Posts Tagged ‘heat’

All Wet

Here’s a tip that’s sure to add some, uh, curiosity to your next long run, from Jeff Galloway:

Running for hours at a time during long runs? Beat the heat by jumping in a swimming pool every 10 to 15 minutes for about 3 to 5 minutes. It will cool you off and you won’t lose any effect of the workout that way, Galloway says.

He can’t be serious. Try to imagine how this would work, using the conditions laid out in that paragraph. Giving the best possible set-up, you would run for 15 minutes and take a three-minute pool break. Let’s also assume there aren’t a string of neighbors’ swimming pools you can cannonball into along your route.

So you run down the street for seven-and-a-half minutes, turn around, run back home, then jump into the pool for three minutes. Do you remove your socks and shoes? Do you sit in the pool, walk, or run around the bottom? Do you dry your feet when you get out, or do you risk the blisters? Never mind.

OK, so you hop out of the pool, soaking wet, run down the street for seven-and-a-half minutes, turn around, and run back home, then jump into the pool for three minutes. The article says, “running for hours at a time,” so you would be doing this for at least two hours. That’s at least six repeats. Do you jump into the pool even if you’re still wet from the last repeat?

Is anyone going to risk ridicule to try this? Has anyone ever tried it as described here? Ever? Send photos.

Don’t Treadmill on Me

They always say to train for the race you will run. So don’t run Pike’s Peak without training at altitude. Don’t run Boston without training for hills. Don’t run the Runaway Bride 5k without training in a wedding gown. And don’t run in Sacramento on Memorial Day without training in the heat.

Viper has been running in the rain, which is what I assume he risks facing in his race. I realized that as much as I had improved, it meant nothing unless I left the comfort of the gym and treadmill for the real world.

To simulate 8:30 a.m. conditions on Memorial Day, I headed out at 10:30 today. To prepare myself for running on pavement instead of a large rubber band, I wore my ankle brace. That, and an ice pack afterwards, will save me a scolding from Joy (maybe).

It pains me to give Viper renewed hope, but road running in 74 degree heat is a lot harder that blasting a 7.6 mph on a treadmill. I started out gingerly, ran a strong middle, and melted at the end for a total 5k time of 27:58.

Yikes.

It was disappointing, but on the positive side at this point Viper can’t tell if I’ll be Sleeveless Windbreaker Guy or Desiccated Superman on race day. I guess we’ll both have to be prepared for anything.

I Run Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

First published October 12, 2007

After a long deep sleep and a substantial breakfast I headed out for a morning run with exercise physiologist Mike Siemens. He’s an experienced triathlete and in 2006 he ran Boston, which is my ultimate goal. His plan is to observe my gait and give me an interval workout to improve the efficiency of my stride.

But as it turned out, I had a few problems with this plan: It was 9 a.m. In Tucson. In August.

The temperature was already 90 degrees F (I checked) and we set out on a trail that runs along the property. There’s a photo of it accompanying this column.

OK, I added the cattle skull.

Something I wasn’t immediately aware of was the elevation. Canyon Ranch sits about 3,000 feet above sea level. I live in Sacramento, California, which is – believe me – a hot weather town, but only 25 feet above sea level. So my two-mile “warmup” was more like the last 300 meters of a grueling 10K.

Mike was patient and took me through each of the drills in turn. We began with a few sets of walking lunges. We followed with some high knees, then some butt kicks, and finished off with some strides.

As you can see from the videos, these drills are not designed to make you look particularly cool, but should help put some more boost in my stride. Mike advised me to add these drills to my weekly speedwork, for which he also provided some suggestions.

Now that we knew my max heart rate was 185, he suggested an interval workout that would gradually increase sets of 2-minute runs at around 85 percent max. I would start with five repeats and work my way up to 12.

After 45 minutes I was melting, but I was still able to jog… slowly… back to the facility. Having had my body examined from all different angles, inside and out, it was time to have my head examined.