5 Tips for Running in the Brisbane Summer Heat
Ah, late spring in Brisbane. The magpies are out, its starting to get warmer and I can enjoy an ice cold iced coffee in my sweat drenched SBR singlet at the post run coffee.
Enjoy it while it last as the Summer heat is coming! Many of us, especially us recent Brisbane immigrants, do everything we can to avoid it: running at dawn or in the late evening, or even seeking shelter on treadmills in air-conditioned gyms. It is, however, totally possible to run in Brisbane Summer heat - even a kiwi born fella like me can do it. You just need these 5 simple tips:
1. Dress Down
Wear as little clothing as legally possible. If you are the sports bra only or shirtless kind of person, do that. If you are like me (skinny fat/pasty white) and lacking the rig to run shirtless, stick to light-colored, loose, wicking materials. - like our super lightweight SBR singlets available for just $40 - get yours here!
2. Less Is Best
Summer is a time to get the best bang for your buck training wise. Avoid doing any run that doesn’t have a purpose. If you typically run something crazy like100kms in the cooler months, do not try to do the same in Summer. Cut back your mileage by at least 25% by eliminating easy runs or cut down your long run distance.
Grinding out month after month of summer running can burn you out both physically and mentally. It can be a great time to step away from “just running” and take up other sports such as swimming or cycling that are generally more enjoyable in the heat. Just don’t get too carried away with those other sports otherwise you might become one of those “triathletes” no one likes ;-)
3. Adjust Your Workouts
Workouts like continuous tempo runs or long intervals become more difficult in the summer. In these long efforts, your heart rate increases as the run progresses and your body works even harder to regulate your core temperature. You can overheat, have to stop mid-run (thus defeating part of the purpose of the workout), or have a mentally defeating run. None of these are ideal options… unless you enjoy being miserable.
There are smarter, better options for summer speed workouts. Intervals with deliberate recovery breaks in them are more feasible in summer weather.
Some of the SBR favorite summer work outs include:
5x 800m interval with 90 seconds standing recovery. This is great as you run a considerable distance of 4kms but get plenty of recovery time in-between each repeat. If you can, stay in the shade during the recovery. If its really hot you could increase the recovery to 120 seconds.
10x 400m with 60 seconds recovery. Same as above but double the reps and half the distance. This works for the same reason, the generous recovery gives your body a chance to cool between the reps.
Mile Repeats at Tempo Pace: Continuous tempo runs are difficult in the hottest months of the year. By breaking a tempo run into mile-long repeats at tempo pace with 1-minute recovery jogs, you achieve the same purpose of the workout (training at lactate threshold) without letting your heart rate spike too high. As an added benefit, this workout trains you to tune into tempo pace. It can be easy to run too fast for just one mile, so you must learn how to pace yourself.
4. Adjust Your Expectations
Your performance will absolutely suffer in the higher heats and humidity of summer. It’s a scientific fact that even the most heat acclimatized runner will suffer performance loss in hot conditions.
Therefore, it’s important that you find ways to adjust your workout and race paces to reflect how you’ll perform in hot conditions. Likewise, sometimes you need to know how much more effort a workout is in hot and humid conditions so you can better monitor fitness and progression.
How to adjust your running pace in the heat
Luckily for you, there is simple online calculators that will estimate how much harder you’re working in the heat.
As you can see in the screenshot below, if you could run a Parkrun in cooler winter months in 20:00, you would only expect to run 20:50 in 30 degree temperatures in summer, that’s 10 seconds a kilometer slower!
To calculate your own temperature adjustment, visit the calculator here:
How heat effects your running times here.
However, a big CAVEAT to the above calculator is it does not take into account humidity or the more accurate measurement of heat effect using dew point. These calculations can become quite complex so for the sake of simplicity, if it’s a nasty humid day, adjust your pace expectations to something 10-20% lower than the calculated value above.
5. Drink Lots and Drink Properly
Hydration begins before you even put your running shoes on. If you are running in the afternoon, make sure you hydrate throughout the day. If you are running in the morning, make sure you are fully hydrated the night before. You want to drink enough to maintain optimal hydration. Don’t guzzle so much water that you are running to the bathroom every hour. Before a workout or race, have a electrolyte sports drink to hydrate and support sufficient sodium levels.
Pre-cooling can also help maintain a lower core temperature before a workout or race. You can bring a pack of ice with you to place on your pulse points (neck, wrists, etc), in your hat, or on your core before the run. You can dunk a buff or cap in cold water and freeze it the night before. Even a dump of cold water on your head will help!
Get out there and brave the heat!
So there you have it, you now have ZERO excuses for not running through the Brisbane Summer Heat with these simple tips.
Need more motivation? Come Join SBR for one of our training sessions!