Running in the heat: 7 valuable tips – The clothes, the hydration, the shower
Running in the heat is not always pleasant, nor is it inevitable many times.
If you live in an area where the summer is hot but you want to be in your best physical condition for a marathon or half marathon, then you need to get out and run, in July and August and in these difficult weather conditions.
While running in the heat isn't as enjoyable as running in cool weather, you don't need to take more risks. Sunburn is a relatively rare phenomenon among runners and by taking the following precautions you will be sure that you will never encounter it.
1) Cool down your body before training
Research has shown that athletes perform better in a hot environment when they cool down beforehand. Cooling down the body before training or racing doesn't make a big difference, but if you want to slightly improve your performance in important workouts that have to be done in the heat, turn on your air conditioner or take a cool to cold bath before going outside on the road.
2) Stay hydrated
By consuming fluids during training in the heat, you help your body's sweating system work better, keep your blood volume close to normal levels and keep your sweating rate up. Since oxygen is transported through the blood to your muscle groups, maintaining the correct volume of blood in your body by keeping it hydrated allows your heart to carry more oxygen per beat. So your performance is better than if you let your body get dehydrated.
3) Clothing that allows perspiration
Sweating is the body's primary mechanism for cooling down. When you train in hot weather, you should wear clothes that allow the body to sweat. Avoid wearing everyday clothes like cotton t-shirts, which trap sweat and heat and don't let your skin breathe. Instead, he wore technical clothing that is specially designed for sports and is made of materials that allow sweat to be absorbed from the skin and transferred to the outside of the fabric for evaporation, such as CoolMax. Light colors that reflect sunlight are preferred.
4) Run too early or too late
If you can wait to adjust to the heat and adjust your pace appropriately on hot days, then you can train safely in high ambient temperatures. However, because you have to turn down the volume, you can't train as hard as you'd like or as you could in cooler temperatures. That is why some American runners and triathletes went to "heat camps" before the Olympic games in Beijing, expecting very high temperatures. They preferred to train at a higher level in an environment with lower temperatures, until they left for China where they would then acclimatize there.
By the same logic, we recommend that you train early in the morning and late at night and maybe even indoors sometimes, to avoid high temperatures during the day. You'll get better workouts and feel more comfortable too. In regions with increased summer temperatures, endurance athletes train before sunrise and after sunset.
5) Slow down your pace
It is not possible to train as hard as you would like in high temperatures. Research has shown that the brain protects your body, during your exertion in the heat, by constantly regulating your core temperature and limiting muscle activity, to avoid a dangerous increase in body temperature (In fact, it is the heat produced by the muscle groups, not the ambient temperature, which causes heatstroke. The ambient temperature simply prevents the body temperature from falling). So you shouldn't expect or try to have the same performance on hot days. Instead, you must maintain normal levels of intensity and understand that you cannot go as fast as you would on the coldest days, according to runningmagazine.gr.
6) Small steps
The better your physical condition, the more heat tolerance your body has during exercise. So you have to build your physical condition in the spring, before the first heat wave. When a hot day comes, do a shorter and lower intensity workout. On each subsequent hot day, go a little further, run a little longer and a little faster. It takes about 10 days for your body to adjust to the heat. The body adapts by increasing the amount of sweating and decreasing the concentration of electrolytes in the sweat to boost its ability to maintain a safe core temperature. After completing this adaptation process, you can train more or less normally throughout the summer.
7) Listen to your body
The first signs and symptoms of a heatstroke include fatigue, dizziness, cessation of sweating, nausea, disorientation and discomfort. If you notice one or more of these signs when exercising in the heat, stop exercising immediately and find a cool place as soon as possible.
http://m.eirinika.gr
No Comments