Lets say you plan to race a 5k in 20 Minutes. Temperature on race day is 88 F (31 C). How bad does is affect your pace compared to running in optimal conditions? I know its only a 20 minute effort but its still very hot and there are no clouds
Racing in Hot Weather? Now you can calculate exactly how much heat is impacting your race and workout times We’ve created an online calculator that will help you plan and account for exceedingly hot temperatures during workou...
Lets say you plan to race a 5k in 20 Minutes. Temperature on race day is 88 F (31 C). How bad does is affect your pace compared to running in optimal conditions? I know its only a 20 minute effort but its still very hot and there are no clouds
I mean, it can be a ton. Full sun? far worse. No reason to try and calculate it, just stay in shape and run some this fall and winter.
Did this already happen? Or are you about to do it? If so, I would strongly suggest not worrying much about time and just settle into what feels like a sustainable groove, avoiding going too hard to begin with as you might feel fine for the first 800m or so. If there's ever a don't be obsessed with looking at the watch scenario, this is it.
A lot. How did you compare relative to people who are usually around you? If about the same, I wouldn't sweat it. I probably wouldn't anyways as some runners do worse in the heat than others. I've always sucked in August and September - and often again in May and June.
Just move on and focus on the next race. If its going to be a hot one too - do what you can to prepare - train mid day, precool before the race, etc.
Lets say you plan to race a 5k in 20 Minutes. Temperature on race day is 88 F (31 C). How bad does is affect your pace compared to running in optimal conditions? I know its only a 20 minute effort but its still very hot and there are no clouds
It depends a lot on a particular runner. As for me, e.g., I have a lot of data on 3K and there is almost no difference up to 30C (vs. cool days). For 10k I would estimate some 30-40 sec. Thus, for 5K (for which I do not have much statistics) it is about 10-15 sec.
Or, & here me out, most can use it as a reference point. Sure, some people are better in the heat than others. Most would probably benefit by going out at the adjusted pace in a race. If it feels easy, you haven't cost yourself a good race but a lot go out way harder than the adjustment & fade a lot sharper than they would have if they made the adjustment. We shouldn't compare ourselves to elites like Jakob who has the time/money/energy/resources to make warm conditions less impactful.
OP -- 88 degrees is gross and requires an adjustment but there are factors that go into it. That calculator is good because it includes dew point. 88 & no humidity might be fairly decent if you live in the southwest and are used to it. 88 and full humidity in the northeast is a death sentence.
it affects different people to worse degrees than others. and.. it may affect you worse one day than the next, there are a lot of variables to consider.
i hate the heat. i might have had a handful of OK performances in what you would consider "hot" conditions in all my years of running.
Would it be likely to impact you running 800m, or even 400m?
Asking as my most recent 400 and 800 races were in heat of around 30C. 400 I don't feel like it affected me, but I've never ran a 400 without it being about that hot, so don't know.
800 was slower than I wanted, but didn't feel like the heat got to me. However, I was slower by 30s/mi in the warmup than normal and had a headache from the heat right before the race, so I can't imagine it helped.
Obviously would be worse in a 10k, and probably not of relevance in a 100m, but not sure about long sprints or mid-distance.
This post was edited 40 seconds after it was posted.
My daughter was 2:02 faster at 5k on the same course 7 weeks apart. First race was 102 degrees in the morning when sun was coming up. Second race was 82 degrees after sundown. Not much humidity. Her two teammates improved by almost identical amounts. They probably improved their shape a bit but all of them were training consistently over the summer so it's not like they were coming back from a layoff.
I mentioned the random github calculator a few days back and we all went into discussing the exaggerated inaccuracies in it. But that Runners Connect calculator mentioned earlier is bad for the opposite reason. It just presumes there can't be more than a few seconds difference per mile, and the effect for most runners is a lot more substantial than it shows.
I want to throw one other calculator out there that might be more useful. "Fellrnr" has a lot of good info on his site, but he also has a running calculator that adjusts for heat index, body weight, to give a predicted time. The output is a little clunky and shows a lot of info, but it might be more useful and closer to accurate than any of the above.
Or, & here me out, most can use it as a reference point. Sure, some people are better in the heat than others. Most would probably benefit by going out at the adjusted pace in a race. If it feels easy, you haven't cost yourself a good race but a lot go out way harder than the adjustment & fade a lot sharper than they would have if they made the adjustment. We shouldn't compare ourselves to elites like Jakob who has the time/money/energy/resources to make warm conditions less impactful.
OP -- 88 degrees is gross and requires an adjustment but there are factors that go into it. That calculator is good because it includes dew point. 88 & no humidity might be fairly decent if you live in the southwest and are used to it. 88 and full humidity in the northeast is a death sentence.
Totally agree - I was up in Maine last month and tried to run in 75 and high humidity. I thought I was going to die after the first two miles of a 5 mile run and had to quit. Then I went to Austin and experienced even worse conditions. And then I got home to Portland and somehow, even we have higher than normal humidity. Needless to say, I've sucked for progress since July. I hate the heat, period, but man, throw in some humidity and I'm dead.
In my opinion XC season starts a month too early. It all needs to be pushed back 1 month.
I'm in the south, and school starts early Aug. and XC championships are the first week of Nov. If we pushed the state meet until the first week of December, that would give us a full month of being back in school before the season/races start. It would cut back on some of the summer practices and allow us to race in much much better conditions.