Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Thursday, July 25, 2002 HeatI don't like hot weather. I don't like running in hot weather. Summer in Kansas City is hot.My plan for dealing with the heat is simple. I lower my ambitions. The summer is a time to maintain, not improve, my condition. If the weather is not so bad, I try to take advantage of it. When I see a cool day in the forecast, I try to make sure I get a good run in. On the weekends, I usually run in the morning before it gets too warm. I carry water when I excercise. I ride my bike a lot. I stay flexible and don't worry about taking it easy or taking a day off when it is really gross out. When I run I take lots of breaks for short walks. Training in the summer heat isn't fun. When the cooler weather arrives it feels great. Some bad experiences in the heat I've had several bad experiences with the heat. I collapsed when I was about 13 or 14. It was a hot day and I was working on my tennis game with a coach. I walked up to the net to pick up a ball. The coach asked, "are you ok?" I said something and plopped into the net. The next thing I knew I was on a couch in a building next to the courts surrounded by worried looking people. I'd passed out. At a PTOC A-meet I had some severe problems with heat and dehydration. The meet was on an unusually warm March day (not super hot, probably mid/upper 80s). It was sunny and since the leaves hadn't come out you were baking in the sun. If I remember right, it was 1984 and I was running the Blue Course as a junior. I pushed myself hard. At the finish, I chugged a huge amount of water. Apprently that was the wrong thing to do. My friend Rex Keith (a med student at the time) later told me that the body would have had trouble handling a bunch of water without electrolytes. Because it was the first hot day of the year, my system hadn't adapted to the conditions. So, I lost a lot of electrolytes that I wouldn't have lost if I'd been more adapted to the condition. I felt decent just after I finished, but deteriorated pretty soon. I remember feeling awful. My head hurt. I was nauseous. I "blew chunks in the Ozarks." It was not fun. One good experience in the heat I only remember one good race in hot conditions. It was an A-meet at West Point. I was fit. My strategy for handling the heat had two parts. First, I reminded myself the whole time "go slower..go slower." Second, every time I saw water, I dunked myself in it. If I saw a small stream, I'd stop at it and crawl into the water, soak for a few seconds, then get up and go. It worked pretty well. I had a good result and I survived. Of course, that was also the event where I mistook Lans Taylor for Peter Gagarin (so maybe my mind was fried by the heat). Lans is a good 20 years younger than Peter. Lans has the upper body of a rock climber. Peter has the upper body of a ultramarathon runner. Lans was running without a shirt. I saw the shirtless 20-something rock-climber and thought it was Peter! Some advice for handling the heat Check out Fasterskier.com for some advice on handling the heat. posted by Michael | 7:40 PM 
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