RTTC #242 How to Run Faster in the Summer Heat

In this episode of Running to the Castle, Dr. Ali breaks down why your paces feel so much harder — and slower — when the temperatures climb, using heart rate zones to show exactly what's happening inside your body. 

She walks through a simple self-experiment comparing your warm-up heart rate on a comfortable day versus a scorching one, and explains why your heart can't tell the difference between beating fast from sprinting and beating fast from heat stress. 

Dr. Ali shares practical strategies for adjusting speed workouts, long runs, and recovery breaks to protect your training through the hottest months. 

She wraps up with a hopeful reminder: all that hard summer effort sets you up to run faster once cooler race season arrives.

Learn more about Stronger. Faster. Finisher. !

Ready to cross the finish line stronger, faster, and prouder at your next runDisney race? 

Get personalized support, smarter training, and strategies designed specifically for slow, back-of-the-pack runners who want to build a bigger buffer ahead of the balloon ladies, have time for character photos and energy to enjoy the Disney Parks. Learn more about the Stronger. Faster. Finisher. Program today and be the first to know when doors open!

Free Resources

• Follow me on Instagram @rundisneydpt
• Join the Facebook Community to get training support
• Check out FREE training plans for injury-prone runDisney runners on my website. 
• Book a Free 30 minute Call with me if you're wondering how you should train and if working together makes sense.
  
