Running Hot - Part 2

Yesterday I did a blog about some of the tips and tricks that you can use if you are competing in hot and humid events. Today I thought I would continue on that, with a few more tips for how to prepare for and race hot, tropical races.

Tip 4 - Acclimate
Okay, so one thing I forgot to mention yesterday when I was talking about acclimatization was the idea of training hot while at home, ie wearing a jumper, riding a stationary trainer in a hot room, that sort of thing. This is actually called acclimation as opposed to acclimatization and it is another good way to prepare for races in tropical environments. If I am honest this is a technique that I never actually employed myself, so I don't know a lot about it, but the science seems to back it up. I would suggest a bit of a quick Google to learn more about it, but it looks like the sort of thing you probably want to focus on for a couple of weeks at the pointy end of your race preparation.

Why did I never employ this technique myself, well I never felt like I really needed it, but looking at some of the data it looks like it probably would have been beneficial. If I had my time again I would have been more keen. Certainly one of those one percenters (or more) that is worth pursuing.

Tip 5 - Forget about Pace
There is a really predictable phenomenon that will see in nearly every tropical race. Somebody will travel to the race from a cooler climate make it to the run leg and then set of at a million miles an hour because that is the pace they would race at home. What happens to these people every time is that somewhere between 5km and 10km into the run the heat catches up with them and the usually fall in a very big hole. The next time you see that person at a tropical race they will usually have learnt their lesson and so they start the run much slower. I have lost count how many times I have seen this occur.

The tip here is this, if you are travelling to the race from a cool climate, forget the pace that you usually run at home, it is completely irrelevant. If you try and run to your normal pace zones in a tropical race you are setting yourself up for a fall, without a doubt. Racing in the heat takes so much out of you that you will be working way too hard if you try and race at your normal pace, if you want to make it to the finish you will need to slow down.

You can still use speed as a guide for your pacing, but you need to take the heat into account. Another alternative is to use a different metric for pacing, such as perceived feel or heart rate. Which brings me to.

Tip 6 - Know your Heart Rate Zones and Watch Them
When I raced in the tropics I was always keeping an eye on my heart rate. On the bike I still used my power meter, but it was with half an eye on my heart rate. On the run I watched speed, but my pacing was based on Heart Rate all the way. All this was because I knew that the heat was going to make my body work much harder than it usually would at home and so I would have to work slower for a given intensity.

Sometimes the heat didn't effect me much and so I didn't have to pull back very much, other times the conditions hit me for a six and so I really needed to control, control, control. The point was that I was constantly monitoring it. If I saw the heart rate really start to sky rocket, particularly on the run, then put other mitigation measures into place straight away, perhaps spend time at the next aid station cooling down, perhaps slow down a little bit, whatever it needed. I knew that once I overheated it was very hard to come back and I was going to be in a world of hurt, so I monitored my heart rate to try and prevent that from happening, which it mostly did.

And there we go, six tips for preparing for and racing in hot, humid and tropical conditions. As I mentioned yesterday, these tips won't make the conditions anymore pleasant, but they might just improve how your body copes with them. When the conditions turn nasty, the race often becomes less about speed and more about survival, the last man standing wins. Some of these tips might help you be that last man standing.