I think it’s safe to say that summer running is here!
You are NOT out of shape. It just got hot and humid. Running in the heat and humidity feels harder because IT IS harder. When it’s hot, the body has to work harder to cool off through sweat.
When talking about running/training, increased sweat loss can cause blood to thicken, heart-rate to increase, muscles to fatigue, trigger GI issues, etc. Then add in humidity, which decreases the cooling effect of sweat because the moisture in the air prevents sweat from evaporating from the skin. Increased water in the air means increased sweating, an increase in core body temperature, and an increased risk for dehydration and/or overheating.
When talking about temperature, humidity, and dew point, remember that relative humidity is how much water vapor is in the air compared to how much it can hold – it is expressed as a percentage.
Unlike humidity, dew point is an absolute measure, not relative, of how much moisture is in the air.
The dew point tells you how much moisture is in the air which easily translates into how it’ll FEEL outside.
Sweating is how your body naturally cools itself. But in order for you to cool down the sweat has to evaporate. The more moisture that is in the air the less the sweat is able to evaporate.
If you were to run the SAME paces as a cooler day, you would be working HARDER using MORE effort to maintain those paces.
Running with warmer temps and higher dew points means you need to ADJUST your paces to prevent overworking and overheating.
Read this blog post on how to adjust your paces.
