Hot and bothered

No, I'm not talking about some steamy romance. Sorry to disappoint, but this post will not be about anything remotely risqué, unless you count hot and sweaty running, which I, personally, do not. I just wanted to put that out there before anyone felt the need to avert their eyes or quickly navigate away from this page. In fact, please don't, because this is actually some pretty interesting stuff. We had a meet today, and lately it's really been heating up. And I mean the Minnesota kind of heating up: hot and humid, like sitting in a greenhouse with barely vaporized water huddled around the skin and gripping to hair, causing unmanageable and unsightly frizz. In addition, the air seems to stick in my lungs whenever I start to breathe heavily. In all, it's just the gross continuous dampness that drives me crazy. In this icky air, I was blessed with the joy of running another two mile. That may seem sarcastic, and the wording is a bit strong, but I'm dead serious. As the meet rolled on, the warmth sapped a bit of my drive, but standing at the starting line I actually felt very content because at that point it was up to me. I psych myself out during shorter events, excusing my poor performance with the fact that I'm made for distance. Come the two mile, though, I have no excuse, and it's oddly liberating. I won't go into detail, but today didn't end as I'd hoped. My pacing was terrible, but the good thing is that I have no one to blame but myself and can walk away a little smarter about the art of racing. However, I became curious about the effect heat can have on runners because of the wide spectrum of results I heard about during this warm weather. What I found was really quite interesting. First, and maybe obviously, running in the heat is hard. But not only does it just feel worse, the body actually has to work harder to get the same output. This is the biology of the matter: typically, a human sweats to lose heat through evaporation and also pumps blood to the skin to cool it off as the body temperature rises (hence the super attractive exercise flush). The conundrum, though, is that that same blood must go to the muscles to deliver oxygen, and when the muscles are contracting, they produce heat. This means that exercising in the heat provides a challenge for the body in that it has to pump blood both to the muscles and out to the skin. Heart rate in hot weather can get much higher for the same level of running, merely due to the change in temperature. Sweat also complicates matters because both ions and water are lost, both of which are necessary in order to work out. Calorie expenditures can also go up in the heat, along with heart rate. All of these complications can prove detrimental to a run, or more gravely, a race. In order to combat the potential negatives of running in the heat, there are a few base tricks of the trade. First, don't wait to hydrate. This is probably the most common mistake, especially for me. I rarely drink more than two cups of water on a given school day, but in reality we need about eight. And don't postpone your fluids until ten minutes before running, whereupon you gulp down six cups that proceed to slosh in your belly; in addition to being ineffective, this is just plain uncomfortable. Also, drink throughout your workout, especially if it's long. If this just isn't your style, weigh yourself before and after a hot run and drink about a cup of water for every half pound you lose. Finally, recognize the signs of heat related illness and STOP RUNNING if you experience them. Check your heart rate, your sweat output, and stay in tune with your body. If your heart rate gets about 80% of your maximum (which is 220-your age), back off. If you stop sweating and either get clammy or hot and dry, you may be suffering from heat stroke, so stop running. The basic rule is to make sure you have enough ions and water to get you through a hot run. Because, as they say, there is no bad weather, just bad preparation.