5 Ways to Survive Summer Training in Austin
by Patrick Evoe
Professional Triathlete
Photo by: TYR Sports, Inc.
Summer is officially here. As Austin temperatures near and exceed the triple digits, we all need to take extra steps if we intend to train throughout the summer. With a little diligence on your part, your training can continue to thrive in the Austin heat.
{1} A Hydration Lifestyle — There is an extensive body of literature on the effects of hydration and physical exertion so I won't go into detail here. Without question, hydration is the most important aspect of training in the summer months. What I want to point out here is that hydration is not a matter of drinking an extra glass of water here or there; it needs to be your lifestyle!
You need to always have hydration in the back of your mind and to be planning accordingly. If you get behind in your hydration, your training will suffer, maybe for many days. You need to be hyper vigilant about making sure you stay ahead of the curve when it come to fluid intake. Always have a water bottle with you to sip. Keep fluids in your car (maybe in a cooler) so you can start drinking directly after you finish your workout. Be extra cognizant of parts of your life that will affect your hydration. It's fun to sit outside on a warm evening for a couple of margaritas, but know that even our evenings are 90 degrees, so you'll be losing fluids just sitting and socializing. Then add a couple of alcoholic drinks and you're fun evening can put you behind three to four glasses of water. This alone isn't usually a problem, but for an athlete with a hard workout early the next morning this can be trouble. You'll be behind and your workout will suffer if you didn't make sure to be drinking enough water with your evening drinks. It definitely can be tiresome always trying to stay ahead on your hydration, but the alternative can be much worse.
{2} Mental Approach and Expectations — One trick to training in the heat is to keep a strong mental approach and to adjust your expectations. First, you need to try to focus on the positives rather than letting the heat get into your head. This is not easy and we all struggle. For example, if you’re running in the morning hours to avoid the mid-day heat, be thankful that it's not 102 degrees and sunny. Yes, it can be very humid in the morning, but it's not 102 degrees, so be thankful. The more you complain to yourself and others, the more it will bring you and them down. Everyone is running in the same conditions, so complaining to your running group won't improve the situation. I have yet to hear of an instance where whining about the weather actually made things better. This is very hard to do and when I catch myself, I stop and try to re-frame my own thoughts.
One day I was out on a group bike ride and I was complaining about the heat and humidity. A friend of mine looked at me and said, “You're always only one thought away from being in a good mood!” I remember that line years later. Don't dwell on the heat and humidity. Find other ways to focus your thoughts and energy.
The second important mental aspect of summer training in Austin is to adjust your expectations. You need to know that your paces will suffer in the heat. If you adjust your pacing expectations down to account for the heat, you’ll be better off mentally. Try adjusting your running paces down 15 to 30 seconds per mile on the next hot day. If your goal was to hold an eight minute per mile pace on the trail, try 8:30. You’ll find it very difficult to hold the paces you did on a 55 degree February day. If you adjust your expectations for the heat, you’ll be more satisfied with your workouts than if you judge your times versus cooler months.
{3} Don't be Afraid to Train Indoors — There’s a stigma some athletes give to training indoors, especially running on the treadmill and riding your bike on a trainer. When the mercury rises to dangerous levels, let go of your macho ego and do what's smart! If you miss doing your intensity workouts in the cooler morning hours, the treadmill and/or trainer are some of your best options to get in your quality workouts. You'll be able to hold higher intensities and paces indoors, stay more hydrated because you can keep more fluids close at hand, and your recovery will be better because your body isn't coping with the heat stress in addition to the stress from the workout. This isn't to say that you should only train indoors in the summer. Keep it as an option, especially for some quality sessions if you can't get your training in the morning hours.
One Example: For your transition bike/run or “brick” workout, try the run indoors. If you plan on running anything faster than an easy jog off the bike you will get more out of the run indoors than slogging around the trail in 100 degree heat. Park your car and start your ride from your gym. When you're done with your ride, throw your bike in your car and jump on the treadmill indoors. Set the treadmill at your goal pace and go. You can have your water bottle sitting right there. If you try a transition run off the bike in our midday heat, the quality of your run will suffer, you'll put additional heat stress on your body, and you'll have longer recovery times. So in this case, running off the bike indoors will give you a better workout, keep you better hydrated and you'll recover faster.
{4} Scheduling Hard in The Morning, Easy at Night — In the summer, the morning hours are worth their weight in gold. This time will be your best opportunity to get your intensity running and biking sessions. When you plan your workouts for the days and week, if you want to be able to get quality in your training you need to plan your sessions around the heat in the same way you plan them around your work and family life.
