Much slooooower in the heat?

mom2tripsn2

I just really dove in and ran in real HEAT yesterday...it was like 89 degrees with a heat index of 97 I believe, at around 7pm....it was disgusting, no doubt. I ran on a fairly wooded trail and stuck to the first part of the trail that has the most trees and just did a couple "laps" of that part. But...I was WAY slower than I usually am...where I can usually do about 3.5 miles in 40 minutes I only did MAYBE 3....is that fairly normal??

Andiebeanluvsu

I haven't run in that high of heat yet, but it was almost 80 here yesterday with 80% humidity. I noticed I had tacked on an extra 2 minutes to my pace. I'm not sure if it was the heat or just compensation for the added 5 minutes (my 30 minute run was yesterday).

rabblerabble

Almost all of my runs are early in the morning right at dawn (partly so I can get in my exercise before heading for work on weekdays, but also because it's cooler).

We had a front come through a couple of days ago, giving our area some needed rain and the last couple of days were quite cool (about 20 degrees below normal) and my runs were significantly faster than usual.

Luckily the half-marathon I'm running in late July has a 6AM start. If it had a later start, I would indeed be doing more training runs when it's warmer.

rduhlir

It is completely normal to be slower in the heat than when it is cooler out. For every 5 degrees over 70 your pace could actually slow by 20-30 seconds until you acclimate to the heat.

mom2tripsn2

Thanks folks...last night was much more comfortable weather-wise and I actually had a personal best time on my 30 minute run, so I feel like it must have been the heat slowing me up. Thanks for making me feel better!!:flowerforyou:

PaytraB

I slow down a lot in the heat. Over the summer, I just concentrate on keeping my runs at a normal time; I don't worry about the distance covered in that time. Last year (my first summer of running), I found that when autumn came, my run times were faster than they had been before the summer. Since I ran slower all throughout the summer, running consistently seems to be the key to success.
Running in the early morning coolness is great, too.
We'll see if this rings true again in the fall. Maybe last year was just coincidence.

Definitely slow down in the heat and make sure you stay hydrated.