Heat Runner wrote:
Their “heat training” is a joke. I ran a threshold workout last week in the morning. 88F full Sun and heat index 103F. Soaked after the run like a jumped in a swimming pool. If I ran the same workout in 60F I am easily 30-40 faster per mile.
Getting in a sauna, bathtub or wearing sweats is NOT heat training.
You've got it backwards. It's very unlikely that you're getting your core temperature high enough for a significant heat training stimulus in 88 degree weather. The fact that you were doing something you considered to be a workout basically proves that you could not have had a sufficiently elevated core temperature. The research says that the ideal stimulus is to have your core elevated to 103. When your body is that hot, it is actually quite difficult to jog.
There is almost nowhere in the US where you can do true heat training without wearing extra clothing. I've used ingestible thermometers before, and 97F w/ a dew point of 76 didn't come close to getting my core over 101.
The other alternative is passive heat, which will reliably get your core temp over 103. It's not pleasant at all. Once you're up there, another 20-30 minutes feels like hours. And you have to do it multiple times per week.