Though after-work hours are popular for workouts, our evenings are slow to cool. The 5 to 7:30 p.m. hours are still in the mid- to upper-90s, where the morning hours are closer to 80 degrees. The mornings tend to be more humid, but the quality of your workout will be much better when it's 20 degrees cooler in the morning. This isn't to say you can't do workouts in the evening hours, but try to stick to easy and recovery workouts. You can cheat a little more on the bike because the constant wind generated by riding will keep you cooler, but you'll still find you can push yourself more on the bike in the morning.
The second advantage of scheduling your hard outdoor workouts in the morning and easier in the evening is that you'll have more time to re-hydrate during the day from that morning session. If you run on the track until 7:30 p.m., you won't have enough time to adequately hydrate before you go to bed. It's much easier to fall behind on your hydration this way than if you finish your intensity session in the morning and then hydrate all day at work.
I really enjoy morning swim practices, but swimming is the one activity where you can push in the middle of the hottest days. On the days where you have intense run and bike workouts, save those swims for the afternoon and evening. With some scheduling work on your part, you can drastically improve the quality of your training and lessen the effects of the heat on your body.
{5} Monitor Your Body and Recover — In addition to hydration, mental approach and scheduling your workouts, we all need to be hyper-aware of our bodies in the summer. You need to always be monitoring how you’re feeling before, during and after your workouts. You need to be aware of how much you’re urinating during the day and at night. You need to keep tabs on your appetite. You should know how your heart rate is reacting before, during and after workouts. You need to watch your motivation levels. All of these can be indicators of how your body is handling the heat and the degree to which you’re experiencing heat stress. You need to be more prepared to take days off or skip workouts if you’re experiencing heat stress or if you’re overly dehydrated. If you keep plodding forward through your training schedule without any regard for how your body is recovering from the heat, you can be setting yourself up for dangerous situations. I've taken impromptu days off when I've found myself exhausted from the heat and overly dehydrated. Extra rest and extra fluids on a non-planned day off can get you back in your training groove than if you keep pushing. I've had friends have to back off for a week or end up in the hospital with heat/hydration issues. Continuing to train when your body is already behind in hydration or has residual heat stress can really lead to more serious issues. In the summer, you just have to remember to keep an extra level of awareness. Then don't be afraid to take the measures you need to fully recover before you stress your body again.
{1} A Hydration Lifestyle — There is an extensive body of literature on the effects of hydration and physical exertion so I won't go into detail here. Without question, hydration is the most important aspect of training in the summer months. What I want to point out here is that hydration is not a matter of drinking an extra glass of water here or there; it needs to be your lifestyle!
You need to always have hydration in the back of your mind and to be planning accordingly. If you get behind in your hydration, your training will suffer, maybe for many days. You need to be hyper vigilant about making sure you stay ahead of the curve when it come to fluid intake. Always have a water bottle with you to sip. Keep fluids in your car (maybe in a cooler) so you can start drinking directly after you finish your workout. Be extra cognizant of parts of your life that will affect your hydration. It's fun to sit outside on a warm evening for a couple of margaritas, but know that even our evenings are 90 degrees, so you'll be losing fluids just sitting and socializing. Then add a couple of alcoholic drinks and you're fun evening can put you behind three to four glasses of water. This alone isn't usually a problem, but for an athlete with a hard workout early the next morning this can be trouble. You'll be behind and your workout will suffer if you didn't make sure to be drinking enough water with your evening drinks. It definitely can be tiresome always trying to stay ahead on your hydration, but the alternative can be much worse.
{2} Mental Approach and Expectations — One trick to training in the heat is to keep a strong mental approach and to adjust your expectations. First, you need to try to focus on the positives rather than letting the heat get into your head. This is not easy and we all struggle. For example, if you’re running in the morning hours to avoid the mid-day heat, be thankful that it's not 102 degrees and sunny. Yes, it can be very humid in the morning, but it's not 102 degrees, so be thankful. The more you complain to yourself and others, the more it will bring you and them down. Everyone is running in the same conditions, so complaining to your running group won't improve the situation. I have yet to hear of an instance where whining about the weather actually made things better. This is very hard to do and when I catch myself, I stop and try to re-frame my own thoughts.
One day I was out on a group bike ride and I was complaining about the heat and humidity. A friend of mine looked at me and said, “You're always only one thought away from being in a good mood!” I remember that line years later. Don't dwell on the heat and humidity. Find other ways to focus your thoughts and energy.
