3 Ways to Succeed at Exercising and Running in the Heat — 5 Miles

Brian Martin
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read

Even stepping outside at 5:30 this morning, it was a sauna. Had to have been 70–80% humidity and if it wasn’t, my lungs and body sure felt that way.

It was tough to breathe and starting slow was the best thing I could have done because I was DRAGGING by the end of it. My legs felt like lead and I’m sure I was more dehydrated than I wanted to be. There are a few things that can help when running and exercising in the heat, here are my 3 favorite:

  1. Hydrate the night before — your body wakes up in the morning dehydrated from the couple of hours that you have spent sleeping and not consuming food or water. Hydrating the night before can help when you wake up by leaving you with less of that dried out feeling, and you can decide to consume water/less water before you run to stay hydrated.

2. Wear light clothing — you may, like myself, wake up and feel cold or at least chilly. Your internal body temperature drops while sleeping and while you may need those sweatpants in your apartment before going out, you will not want them at mile 2. Wear shorts and a t-shirt or whatever you are comfortable in and take solace in the fact that you will probably come back sweating.

3. Plan to be slower — you cannot plan on going out to run at a pace while it is not hot. Sure you can, I’m not saying it’s impossible, but focusing on something other than speed, such as mileage or exertion might better serve you. The body has a higher chance of overheating when it’s warm and even more when you aren’t hydrated or are wearing heavier clothing. Plan to be slower, you’ll still get a workout in and your body will thank you.

Cross training tomorrow in a nice cool gym. Also thank you to everyone who took the time to read this! It means a lot.

Keep running —

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Brian Martin
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