How to Run in the Heat: 15 Strategies to Survive in Hot Weather

Running in the heat can be enjoyable and risky at the same time. Yes, it’s nice to exercise in warm, comfortable weather. However, you can risk serious injury if it’s too cold.

The following lists 9 strategies that can be used to survive in hot weather. First, let’s investigate the science behind it.

The Basics of Thermoregulation

To understand how our bodies cope with heat, it’s important to understand how our bodies both conserve and dissipate heat, and how the environment affects the body. Our bodies conserve heat by shivering to create metabolic energy and by vasoconstriction, which is the shrinking of blood vessels. This shunts blood toward our core, which protects our major organs and keeps blood flowing from our heart and lungs and to our brain.

Our blood vessels can either vasodilate to send more blood to the surface of our skin so that heat can leave the body, or they can do the opposite and constrict. We can use sweating and evaporation to cool ourselves down, as long as the air around us is not too humid. The water on your skin will evaporate more quickly if the air around you has a lower concentration of water molecules. The interesting thing is that heat loss through evaporation of sweat is one of the most effective ways to cool the body. This is why hot, humid environments are even more challenging to race and train in.

The Basics of Heat Acclimation

The process of acclimation allows you to adjust to changes in your environment over time, so that you can maintain normal bodily functions and performance in a variety of different conditions. Your body is making internal changes to better function in hot environments. Some key changes that occur to your body from chronic exposure to heat are increased sweating, decreased sweat electrolyte concentration, expanded blood plasma volume, lower skin and core temperatures, lower heart rate during exercise, increased fluid and cardiovascular stability, and decreased metabolic cost of work (exercise). When these factors are combined, they result in a greater ability to tolerate and feel more comfortable in the heat during exercise.

Some of the earliest changes noted and explored when researching heat acclimation were changes in your sweat rate and the composition of your sweat. Not only does your body sweat earlier at lower skin and core body temperature, but you also have an increased sweat rate and more dilute sweat. The changes caused by exercise also occur at the level of the sweat glands, with the eccrine glands producing sweat more efficiently and for a more sustained length of time. Since you are losing fewer electrolytes per liter of sweat, you actually become better at utilizing evaporative heat loss. A more dilute solution will evaporate more quickly, meaning the cooling process will happen faster.

Methods of Heat Acclimation

Now to the important details, how do you get better at running in the heat? One way to jumpstart the heat-acclimation process is to run in hot weather conditions. This will help your body get used to the heat and prepare for summer running or an upcoming warm-weather race. There are many ways to achieve this goal and most have been shown to be effective. However, we are looking for the smallest effective dose that gets results in performance exercise physiology. Now why isn’t more always better? You need to find a balance between heat acclimation and the rest of your training. Extra stress on the body, just like a bump in weekly volume or additional intensity work. You will have to work out less if you want to heat acclimate.

The more you increase your core body temperature, the more your body will become adapted to it and be more comfortable.

How to Run in the Heat

1. Head out earlier than usual.

running under the heat of midday is not advisable. Instead, it is better to run during the early hours of the morning. Summer mornings have lower temperatures because there is less ozone in the atmosphere. When the sun sets, the earth loses its main source of heat, causing the air and ground to cool. They get colder the longer they are not exposed to the heat of the sun.

The coolest time to go for a run is early morning before the sun begins to heat up the atmosphere. If you don’t like mornings, you can also run in the evening when the temperature is cooler.

Plan your runs for the cooler hours of the day to avoid overheating. Check the temperature for the following day to help you plan. Humidity levels are also an important factor to consider when trying to stay cool. If you’re only able to exercise during the hottest part of the day, you might want to try a different activity that can be done indoors, like swimming or running on a treadmill.

2. Consider trail running instead.

Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from driving and experience the beauty of nature. The trails are typically shaded by trees, which can make your run more comfortable by providing relief from the direct sunlight. not only Roads are made out of materials that absorb heat, but they also radiate that heat back to your body.

Invest in a pair of trail running shoes that can withstand different weather conditions and bring along enough water to stay hydrated. You can reduce your risk of developing heat-related health conditions by avoiding direct sunlight and running on a trail instead.

3. Adjust your routes and look for shaded roads.

If you don’t have time to do trail running, be smart about choosing the right routes and roads. Choose ones that are completely or mostly shaded. You should create a list of driving routes that pass by areas with a lot of shade, for days when it’s hot outside.

If you live near water, it can help keep you cool in hot weather. Running near water has the added benefit of allowing you to cool off with a dip when you’re done.

4. Run and work out mild and slow.

Your body needs time to get used to the warmer temperatures, so don’t begin your summer by doing intense and difficult physical training. If you run at a high intensity, your heart rate might go up a lot, which could lead to problems like heat stroke.

Your body will make adaptations to running in the heat quickly. After your first few slow runs, your body will have more fluid to sweat, which will help cool you down while running. An increase in plasma volume also makes it easier for blood to be sent to your skin to help you cool down without reducing blood flow to your muscles too much.

As your body gets used to running, it starts to sweat sooner because it knows that your core temperature will increase. While you sweat more profusely, the sweat contains less salt because your body is trying to conserve sodium. As you run, your heart rate will slowly decrease. This allows it to fill completely between beats, giving it more blood to pump out. This blood not only fuels your muscles, but it also helps your body to cool.

5. Get updated on the weather.

Check the weather conditions for the day you plan to go running. The National Weather Service updates its website every day to help you prepare.

The following text will help you see which time of day will be the coolest and least humid. The app will give you the chance to see if there are any storms happening near you. Pre-hydrating is most effective when done several hours before exercise, and knowing when you’ll be exercising will help you determine when to pre-hydrate.

6. Feel the breeze and be one with the wind.

Running with the wind or against the wind provides a cooling effect. Start your run by going against the direction of the wind to stay cooler. Once you head back home, run with the wind at your back.

The wind will evaporate the sweat on your skin, which will cool you down. The wind will also help to circulate the air around your body, which will also help to keep you cool. If you remain still or there is no wind, your body will heat up the air around you since your skin temperature is typically higher than the air temperature. If you keep moving through air that is cooler than your skin, your skin will constantly be heated up by the cooler air, which will keep you cool.

7. Make sure you’re hydrated before you start your run.

consume enough water during the day to prevent dehydration, but drink more water if you plan on running for extended periods of time. This means that you should drink fluids both before and after your run, as well as during it. Your body’s fluid needs vary depending on various factors, including your level of activity and the climate, humidity, and temperature.

Before you go for a run in hot weather, drink something and make sure you can get more fluid if you need it. You should drink a fluid that contains electrolytes if you are going for a long run in order to replace any lost salt and minerals in your body.

8. Keep yourself hydrated while you run.

If you are going to be running for longer than 30 minutes, you will need to do more than simply hydrate yourself beforehand. You need to drink lots of water when you run, or you will get dehydrated. If you don’t want to bring water bottles with you, there are a few other ways to stay hydrated.

9. Fill yourself up with vitamins and minerals.

The heat during summer can cause your body to lose a number of vitamins and minerals. It is important to eat foods that are rich in vitamins and minerals to replace the ones that are lost. An example of this would be if sodium and potassium made up electrolytes, and when dissolved in fluids, they would become ionic conductors.

The minerals in question help with cellular communication by way of electrical impulses. If you are sweating during a hot run, you are losing electrolytes and you will need to replenish them as soon as possible.