The second important mental aspect of summer training in Austin is to adjust your expectations. You need to know that your paces will suffer in the heat. If you adjust your pacing expectations down to account for the heat, you’ll be better off mentally. Try adjusting your running paces down 15 to 30 seconds per mile on the next hot day. If your goal was to hold an eight minute per mile pace on the trail, try 8:30. You’ll find it very difficult to hold the paces you did on a 55 degree February day. If you adjust your expectations for the heat, you’ll be more satisfied with your workouts than if you judge your times versus cooler months.
{3} Don't be Afraid to Train Indoors — There’s a stigma some athletes give to training indoors, especially running on the treadmill and riding your bike on a trainer. When the mercury rises to dangerous levels, let go of your macho ego and do what's smart! If you miss doing your intensity workouts in the cooler morning hours, the treadmill and/or trainer are some of your best options to get in your quality workouts. You'll be able to hold higher intensities and paces indoors, stay more hydrated because you can keep more fluids close at hand, and your recovery will be better because your body isn't coping with the heat stress in addition to the stress from the workout. This isn't to say that you should only train indoors in the summer. Keep it as an option, especially for some quality sessions if you can't get your training in the morning hours.
One Example: For your transition bike/run or “brick” workout, try the run indoors. If you plan on running anything faster than an easy jog off the bike you will get more out of the run indoors than slogging around the trail in 100 degree heat. Park your car and start your ride from your gym. When you're done with your ride, throw your bike in your car and jump on the treadmill indoors. Set the treadmill at your goal pace and go. You can have your water bottle sitting right there. If you try a transition run off the bike in our midday heat, the quality of your run will suffer, you'll put additional heat stress on your body, and you'll have longer recovery times. So in this case, running off the bike indoors will give you a better workout, keep you better hydrated and you'll recover faster.
{4} Scheduling Hard in The Morning, Easy at Night — In the summer, the morning hours are worth their weight in gold. This time will be your best opportunity to get your intensity running and biking sessions. When you plan your workouts for the days and week, if you want to be able to get quality in your training you need to plan your sessions around the heat in the same way you plan them around your work and family life.
Though after-work hours are popular for workouts, our evenings are slow to cool. The 5 to 7:30 p.m. hours are still in the mid- to upper-90s, where the morning hours are closer to 80 degrees. The mornings tend to be more humid, but the quality of your workout will be much better when it's 20 degrees cooler in the morning. This isn't to say you can't do workouts in the evening hours, but try to stick to easy and recovery workouts. You can cheat a little more on the bike because the constant wind generated by riding will keep you cooler, but you'll still find you can push yourself more on the bike in the morning.
The second advantage of scheduling your hard outdoor workouts in the morning and easier in the evening is that you'll have more time to re-hydrate during the day from that morning session. If you run on the track until 7:30 p.m., you won't have enough time to adequately hydrate before you go to bed. It's much easier to fall behind on your hydration this way than if you finish your intensity session in the morning and then hydrate all day at work.
I really enjoy morning swim practices, but swimming is the one activity where you can push in the middle of the hottest days. On the days where you have intense run and bike workouts, save those swims for the afternoon and evening. With some scheduling work on your part, you can drastically improve the quality of your training and lessen the effects of the heat on your body.
{5} Monitor Your Body and Recover — In addition to hydration, mental approach and scheduling your workouts, we all need to be hyper-aware of our bodies in the summer. You need to always be monitoring how you’re feeling before, during and after your workouts. You need to be aware of how much you’re urinating during the day and at night. You need to keep tabs on your appetite. You should know how your heart rate is reacting before, during and after workouts. You need to watch your motivation levels. All of these can be indicators of how your body is handling the heat and the degree to which you’re experiencing heat stress. You need to be more prepared to take days off or skip workouts if you’re experiencing heat stress or if you’re overly dehydrated. If you keep plodding forward through your training schedule without any regard for how your body is recovering from the heat, you can be setting yourself up for dangerous situations. I've taken impromptu days off when I've found myself exhausted from the heat and overly dehydrated. Extra rest and extra fluids on a non-planned day off can get you back in your training groove than if you keep pushing. I've had friends have to back off for a week or end up in the hospital with heat/hydration issues. Continuing to train when your body is already behind in hydration or has residual heat stress can really lead to more serious issues. In the summer, you just have to remember to keep an extra level of awareness. Then don't be afraid to take the measures you need to fully recover before you stress your body again.
Fairway to Fitness, June 2009 Issue
Austin's 10 Fittest, August 2009 Issue
Get Stoked to Get Soaked: 15 Austin Lake Activities, May 2009 Issue
