Everything you need to know about running in the heat

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

We collected all the most important information about running in the summer and made a reminder on how to dress, fight abrasions, maintain water balance, adjust loads and, of course, what safety rules you need to follow!

Is it worth running if it's hot outside?

Heat is heat of strife. And it's not just about temperature, but also about humidity. And if the temperature is simple (the higher it is, the more dangerous it is to run), then the humidity can be deceiving. Due to the high humidity, you do not notice the usual symptoms of dehydration: your mouth does not dry out so much and you may not realize that you are sweating and quickly losing fluid!

Another problem is that at high humidity, sweat hardly evaporates, which means that the cooling of the surface of the skin and blood in the blood vessels is not so good.

As soon as your body temperature reaches 40 ° C, you find yourself in a dangerous overheating zone. You are close to getting heatstroke. If you exercise for another 30 minutes at a temperature of 40.5 ° C, your kidneys and liver will be in danger.

To avoid the negative consequences of hyperthermia, the brain can simply turn you off: you will faint and possibly get injured.

Try not to run in the summer from 10:00 to 16:00, and even more from 12:00 to 14:00.

It is best to get up early and run into the park or forest. You can run in the evening, but it's not so cool: dust, drunken companies and just darkness, which often causes injuries, will interfere with you.

How our body reacts to heat while running

Lawrence Armstrong of the University of Connecticut says the human body adapts to heat much more easily than it does to cold or altitude.

During the week after starting jogging in the heat, the volume of blood plasma increases. You gain from 0.5 to 1 kilogram, but this gives you extra fluid and the ability to sweat without dehydration. It also allows you to continue to cool the body vigorously, without particularly reducing blood flow to the muscles.

We sweat much earlier and more profusely during exercise. Thus, our body tries to prepare for the subsequent rise in temperature.

Sweat becomes less salty as the body tries to store sodium. Your heart rate gradually slows down: this allows your heart to fully perform each beat and pump more blood, not only for muscle work, but also for increased body cooling.

Moreover, your perception of heat changes, that is, the temperature from the category “everything, I'm dying” turns into simply “hot”.

These changes occur as early as 14 days after the start of training.

Learn more →

clothing

There is a very strange misconception that you should only play sports in cotton clothes. This is not true. When wet, this T-shirt prevents perspiration from evaporating. And after a workout, wet cotton sticks to your body and can cool it excessively, especially in the wind.

But T-shirts made from the latest synthetic materials do not absorb sweat and do not prevent it from evaporating. Mesh inserts and ventilation channels enhance air circulation and control moisture evaporation and heat dissipation.

Dry clothes, even synthetic ones, do not chafe the skin under the armpits and nipples (beginners often suffer from this).

And yes, the fact that you are already an adult is not a reason to give up a headdress that will save you from sunstroke and a burnt nose.

Maintaining water balance

Hydration - the process of consuming water and electrolytes - is especially critical on warm and hot days.

During exercise, a large amount of moisture is removed from our body (through sweat and vigorous breathing), therefore, to restore water balance, you need to drink more water. During a run in + 35 ° C heat, you can lose up to 2 liters of fluid in less than 20 km!

The liquid should be consumed before, during and after training. Drink 500 ml of water a few hours before a run or competition, and 150 ml before starting.

If you have a long run ahead, it's worth making a drinking schedule, setting a timer, and drinking every time the alarm sounds.

It is believed that marathon runners should drink 380-780 ml of water every hour. The slower your pace, the less you will need to drink.

If your workout lasts more than 30 minutes, it is better to substitute isotonic water for plain water. They will replenish the supply of important minerals that we lose with sweat. Our interactive infographics will help you prepare isotonic drinks at home.

Scuffs

Heat scuffs, especially during long runs, are a problem that is more annoying than the constant urge to drink and sweat flooding the eyes.

Sometimes even special clothing does not help during long races, so you have to go to small tricks.

Trick 1. In one of the blogs about the marathon, we found one rather interesting and unusual piece of advice: for a marathon and other long races, men should wear … women's panties. This helps to avoid chafing between the legs.

Trick 2. This trick will help people who are overweight or those who have a marathon, ultramarathon or triathlon competition.

Scuffs most often appear between the legs, under the armpits and on the nipples. You can partially get rid of problems using talc, dry antiperspirant or petroleum jelly. But talcum powder does not work over long distances: it will just wash off with your sweat. But petroleum jelly is a more reliable long-acting remedy.

Trick 3. In some cases, even petroleum jelly does not help. Therefore, we have to resort to more radical measures: stick on problem areas - often they are nipples - adhesive plaster. Cruel, but it works 100%.