  Hi, I'm Dr. Ali
  I've been running for 15+ years and been in the rehab space since 2012 when I earned my Doctor of Physical Therapy Degree. I get injury prone runDisney runners across the finish line without feeling broken.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, how's it going? Today I'm talking about how to run faster in the summer heat. This is Running to the Castle, a podcast for slow, back-of-the-pack Run Disney runners on a journey to running magical miles. Join me, Dr. Allie, as I share the secrets I've gathered as a runner, doctor of physical therapy, and coach. You'll learn the exact ways I get my clients to the castle strong, have a bigger buffer ahead of the balloon ladies, and have time to stop for character photos. Keep listening if your goal is to PR in fun, cross the finish line without feeling broken, and have energy to enjoy the Disney parks. We have unprecedented heat going on all across probably the world, for sure the United States, which is where I live. I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is hot here. It's the desert. What a lot of people will say to me is well, it's a dry heat, for one, and doesn't it cool off at night? So it's at least cool then. No, it's not. So Las Vegas is a valley. So all of the heat actually gets stuck here in the valley. And it will cool down when it gets windy. And it is windy in the mainly in the spring, but we've had some bouts of some wind in the summer, and it cooled down to, I think, high 80s a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be a high of 106 today. And it's just, it's overall hot. And I just had a conversation today, and I've had other conversations with some of my clients, stronger, faster finisher members, one-on-one clients, and they just can't get faster. They can't run faster. And they're noticing that their run, their easy long run is feeling really frustrating. Or maybe they've done races, 10Ks, half marathons, 5Ks recently. And they just are noticing it is so hard to run paces that end up being slower and it's frustrating them. I want to have this conversation of how you can actually run faster in the summer heat. And I also want you to do me a favor. So you might not be able to do this right now. I don't know if you're on a run right now. I don't know if you're in the car right now. I don't know what you're doing. Many people listen to the podcast while they're on a run. Some listen while they're doing something else. When you have a chance, come back to this episode and follow these instructions. I want you to do something for me. So I want you to look at your heart rate. I want you to look at a couple of different heart rates. So your average resting heart rate. Okay. Then I want you to find out what your max heart rate should be. An easy way to do that is 220 minus your age. So if you are 55 years old, your max heart rate is 165. If you are 45 years old, your max heart rate is 175. If you're 35 years old, your max heart rate is 185. Those are just some examples. Okay. Your max heart rate is the max heart rate your heart should get to during physical activity. When we're looking at zone running, it's using percentages of your max heart rate to give you a guide. So as a comparison, zone one is 50 to 60% of your max heart rate. Zone two is 60 to 70% of your max heart rate. Zone three is 70 to 80% of your max heart rate. Zone four is 80 to 90% of your max heart rate. And zone five is 90 to 100% of your max heart rate. Okay. So what I want you to do is I want you to write down your resting heart rate, your max heart rate. Okay. Then I want you to go into your workouts from a really comfortable time frame. Sometime this year, if you've been running regularly, choose a time frame for you where the weather is really nice for you. Maybe it's March. That's usually a pretty good temperature time frame. Cause if it's too cold, I don't know how accurate it is. I want it to be comfortable. Something you're like, oh God, that is my ideal weather to run in. I want you to go find a workout from that time frame. Let's call it March 10th. Find your workout and look at your heart rate at like in the first 10 minutes. So hopefully you track your warm-up, and that would be a 10-minute warmup. I want you to see what your heart rate was like during those first 10 minutes, during that warmup. Write that number down. Now go find a recent workout where it was really hot. You felt like garbage, and you just felt like it was such a hard workout. I want you to choose that workout. Look at the same time frame, the first 10 minutes, that warm-up. Look at what your heart rate is there. I did this recently for at least two of my clients. Those are the two that are popping right now, full force, front of mind. Both of these clients had warm-up heart rate. They were not the same number, and these people are different ages. So I wouldn't expect them to be the same number, but we'll say heart rate one, okay, for both of them. Heart rate one for the March time frame, the temperature, comfortable temperature time frame time frame. I don't actually remember for both of them when that was. Then I asked them to find a heart rate. Again, warm up heart rate during a hot workout that they were not having fun with. Their heart rates were 20 to 30 beats per minute faster. What were yours? What are those differences? And I point this out because you hear all the time, I hear all the time anyway, it's all across my Instagram feed that summer heat bring fall fast paces, right? So I've been saying summer heat bring fast fall feet. Say that 10 times fast. Your body is working so hard just because it's hot out. And that's why I use the warmup. Because if you're following my training plans or you're working with me directly in Stronger, Faster Finisher or one-on-one, your warmup should be the exact same no matter what workout you're doing. Are you doing a speed workout? Are you doing a long, easy run? Your warm up should be the same. It should be your 10-minute walking warmup, or maybe you're somebody who needs dynamic stretches, but you should be doing those before each and every workout. It should be the same. So that variable is staying the same. The warmup is the same. We are also going to assume that your hydration and your fueling is the same. Okay, so what's the difference? Comfortable temperature versus hot temperature. The temperature change is the difference. So if your body is already working harder just because it's hot out, and we can see that in the difference in heart rate. Now, somebody who has a pacemaker, this is not going to work for you.

