Sweat it Out Safely by Matt Fitzgerald

Sweat it Out Safely
By Matt Fitzgerald

How to train well in the heat

Last year I was a member of a four-man support crew that helped Dean Karnazes race the Badwater Ultramarathon, which covers 135 miles from the floor of Death Valley to the slopes of Mt. Whitney at the height of summer. I paced Dean through 36 miles of the race in two separate shifts. My first shift was 25 miles in 118-degree heat. It was hard-but not as hard as I feared it would be. Why? Because we took it slow and our crew kept us well supplied with sports drinks to guzzle and ice water to pour over ourselves every mile or so.

Running Badwater in 118-degree heat gave me a better appreciation for the capacity we humans have to exert ourselves in hot environments. Evolutionary biologists say that our potent sweating mechanism and the relative hairlessness of our bodies make us better suited to hot-weather exercise than most other animals. That said, exercising in sweltering temperatures is much more stressful to the body than working out in cooler weather, which is why it's not uncommon for endurance athletes to experience heat illness while training or competing on hot days. So, to keep yourself safe and maximize your performance when the mercury rises, remember these seven tips:

Know the signs. Early symptoms of heat illness include fatigue, discomfort, lightheadedness, cessation of sweating, disorientation and nausea. Stop exercising and find a cool environment as quickly as possible if you begin to notice any of these symptoms while working out in the heat.

Give your body time to adapt. The fitter you are, the better your body can tolerate exercise in the heat. So try to build your fitness to a high level in the spring, before the first heat wave of the year. Then, when the first really hot day comes, do a shorter- and slower-than-normal workout. On each subsequent hot day, go a little farther and a little faster. It takes about 10 days for the body to fully acclimatize to the heat. The body adapts by increasing its sweating capacity and reducing the electrolyte concentration of the sweat to boost your ability to maintain a safe core body temperature. After this process is complete you can train more or less normally through the rest of the summer.

Take it easy out there. I say you can train "more or less normally" once you've acclimated because it is never possible to train as hard in the heat as in temperate conditions. Research has shown that the brain protects the body during exertion in the heat by constantly monitoring core body temperature and limiting muscle activity to prevent that core temperature from rising to dangerous levels. So don't expect to perform-or even try to perform-at the same level on hot days. Instead, simply maintain your normal level of exertion and understand that you just won't go as fast as on cooler days.

Avoid peak heat. If you take the time to acclimatize to the heat, and you adjust your pace properly on hot days, you can train safely in very high temperatures. But because you have to slow down, you can't train as hard or get as fit in the heat. That's why very few American runners and triathletes went to "heat camps" ahead of the Beijing Olympics, where very hot days were expected. They preferred to keep training hard in cooler environments until they left for China, and then acclimatize over there. Using the same rationale, I recommend that you train early in the morning and late in the evening-and perhaps even indoors sometimes-to avoid the hottest temperatures of the day. You'll be able to train harder and you'll feel more comfortable, too.

Dress to sweat. Sweating is the body's primary way of cooling itself. So, when you train in hot weather, be sure to dress in clothes that allow you to sweat freely. That means ditching things like cotton t-shirts, which trap sweat and heat against the body. Instead wear technical apparel that is designed for your sport and made from moisture-wicking fabrics such as CoolMax, which soak sweat from your skin and transfer it to the outer surface of the garment for evaporation. Light colors that reflect the sun are also best.

Stay hydrated. By drinking during hot-weather workouts, you will keep your blood volume at close to normal levels, which in turn keeps your sweat rate high. And since oxygen is delivered to the muscles through the blood, maintaining your blood volume through drinking also enables your heart to deliver more oxygen per contraction, so you perform better than you can if you allow your body to become too dehydrated.

Try pre-cooling. Research has shown that athletes perform better in hot environments when they cool their bodies beforehand. Pre-cooling won't make a huge difference, but if you want to gain a little bit of a performance edge in an important hot-weather workout or race, turn your air conditioning down low or spend time in a cool bath before you head out the door.

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