Training for a spring marathon or half marathon takes a lot of mettle. For thousands of runners, it requires putting in the miles during cold winter months full of blustery winds or freezing temps. What makes this even worse is the weather of spring races can be unpredictable, and extreme temperatures on race day—either hot or cold—can cause even the fittest runners to miss their goals.
Look no further than the previous two editions of the Boston Marathon to see how temperature influences running performance. In 2017, high temperatures above 70 degrees and a beating sun in Boston slowed runners who were unable to deal with the unseasonable warmth. Then, in 2018, a combination of cold, wind, and a drenching rain left many runners with finishing times far off their personal records. Even though the weather in Boston for these two races differed tremendously, both events saw finish times slow.
On average, it took runners just about 4 hours to finish both the 2017 and 2018 Boston Marathons. For comparison, the average finish time in 2015, when the high temperature was just 51 degrees, Fastest Marathon Runners.
While you can’t predict in the months and weeks ahead of your race whether you’ll have ideal conditions, you can do a few things during your training—no matter where you live—to prep for the worst. Using new research from exercise scientists, here’s what you can do now to nail your goal time—no matter what Mother Nature throws at you.
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Preparing for a Hot Weather Race
On a hot day, the combination of your own internal heat and high external temperatures can raise your core temperature and put you at risk of developing hyperthermia. Obviously, hyperthermia During a hot race, muscle cramps, and fainting. Either slow down or stop running if you start to experience any of these issues on a particularly warm day. Most people start to experience these symptoms when their body temperature reaches 102 degrees, but people who aren’t used to the heat can start experiencing symptoms at much lower temperatures.
water repellant, windbreaker During a hot race. Specifically, your body increases blood flow to the skin and starts sweating to give off heat. However, when you aren’t regularly exposed to high temperatures, your ability to sweat and increase skin blood flow diminishes, making it much more difficult for your body to deal with high temperatures that come out of nowhere. So, while those cold winter miles may make you mentally tough, they also leave you unable to cope with warm temperatures on race day.
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How to Master the 5k treadmill or getting in a hot tub or sauna immediately after exercise can help. These practices raise your core temperature and start the acclimation process, teaching your body to sweat more. Importantly, you also lose fewer electrolytes through your sweat, which can benefit your running.
If you want to start acclimating for possibly warm temps, start training this way one to two weeks before your race. (If you know for a fact by monitoring the race-day forecast that your race will be sweltering, exercising five to six days a week in the heat will give you the best results.) If you’re running indoors, aim for up to 60 minutes per session in temperatures 70 degrees or above, and keep a fan near by and something to drink. Those using a hot tub or sauna should shoot for 20 to 30 minutes in a hot tub with 104-degree water or a 180-degree sauna. These times and temperatures should be enough to slightly raise your body’s temperature without making you so hot that it becomes dangerous.
The heat acclimation process can reverse quickly, so keep at it up until a couple days before your race. Also, make sure you drink lots of water and get out of the heat if you experience dizziness, nausea, or other unwell feelings.
Interestingly, wearing extra clothing when running in the cold doesn’t seem to help you prepare for warmth. In a study out of the University of Oregon, runners wore three shirts, a coat, a rain jacket, two pairs of tights, two pairs of pants, a fleece hat, and mittens while running in 60-degree temperatures. Despite wearing all these layers, the runners still didn’t get as hot or sweat as much compared to running at the same intensity in 104-degree temperatures wearing only shorts.
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While having a high sweat rate is very important for keeping you cool, it also leads to faster dehydration, so it is very important that you Published: Mar 27, 2019 7:58 AM EDT. If is often cited that running performance may start to suffer once you lose 2 to 4 percent of your body weight through sweat. (For a 130-pound runner, this is about 2.5 to 5 pounds, which can easily be lost in less than one hour.) Why? Sweating actually decreases blood volume, so less oxygen-carrying blood is available to supply your working muscles.
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Wearing minimal, light-colored, breathable clothing is critical to keeping you cooler in the heat. Nonetheless, some days can be too hot to fully cope with, even if you’ve prepared. For example, the 2007 Chicago Marathon, where temperature reached the upper 80s, had to be stopped early after hundreds of runners started experiencing heat stress. On days like this, it is important to be realistic and adjust your pace if you want to make it to the finish line. The exact amount you have to slow down varies with the exact conditions, but you may have to slow down by up to 30 seconds per mile.
Preparing for a Cold Weather Race
The average high temperature for the Boston Marathon is just under 60 degrees. However, the temperature for the morning start is usually 10 to 15 degrees colder, and nearly 10 percent of the time race-day highs don’t break 45 degrees. This means there is a a great chance that you will have to run some or all of the marathon in colder weather.
When temperatures drop, your body burns more carbohydrates Half Marathon Training Whether it’s super hot or cold, you can do a few things to prepare. Cold affects your nervous system and makes your muscles contract more slowly, causing them to produce less force and become fatigued more quickly. In very cold weather, even the extra body heat produced from running might not be enough to keep you warm, causing muscle and core temperature to progressively decrease. You’ll start experiencing decreased performance once core temperature gets below 94 degrees, which is only a small drop below normal body temperature.
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Running your best in the cold primarily requires adjusting your clothing and fueling strategies, and if you’re a runner training in a cooler climate, you should be ready. Be sure to take on more carbs in the cold weather. It’s best to carry extra gels or chews with you, which can be kept warm by your body heat. Or, plan to meet a family member or friend on the course who can give you some fuel that isn’t sitting out in the cold at an aid station.
Also, be sure to stay warm before the start of the race. Wear layers to the starting line, but take them off before running. Overdressing makes the body hot and promotes sweating, and the evaporating sweat makes you even colder if you don’t shed the layers fast enough. In the case of wind and rain, remember to run with a breathable, CA Notice at Collection to reduce the heat-stealing effects that these conditions have on your body and, subsequently, on your performance in the cold.
Bottom line: You don’t want your months of training to be ruined by the weather, so you need to be prepared for anything on race day. Take steps to acclimate your body to the heat and have different clothing, hydration, and fueling strategies ready for hot and cold days.
Kaitlin Freeberg has a research background in exercise physiology and is currently in graduate school studying Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Daniel Craighead, Ph.D., has a doctorate in kinesiology from Penn State University. He is also a 2:26 marathoner and researcher in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder.