unknown 7:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Or if you're on beta blockers, might not work for you. If you're if you are on a medication that controls your heart rate, this won't work for you. But I think that's few and far between listening to this podcast. But with the heat, your body already has to work harder because it's so hot. Your body is trying to keep you cool. When it's hot outside, your internal temperature is going to rise. When your internal temperature rises, you cook. We don't want that. Your body wants to keep you cool so you don't have a hyperthermic event. We hear about hypothermia. There's also hyperthermia. Hypo is too low, frostbite, being in extreme conditions in cold weather. Hyperthermia is heat related, leading to heat exhaustion, heat stroke. Your body is working hard to keep you cool. Your heartbeat is beating faster to help cool you off. Your blood vessels dilate as well, which is why you, if you are somebody who turns red or has skin color where you can really see the redness, you are more red in the heat. Have you guys seen any of the photos I've posted on Instagram? I am white as a ghost or I'm red as a lobster. And after a workout, I am red as a lobster because of how hot I am. I've been talking about how I bought a fan for my for the treadmill at Planet Fitness so it can blow directly on me to keep me cool and help me keep going on my workouts. And I'm indoors. So your body is already in an elevated state. So if you can only get to your max heart rate, and what number is that? Look at your heart rate number for now. I'm how I'm 38. I just literally questioned it for myself. So 220 minus 38, my max heart rate is 182. So if I normally, after my warm up, if my heart rate is 100, let's say my heart rate is at 110 in the heat. Well, normally my body has 82 beats per minute to allow me to use. I have 82 to go from warm-up until my hardest part of my workout. And on my speed workouts, I'm gonna hit that. I don't hit that on my long easy runs, but we'll talk about long easy runs in a second. But if I normally start at 100 after my warmup and the max my heart rate should safely go to is 182, I have 82 to span, right? But if I already start at 110 because it's hot out, remember my warmup has not changed. My walking warmup is the same. So the only thing that has changed is now I am hotter. I start my workout after my warmup is at 110. Now I only have 72 before I hit my max heart rate. That means I have fewer beats per minute to use during that same workout. I will hit that 182 sooner because let's say normally I hit that 182 at my peak. Let's let's talk progression run, right? The fastest part hit that peak middle of the workout. I hit 182. Well, now I'm gonna hit 182 earlier. I'm not gonna be going as fast and I'm gonna hit 182 because I'm already lost 10 beats per minute in my wiggle room, right? So I'm not going to be able to go as fast. I'm not gonna hit that top number in my speed because my heart isn't gonna be able to keep up because it it can only, it's only supposed to go to 182. Not that it can only go to 182. It's only supposed to go to 182. That's my top. That's my zone five. That's my all out. And let's say normally I get to that all out at, I don't know, 8.0 miles per hour. I'm just throwing numbers out there. But let's say 8.0 is where I get there. If it's hot out, I may only be able to go to 7.8 miles per hour and not get to that 8.0. And I'm gonna have to start slowing down sooner because I already started higher. Now let's look at what that looks like for easy pace. An easy long run, normally that should be easy pace. And let's say easy pace is 15 miles per hour. So that's no, 15 minutes per mile. So that's four miles per hour, right? Conversation's sake. Okay. If my walking warmup in comfortable weather gets me to 100 beats per minute and my max is 182, let's say during that easy run, I normally get up to 160. If I've already started at 110 because it's hot out, even though I'm running my easy pace, I'm going to hit that 160 sooner and I probably will actually go past it, even though I'm still running my easy pace. In comfortable weather, that easy pace keeps me at a comfortable conversational pace. It keeps me at whatever zone it comes out to be. But in the heat, I don't necessarily go faster. I keep it the same, but my heart rate spikes and it spikes sooner because I already started higher. So maybe it spikes to 170 instead of the 160, because that's a 10 beat per minute difference. I don't know if that correlation is 100% 10 for 10, but it's going to go up because you already started higher because you're hotter. So when you work through these fast paces, or even if it's your easy run and it's not your fast pace, but it feels harder because your body doesn't know the difference between your heart beat beating fast because you're sprinting, or your heart beating fast because it's hot. Internally, your heart doesn't know it. It just knows when to beat harder. It gets certain responses, certain input, rather, from different parts of your body. One of those inputs is going to be a temperature increase. And it's going to need to beat harder and faster to help bring that internal temperature down. But physiologically, all your heart knows is to beat or not to beat. It gets input from different places and it treats them all the same. So if it needs to beat fast because your muscles are working hard because you're sprinting, it beats faster. If it needs to beat fast because it's hot and it needs to cool you down, it beats faster. But it doesn't know the difference. It just knows to beat faster. So sprinting in cool weather, maybe in March, it's going to be this much. 160 beats per