Heat Racing Tips

Training and racing in heat requires different strategies with some overlap. Here are my heat training tips as a review. Below I share what happens when our goal race is forecasted with hot weather, which can come as high temperatures, high humidity, or both. Safety and overheating prevention should always be priority over race times. Prevention comes down to three major components: 1) how well heat acclimated are you,  2) how mentally prepared are you to run/race in heat, and 3) access to cooling mechanisms. Ultras and Kona are prime examples how when we know it will be a hot race, heat preparation is required. Here are my reminders when you're racing in heat and your heat preparation may be limited: 

1. Everyone has a different heat tolerance. This comes from your own internal preference to heat or cold and how much training did you actually allocate to heat training, whether short term or long term. Age comes into play, especially for older individuals. Acknowledge what is your personal heat tolerance and make adjustments to your pacing strategy accordingly, which means slow down the strategy. 

2. Heat and/or humidity create greater demands on your aerobic engine because your body is working on overdrive to cool you off with your sweat and breathing. This means you are loosing more water and electrolytes, particularly sodium. The closer you run to your race pace, the more demands you are placing on your aerobic engine. Make adjustments to your hydration strategy, which means you will need to up your water and electrolyte intake proportionally to how much you are losing. 

3. Everyone has different levels of mental grit. Reflect on yours and how much is safe for YOU. Training in heat is mentally difficult. Racing in heat is substantially more difficult. Therefore, you will have to weigh what is safe for you. You can’t will yourself out of heat exhaustion, heat stroke, etc. Know your limits and acknowledge how much heat prep you did. 

4. Wear light colored, loose fitted clothing. Use sun coverage items. Wet them when possible. It helps what you choose to wear. Let go of cute outfits, costumes, and/or being too exposed to the sun. Sunscreen can only do so much and most need reapplication very often to be truly effective. Think of the outfits they wear in Badwater as an extreme example: white, loose, body covered. 

5. Utilize any cooling mechanisms that are possible and that you have access to. If the race is providing ice, cooling misters, hoses, etc. use every single one. Once our engine overheats, you are climbing uphill to try to cool your system and it usually means you have to stop before heat exhaustion leads to heat stroke. Prevention is key. Holding ice in your hands, ice in your sports bras, under your hat, in your arm sleeves, etc are all very helpful that hot road races like Kona do and ultras as well. 

6. If the race is not providing ice or cooling mechanisms, recruit friends and family to provide help with ice and extra cold hydration with electrolytes in the 2nd half of your race if you’re not elite, pro, or in the lead. Technically, outside aid isn’t allowed in road races and triathlons. On the other hand, in ultras this is allowed at aid stations and what actually helps runners substantially stay at race pace and get through aid stations very quickly almost like nascar -- they capitalize immensely on cooling mechanisms and the support they receive.

7. Most importantly, your safety is extremely important. The toughest, most trained pro athletes with the greatest mental grit have raced themselves into heat exhaustion requiring medical attention and pulling them from their goal races. We are not professionals; therefore, being very mindful that weather isn't something we can control but how we navigate it is. Please be safe. 

 

We can be prepared to race in heat and humidity; however, most aren’t during spring racing after cold winter training. Therefore please make adjustments to your pacing strategy. I've raced in hot and humid weather races such as Honolulu, Cuba, China, Philippines, which had 100% humidity in the 90s. I've also raced the hottest Boston and LA on record both in the 90s without too much compromise on my race performance. I’ve helped thousands of my athletes adjust and still negative split and/or PR through hot marathons in my 19 years of coaching. It’s all in the strategies. I speak from 29 years of racing experience: don’t leave it to hoping you can bank time or beat the heat. Let me know if you need help with this as I include this as a part of my coaching program. Please be safe, friends. 

PLEASE share this with a runner planning to run in a hot race. Thank you for reading and sharing!