient training.