Struggling with Heat Intolerance

Try NOPing

Hi Muffy.

Sorry to hear this.

I know this may sound daft but bear with me.

Try drinking really cold drinks, lots of water, with ice. Those frozen blended things from coffee shops are the best or cans of diet coke that have been kept in the fridge just a few degrees above freezing.

It makes a big difference.

How you regulate your body temperature is complex. I've had difficulties regulating mine (not just hot but cold as well). Too long for me to explain here.

I just thought for a practical solution the cold drinks may help.

The older you get, the more care you have to take to give yourself time to adapt to the heat. Takes a couple of weeks for me to get used to real heat, get blood plasma & sweating levels up, etc. Also, you talk about stress following graduation, so I wonder if your volume of training has gone down as you deal with real world (job) pressures? For instance, if you've cut way down on your long runs, it could play a factor.

You can help the adaptive process along a little by spending some time in the sauna, hot tub, steam room. Hot yoga anyone?

Don't worry. If the Spurs win tonight, you won't have to tolerate the Heat again until October.

Have you gained any weight? Hot weather is tougher on big people like me.

You might think this counter intuitive but, avoid drinking large amounts of cold liquids. When you drink lots of cold liquids, your body temp drops, and you body reacts by trying to keep your warmer. Then you end up warmer and more miserable, cold drinks are a quick fix but in condition it like drinking sea water when thirsty. I would rather you drink lots of room temp liquids. Try making your own Oral Rehydration solutions. The if you can afford see a doc.

Go Spurs!

Thanks for the advice guys. I must say I am torn now with the cold / warm drinking water. I will experiment.

As far as weight goes, I may have gained 5 lbs max so I don't that is really much of a factor. I am a bigger guy though at 6'1" 170 for as much as I run.

I have been running more mileage since college, avg above 120 during training cycle and over 100 with weeks off. I also moved to a hot, humid climate right after school where I was miserable, but I have recently moved back to a mild climate. I thought my heat issues would go away but they haven't.

By more stress, pretty much just a lot is always going on ie. moved states twice, got married, working full time, death of family members etc.

The bottom line really is I'm just tired of underperforming and have realized that my heat intolerance is not a "normal" thing that I want to get figured out not only for me and my running but for my poor wife that my grumpiness is directed towards too ;).

Thanks for listening to my sob story, any more thoughts are appreciated.

I read a study on overheating:

1) Cool core of runners with a body vest

2) Runners sit in a cool room

3) Runners drink an ice cold beverage

Runners swallowed a small thermometer to record rise in body temperature. #3 got the best results.

Also try ... 1) not warming up before runs/races, 2) putting ice chips in a cap, 3) hydrate well the night before, and 4) hydrate before your run

I overheat too and sweat like nobody's business once I overheat; these are my best tips. Good luck!

Have you tried actually training in the hottest part of the day, to adapt to the heat? If you're purposely trying to avoid the heat, thinking you're "not a good heat runner", then that's likely your problem-- you're not well adapted. You get better at something, by doing more of it. Try training at lunch time on work days, or lunchtime on weekends. Try training with extra layers on, like Benji Durden did in Atlanta. If you're in a mild climate like the mountains or Pacific Northwest, you can definite afford to put on some layers and teach yourself to better adapt to the heat/sweating.

Otherwise, salt does an excellent job of helping you retain fluids, which of course you need more of during the summer. Always have 2 water around- one for water and another for a sport drink.

You don't have a heat problem. You have an overtraining problem

Muffy, have you taken your body temperature? I just wonder if something else is going on here.

You shouldn't feel miserable outside in 65 degrees.

Maybe you have a low level infection or something.

I don't think you should be searching for cool weather like you are if you weren't like that before.

Maybe it's linked to the stress, I don't know.

The cool drinks really helped me when I was working in a situation where the temperature was very hot. This was inside if it makes any difference. I know it goes against the science someone else mentions, but they did seem to bring my body temperature down.

Hot food was the worst.

In the end, if the condition did not exist before, you need to see a doctor. As someone said, it might be an infection, are you taking any supplements? Is your thyroid ok? Many questions abound here.

If you are taking supplements stop, and see what happens. Some supplements are not good or you got a wrong batch. Are you taking enough salts? too little of salts are a problem just like too much salt.

In the end they are many causes, Drink lots of water, I still think room temp water (25C)is better for some one in your condition. and finally are you wearing winter gear while training?

i've taken to not using the ac unless really necessary. instead i just use the fan. all day at work and at home the temp is routinely around 80 degrees and very humid.

my running has hardly suffered at all so far with dewpoints in the upper 60s and low 70s. it's still early yet, and i'm hoping this will continue but for now i'm pretty happy with that.

If you're very serious about running/performing well and you have the money, I'd consider getting some sweat analysis done.

I couldn't find the exact article, but some time during the last few years I read about a guy that had been struggling with the heat for a few years that finally went to the lab. They collect some sweat and found out that not only was he a heavy sweater but he lost a lot of electrolytes et al.

The article concluded with him talking about a ~custom [homemade] sports drink mix and leaving a bottle out to grab swigs of while running loops.

As long as you're taking care of yourself, this heat training will make you much faster when things cool down.

* I think this may be the article:

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/sweat-rings-sweating-details

[link/]

bubbadeeboo wrote:

* I think this may be the article:

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/sweat-rings-sweating-details

[link/]

Interesting article, and maybe Muffy does have some special condition, or maybe he isn't hydrating fully or with the proper electrolyte balance, etc.

On the other hand, reading through the responses, I see key words like "stress," "grumpiness," intimations of marital discord, "full time job," multiple moves, family deaths, and 120 mile up weeks and 100 mile down weeks. I get this image in my head of running shoes piled on top of unpacked boxes of china in an apartment hallway.

I wonder when was the last time Muffy had a rock-solid 8 hours of sleep?

I agree with the poster who suggested overtraining is likely. Try cutting miles by 20 or 25%, throw away the watch and run by perceived exertion instead of pace for a while, and see if life doesn't simplify...

You have a good point. I remember when I was stressed all of the time I was hot a lot.

Warm tea keeps you cooler than ice tea.

It's true.