I ran a race a few days ago and though it was only 75 degrees the dewpoint was 69-70. I was drenched in sweat after and felt like it was a harder effort than it should have been. How much would one adjust for humidity? Think I could have gone 1-15 sec/mile faster in good weather?
bump
None.
You ran what you ran.
There is no adjustment as you run what you run. You can't say that x performance was worth x-y in better conditions.
uhhh.... wrote:
I ran a race a few days ago and though it was only 75 degrees the dewpoint was 69-70. I was drenched in sweat after and felt like it was a harder effort than it should have been. How much would one adjust for humidity? Think I could have gone 1-15 sec/mile faster in good weather?
I think a valid question though is this - if you know its a humid hot day, how do you adjust your pace?
No Way wrote:
None.
You ran what you ran.
Your'e right, you ran what you ran but under ideal conditions you could have run faster.
I live in the hot and humid Upstate NY. People race all summer in these conditions and we suffer. Get to the fall, temps drop, humidity drops and our times fall HUGE.
Conditions make a big difference.
I live in the southeast and a very good coach down here jokingly referred to the climatic changes between summer and fall as "like coming down from altitude".
Hot and humid Upstate NY??? Really?
Take a trip to the deep south sometime and let me know how NY compares.
The northeast is very humid - take a look at this map. You can find dewpoint hotspots in the South that are worse than upstate NY, but overall the numbers are pretty close. Maybe 1 or 2 degrees different.
Trials C Qualifier wrote:
Hot and humid Upstate NY??? Really?
Take a trip to the deep south sometime and let me know how NY compares.
You obviously haven't been to western or central new york because if you have you would know its pretty comparable.
You can look at this calculator for temperature and elevation gain adjustments. I'm not sure about dewpoint, but if you wear a heart rate monitor, you'll see your HR go up quite a lot in that kind of weather. I'd say it could be good for as much as 15 sec/mile if you're not used to it.
humidity in ny wrote:
You obviously haven't been to western or central new york because if you have you would know its pretty comparable.
I just went to weather underground and compared the dewpoint for the last 10 days in both Baltimore and Ithaca, NY. Ithaca was usually in the mid to low 60s with some days getting up to 70 and some days in the 50s (!!). Baltimore pretty much never gets below 65 ever and gets close to 75 a few times. The mode is right around 70.
I grew up in New England and live in the mid Atlantic now. The northeast has some gross weather in the summer for sure, but it does not compare to places further down the coast. The difference is this: in the northeast, there is some respite. Every so often you get a nice day comparable to a warmish fall day. Except on the worst days, running in the morning and evening is tolerable. Where I live now, there are no nice days in the summer period. On most days, the weather is bad even at 7AM. It is relentless, and there is really no escape.
And I don't even live in the real south, where it is worse. I am wondering where in the south you lived that compares to upstate NY (obviously you lived down there somewhere to make the statement that you did).
I run much worse in dry heat, because I don't sweat much. High humidity helps me out.
Lol, I grew up in Buffalo and am in DC now. No comparison. DC is about 100X worse. I imagine the deep south is even worse than that. Upstate NY has great weather for summer running.
Hahaha.
I live in South Carolina and it is just awful. I actually spent a week in Syracuse this summer and while it was hot, there is just no comparison.
Adjusting for humidity depends a lot on the length of the race and how long you have had to acclimate to the humidity. My summers are day in day out 79 degrees in the AM and 75 dewpoint. When the heat breaks and it is 75 deg, 70 dew, I can run a fairly decent 5k compared to when the heat firsts get to 75 deg/70 dew in late spring.
75 deg/70 dew is not crippling, but it will affect your performance compared to 50 deg and low humidity. For shorter races (5k-10k), 3-5 sec per mi is a good honest adjustment. For a 10 mi to 1/2, 5-10 sec per mi, maybe more if you are running in a lot of direct sun. For a marathon, 10-15 sec a mi is also fair.