Deep South Runners: How do you keep 60-80m/w in the Summer

Agreed. Also, I think the key is so accept that your runs are just never (or very rarely) going to feel great, and effortless. In the summer in TX, I find that most of my runs resemble a death march (nothwithstanding the fact that I start most of my runs by 5:45 am). Tempo runs and other endurace workouts are ALWAYS horrible. The good news, though, is that when you head up for a race in cooler climates in the Fall (or when cooler weather comes to the South), you will feel as though you are flying.

The record holder for driest place on earth depends on how you define "dry."

If you define dry as "lowest average liquid precipitation equivalent per year," then the Atacama desert is the driest.

If you define dry as "lowest average dewpoint" then somewhere in Antarctica would be the driest.

Run at 6am or 11pm.. The heat is terrible in the day and the humidity sucks all day no matter what time.. Be preped to sweat and lose quick weight! HYDRATE!!!!

I guess I should have been clearer. I did not mean that the entire Atacama desert is the driest place on earth. There is a decent amount of variability within the Atacama and a ton of variability in the continent of Antarctica. I should have said that the driest parts of the Atacama are one candidate for driest place on earth.

Where did you find the 2 million year number? I have not heard numbers that extreme before?

The only niggling point I have about malmo's physical exposition is that relative humidity is a relatively accurate measure of evaporation rates. By itself, it is not very correlated with comfort, but when it is combined with temperature it gives a good understanding of mechanisms related to comfort, i.e. at high air temperatures there is lower heat loss from our bodies because the air is warmer and if there is also high relative humidity, evaporation will be slow and that will also reduce heat transfer.

Heat index uses temperature and relative humidity to calculate comfort temps, while humidex uses temperature and dewpoint.

Finally, I think that the daily patterns of dewpoints depends on local environmental conditions. Dewpoints at the surface may decline during the day as wet air is lower pressure than dry air and will tend to rise as dryer air pushes it away.

altoroad wrote:

I was there 1980-84. As it turns out, I'll be there next week, and may actually see if I can still run Alto road.

YSR! I'm C'12.

Best place in the world.

The problem with the internet is there are too many dubious sources. Is this true?

Atacama: "...in some mid-deserts spots, rain has never been recorded, at least as long as humans have measured it.

Not even cacti grow there. The air is so dry that metal objects never oxidize and the meat left for long on open air preserves for unlimited time. Without moisture nothing rots.

It is so arid, that mountains that reach as high as 6,885 metres (22,590 feet) lack glaciers and...have possibly been glacier-free throughout the Ice Age. Travellers relate that during summer the drought is so severe that hair and beard crumble and fall and the nails chap."

From here:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Driest-Place-on-Earth-Atacama-Desert-55456.shtml

Then there is this about Antarctica: "The driest place on Earth is in Antarctica in an area called the Dry Valleys, which have seen no rain for nearly 2 million years. There is absolutely no precipitation in this region and it makes up a 4800 square kilometer region of almost no water, ice or snow...The reason why this region receives no rain is due to Katabatic winds, winds from the mountains that are so heavy with moisture that gravity pulls them down and away from the Valleys.

One feature of note is Lake Bonney, a saline lake situated in the Dry Valleys. It is permanently covered with 3 to 5 meters of ice. Scientists have found mummified bodies of seals around the lake."

Antarctica source: http://www.universetoday.com/15031/driest-place-on-earth/

fiery gizzard wrote:

altoroad wrote:

I was there 1980-84. As it turns out, I'll be there next week, and may actually see if I can still run Alto road.

YSR! I'm C'12.

Best place in the world.

Do you by chance run XC or track?

malmo wrote:

For all it's reputation, Hotlanta rarely sees a 75º dewpoint...

Define "rarely" ? ATL "saw" 75 dewpoint several times last summer. On top of many, many 95+ temp days. Yeah, even this union-teacher educated kid knows that that = "hot."

chiming in wrote:

malmo wrote:

For all it's reputation, Hotlanta rarely sees a 75º dewpoint...

Define "rarely" ? ATL "saw" 75 dewpoint several times last summer. On top of many, many 95+ temp days. Yeah, even this union-teacher educated kid knows that that = "hot."

2010 11 times (77)

2009 2 (76)

2008 1 (75)

2007 2 (78)

2006 0 (74)

2005 8 (77)

2004 0 (74)

2003 10 (80)

2002 1 (75)

2001 8 (75)

2000 2 (75)

45 out 1112 days (37 out of those 45 occurred in 4 years, the other 8 in 6 years) 4.0%, or 1 out of 25 days.

It is simple. Drink water, run early and dont be a pussy

Where are you guys getting daily climate stats that include dewpoints? I have looked all over for this level of daily climate analysis and all I can ever find is the worthless "relative humidity". I can find a record of other daily observations (temp, avg wind, max wind, etc.) but never dewpoint.

To Malmo's credit - I would wager some of those really high dewpoints were proximate to the onset of a storm and didn't last all day.

I swear, though, and nobody from the South will believe it, but the average July day in Omaha has a higher dewpoint than the average July day in Atlanta. Pay attention to the dewpoint map on TWC mid-summer and you will always see a band of dark green 70's dewpoints go up the middle of the country from the gulf. And what makes is infuriating is that a mere 100 miles to our west, the dewpoints are much, much lower all summer.

Be a man wrote:

It is simple. Drink water, run early and dont be a pussy

+1

Brian wrote:

I swear, though, and nobody from the South will believe it, but the average July day in Omaha has a higher dewpoint than the average July day in Atlanta. Pay attention to the dewpoint map on TWC mid-summer and you will always see a band of dark green 70's dewpoints go up the middle of the country from the gulf. And what makes is infuriating is that a mere 100 miles to our west, the dewpoints are much, much lower all summer.

I would disagree, just based on memory of living about 6 hours from both Omaha and Atlanta (Minneapolis and Raleigh). I definitely think that Malmo and you are right that the midwest has more high dewpoint days, but I think there are also many more, and much lower, low dewpoint days. In Raleigh there are almost no days with dewpoints below 60 and I remember many more dry days in Minnesota. Omaha is generally drier than MN.

dingle wrote:

Omaha is generally drier than MN.

There sure is a lot of misinformation on this thread.

Brian, weatherunderground is the first and last stop for weather data.

A Summer storm coming on isn't going to change the dewpoint much unless a dry front his following it. The dew point represents the amount of moisture and the air and the amount of energy required to get it there.

2010 11 times (77)

2009 2 (76)

2008 1 (75)

2007 2 (78)

2006 0 (74)

2005 8 (77)

2004 0 (74)

2003 10 (80)

2002 1 (75)

2001 8 (75)

2000 2 (75)

45 out 1012 days (37 out of those 45 in 4 years) 4.0% 1 out of 25.

2010 26 times (81)

2009 7 (79)

2008 7 (77)

2007 15 (79)

2006 10 (80)

2005 4 (78)

2004 10 (79)

2003 10 (78)

2002 7 (79)

2001 22 (82)

2000 22 (79)

140 out of 1012 days with 75+ dew points 13.8% 1 out of 7 days

malmo wrote:

ATLANTA 11 years 2000-2010

45 out 1012 days (37 out of those 45 in 4 years) 4.0% 1 out of 25.

OMAHA 11 years 2000-2010

140 out of 1012 days with 75+ dew points 13.8% 1 out of 7 days

altoroad wrote:

Do you by chance run XC or track?

I ran for a couple of seasons, but ended up stopping. I enjoyed being on the team, but academics and my social life became greater priorities, so I stopped to devote more time to those endeavors. I still love running on the Mountain though.