minute. And an easy run in a hundred degree temperature, it may also be 160 beats per minute, but you're not sprinting, but it's doing that because it's so hot out. And so your body is working hard like it's sprinting, which is why when you get to the cool weather, you can go faster because your body has acclimated and adjusted. Your heart has become more efficient. And so now you're faster. Your heart just continues beating what it needs to be, but because it's cooler weather, it you're running faster. So I want to drive home that heat is a huge factor and dehydration is a huge factor. I didn't talk about that much today. And I'm going to talk about how to run fast in the summer heat, but I didn't talk about dehydration, but that usually goes hand in hand with the heat. So when you're dehydrated, your heart is going to beat faster as well. I think I've used this comparison before, where when you're sick, just sitting at the edge of the bed feels like you've run a marathon because that's very challenging for you. When you're sick, your body's overcoming fever, heat, right? Your body is hot and it's also ill and likely dehydrated. And so sitting at the edge of the bed, your heartbeat might be 110 before you even get up to walk to the bathroom and back. And you get back from the bathroom and you're exhausted, but you didn't do anything. You walked to the bathroom. Well, it's because your heart is beating so hard and your body is recovering from whatever illness is going on, right? But dehydration has that same effect of making your heart beat faster. So, what can you actually do? I do recommend training for heat if you're going to be racing in heat. So Run Disney, it's hot in Florida. The marathon this year, they cut it short because of how hot it was going to be by noon. So you have you do have to train somewhat for the heat, but it might just be sitting outside first. Then it might be walking outside in the heat of the day. Then it might be going for an easy run outside or part of your easy run outside. So you do want to get acclimated. I've heard of people just going in saunas regularly. I've heard of people creating a heat space in their home, running on the treadmill and having a heat lamp. Those are ways to do that. That would be more for in the winter, but that's something that people do. And so you may be doing that. For now, get faster in short periods of time because your body is working overtime. So aim for those fast paces in your 30, 20, 10, your progression run, your hill workouts, your tempo runs. Take more rest breaks if you need them. Take more rest breaks, take slower rest breaks. So your walking intervals, maybe you extend the walk. So normally you do 30, 30, do 30, 60. So you walk longer and then slow it down so that you walk slower. Bring that heart rate down. Bring your temperature down if you can. And then on those speed workouts, try and still hit those paces, but give yourself the recovery that it needs. Because if you're working hard in the speed workout, like we need to practice turning over our legs, right? Like how fast our legs are moving and you know, keep those muscles strong or get them stronger. But how do you combat that? Take longer walking breaks, take slower walking breaks. Add in an extra walking break or a standstill break. Like halfway through your progression run, give yourself three to five minutes of, okay, I'm just gonna recover. So then you start fresh for the second half. Same thing with the hill workout or the tempo run or the 30, 20, 10. Halfway through, give yourself a whole extra three to five minutes on top of whatever you're already doing in the speed workout. So for hill workouts, you're getting a two-minute rest and recovery after a 30-second hill sprint. Add an extra five minutes halfway through. 30-2010, after doing three rounds of that, you get two minutes of walking. Maybe you do three minutes after the three rounds of the 30, 20, 10 instead of just two. Give yourself the rest and recovery your body needs to bring that heart rate down during those speed workouts. And then on the long run, go even slower. Again, double your walking time. Slow down your walking interval to go even slower. So you don't exhaust yourself on the long run. Give yourself the long run to just be on your feet. The slower the better. So then you conserve that energy, save it for the shorter speed workouts. Bring cooling towels. You know, they hand them out at the end of the hot Run Disney races, put them in water and wrap them around your neck. Stop and get some ice at the store and just kind of rub it over you. You don't want to like cold plunge and shock your system, but cool water or a little bit of ice, aim for pulse points. So the places that you can feel your pulse. So your wrists, your groin, your feet, your ankles, and your neck, your carotid on your neck to cool down because those you can feel your pulse point there because you have a large artery and it's close to the surface near your skin. So you will cool down faster by putting it on those pulse points. Work on the speed, but give yourself the rest and recovery so you have the energy for that speed. And remember, the fact that it's hot out, your heart has to work harder. So your heart's gonna beat faster. When your heart beats faster, your lungs have to work quicker. So you're gonna be huffing and puffing. Your body doesn't know the difference between having to do that because you're sprinting or having to do that because you're hot. So by the time it comes to the fall races where it's cooler, your body has been working hard. And that endurance and that fitness will translate. And you won't have to work as hard, and you'll actually go faster.