How do you deep South runners deal with months of heat

SummerSlogger wrote:

This is Jim Kiler wrote:

If you complain even once about Florida, try running through a Midwest winter.

Always that guy on here. Always.

Yep, just keeping it real for the pansies all over this place.

Slow down and don't beat yourself up about it.

Plan water stops accordingly.

Don't be afraid to stop in the shade and rest for a bit.

I think someone said "heat humidity is a poor man's altitude" (or something like that)

If you're out near Oviedo check out the Flagler Trail (from the Snowhill Road Trailhead)

If you want to see some gators check out the Lake Apopka Loop Trail (no shade, but usually nice lake breeze)

Wekiva Springs State Springs also has a pretty good trail network!

If you're going to rule out the only solutions, then don't ask questions about what to do. Whether you have family or not, you get out early to run, trying to finish before 8:30. The evening isn't great because it's humid and from this point on there are thunderstorms most nights, but you don't have family obligations at 10 at night.

I run the Seminole Cross trails. There are several trailheads through out the area.

you (mostly) shut up and run (a little easier)

I don't think anyone mentioned a couple important tips that have helped me. First people have touched on hydration but this is so important. I take a lot of electrolyte drinks in during summer runs. Be sure to drink plenty of water but I like to add something with electrolytes close to my run sometimes during and after. Sunscreen is a life saver, the moment you get even slightly burned it will throw everything out of wack and you will feel lethargic the next few days. If its crazy hot or I am just not feeling great I might make a looped course with a bottle of fluids. Lastly slow down and don't be afraid to cut a run short. I use to do well in the heat but I believe I messed my system up a few years ago training hard in the summer. 6x1 mile in 100 degree heat with a 70 plus dew point is brutal. This is one of the last summer workouts I still remember and think back to as one of several that may have damaged my ability to adapt to the heat. My goal this summer is to add the treadmill in to break up the hot weather. 1 to 2 a week nothing crazy that a way I still am allowing my body to adapt to the heat.

blazerxc wrote:

Just curious, where do you live?

Columbus

Somebody starts the same thread every year! That's how we deal with it. We complain!

I sympathize. I've started the annual thread once or twice.

The answers have already appeared:

--start early.

--prehydrate

--slow down and/or shorten runs. Recognize that your easy pace and all paces will slow to maintain an equivalent heart rate

--on occasion, be willing to shorten a run but INCREASE speed, turning it into a spontaneous fartlek and getting some quality running in in this way

--hydrate during the run. I've often cached water bottles along my route

--run loops in a park or the equivalent, so that you have regular access to a water supply

--pay close attention to humidity and radiant sun. Avoid the latter, whenever possible. (Run in the woods.) Recognize that the former, especially when combined with heat and radiant sun, can trash you in ways that other sorts of weather just can't. When the dew point is 70 or above, you're going to either slow way down or hurt.

One thing I have to remember is that weighing yourself is a good way to calculate your water supply. Know how much you weigh when fully hydrated and then make sure you drink enough to get back to that weight.

I can get 10 pounds lighter than my fully hydrated weight which means over a gallon of fluid to drink.

Atlanta native here, 25 years of running. With parenting and professional duties impacting my time, I generally get up around 4:45 to do my morning pre-run routine to be on the roads around 5:15 for an easy 10. Weekday workout sessions tend to bleed into my work day somewhat starting around 6:15 typically.

You have to trade the sleep for the 10 degrees of hot weather, the humidity is inescapable.

This is Jim Kiler wrote:

SummerSlogger wrote:

Always that guy on here. Always.

Yep, just keeping it real for the pansies all over this place.

Running in winter isn't even hard or impressive. You can always layer up more but you can't do anything when it gets hotter and humid.

Florida running wrote:

I have family obligations that prevent me from running at the crack of dawn or in the evening. Any ideas on how to deal with the heat? I know l can get away with 30 or maybe 45 minutes in the heat, but after 45 it gets bad.

i was training cross fit in Thailand, cycling in 100 deg. for 3 to 4 hours in the sun.

i'd cycle through villages where the locals were flat on their backs like zombies suffering the heat, or more like just hibernating.

i'd be carrying a 2 L bottle of ice water and trench my T shirt every 5-10 minutes and the evaporation kept me cool and comfy, you can over do it and get cold. I'd stop every 30 minutes or so and get another 2L ice water at the next village.

so what you can do, is go to the track, and bring a cooler with ice water and 2 shirts.

every 15 minutes or what have you, just pull out an ice soaked t shirt from the cooler, and hit it.

toss your second t-shirt in the ice cooler, and rotate.

you could to loops of the park, 15 minutes per loop, stop and swap.

if feels incredible.

I keep mental notes of where I can find unguarded spigots and kiddie pools, and that can be used to cool off. Staying off the pavement helps too.

Rainy Day wrote:

As much as I hate mid 70s dew points, it’s better than teens and 20s like northern winters.

I will so happily take a Wisconsin winter over a Florida summer any day. In the winter you can bundle up and even on the coldest days I am sweating. But in a Florida summer, there is not much you can do to avoid the heat. Wisconsin winter greater than Florida summer.

Florida running wrote:

I have family obligations that prevent me from running at the crack of dawn or in the evening. Any ideas on how to deal with the heat? I know l can get away with 30 or maybe 45 minutes in the heat, but after 45 it gets bad.

Move.

There is no solution to the heat and humidity. It sucks all the time for everyone.

Sorry!

:(

Stephen B Smiff wrote:

This is Jim Kiler wrote:

Yep, just keeping it real for the pansies all over this place.

Running in winter isn't even hard or impressive. You can always layer up more but you can't do anything when it gets hotter and humid.

It's impressive if you're running in sub zero temperatures plus windchill with snow on the ground. It doesn't get that bad for most of the Midwest for very long though. I think running through the worst winter days of the Midwest is more challenging than the heat you experience in the South, but overall I would take training through a Midwest winter over the summer in the South.

Please invent some kind of portable AC suit that is also impossibly light. I will test it for you.

Seriously though, yesterday really sucked. It was just a recovery run--like 45 minutes. I couldnt keep my heart rate down normal without backing way off on the pace. Felt like death when I got back inside.

I'm not even all the way down in Florida. I lived in Pensacola and then Biloxi for like a year and a half a number of years back. F--- that, lol.

I think those of us who grew up down here have developed some tolerance for the heat and humidity. We used to joke we had gills instead of lungs because the humidity was always so high along the gulf coast. When I ran for LSU we ran our hard workouts at 3pm in mid August through mid October when the temp and humidity was super high. The guys on the team from Michigan, New York, Philadelphia, Netherlands and Sweden seemed to handle it just fine so maybe a big part of dealing with the heat is psychological. My senior year we had a new CC coach come in from Oregon and he was shocked we ran workouts at 3pm in that heat. He started making us run mile repeats and other hard workouts at 6am which was harder for me than at 3pm.