Not everyone can take the summer heat: Consider hydration, workout level, time of day, other factors to train smart

One of my favorite parts of running marathons over the past 17 years has been striking up conversations with people before the 26.2-mile journey to meet the beast of pain and perseverance begins.

A conversation that sticks in my mind came when I was talking to a couple of 20-something guys from Buffalo, N.Y., before the 2009 ING Miami Marathon. At 4 a.m. on that late January morning, we were standing in line to catch a bus from Miami Beach to downtown Miami, and I struck up a conversation.

They were worried. The temperature was in the low 60s and they had been training in snow and ice for months. They also thought it was really humid, which made me smile for obvious reasons. The concern wasn't a matter of their fitness -- they were sub-3 hour marathoners and had put in 80-mile weeks -- but rather their acclimatization to warmer conditions.

I didn't catch up with them afterward to find out how they did, but at that moment I realized how training in Charleston conditions me to handle heat better, and likely extreme cold not as well. The temps for the race did warm into the low-70s, but I managed to log my second fastest marathon time out of nearly 30 races.

Becoming heat tolerant

Acclimatization, like everything, will vary from person-to-person, but its benefits can include lower heart rate, core temperature, sweat rate and/or salt content of sweat. It also makes being in the heat doing routine stuff, such as yard work, more tolerable.

Generally, smaller athletes and those with less body fat will handle the heat better. Smaller people have a greater surface area to body mass ratio, allowing them to dissipate heat more efficiently. Body fat is an insulator. The more you have, the more heat you retain. Along the same lines, beginner and "deconditioned" athletes also are less heat tolerant.

If there's ever a time to "Know Thyself," it's during this time of year. For example, those who have actually had heatstroke or exhaustion in the past tend to be more vulnerable to it. Other factors also can lower tolerance, including glycogen depletion, sleep deprivation, viral or bacterial illnesses, drinking alcohol and taking medications that cause dehydration.

Train, but be smart

I've learned a lot about handling heat over the years, and the experimenting never really ends. It's part of what makes personal fitness so darn interesting to me.

According to several charts, the average temperature peaks in late July and early August. July, for sure, was brutal. This is a time to take extra steps to prepare -- before, during and after -- for exercising outdoors intensely or for periods of 45 minutes or longer. That goes for high school and college athletes -- notably football, soccer and cross country runners -- as well as for people preparing for marathons, half-marathons and longer triathlons.

I'm a firm believer in acclimatization. The body is an incredibly adaptable machine when it is given time to adapt. But to get used to the heat, one must spend time in it.

First things first

In order to acclimatize, one also must employ the strategies that we all hear to avoid heat illnesses, notably life-threatening heatstroke and exhaustion.

Hydration is key, but really hard to pinpoint. The best way, in my opinion, is to monitor your urine. It should be pale yellow. Dark or mildly dark yellow may mean you are dehydrated. Clear may mean you may be overhydrated.

Hyponatremia, a potentially fatal condition of low blood sodium levels caused by drinking too much water, has risen to a similar level of concern as dehydration in recent years.

This time of year, electrolyte beverages such as Gatorade become more important especially before and during activity. Last year, when I kept fading on workouts for a half Ironman distance triathlon, I turned to a locally conceived electrolyte beverage, BaNa, which has twice the sodium content of Gatorade and no sugar. And it did the trick. Again, the experimenting and tweaking never ends

Feel free to downshift

The physiology of how the body reacts to heat is important to understand and incorporate.

Exercise generates body heat. Exercising in heat and humidity typically raises the core body temperature, which increases blood thickness, which causes the heart to work even harder.

Workouts that appear to be "slow" are actually just as good of a workout, so I tend to adhere to the idea of throttling down.

What to wear?

For those who don't have to don football helmets and shoulder pads, the answer is: as little as possible.

I've heard a bunch of bunk about "sweat wicking fabrics." When it's 80 degrees or higher, with 80 percent humidity or higher, nothing wicks sweat. Shirts get soppy. Granted there's the whole issue of sun protection, but I'm focused on staying as cool as possible here.

As far as hats are concerned, visors give you the sun protection and keep sweat out of your eyes while allowing heat to dissipate from your head. My personal favorite is Headsweats brand visors with an elastic back so there's no adjusting needed.

Choose wisely

Many people claim that working out in the morning is cooler, but I find evenings to be more so, in part because the wind tends to blow and clouds tend to gather. The beauty of this time of year is that most of us still have two hours of daylight after getting home from work to run, bike or walk. Often, that's the time frame after the cooling effects of a late afternoon thunderstorm.

Also, be flexible about when to go out. Last Tuesday, clouds kept the high temperature at a seemingly comfortable 84, making it OK to run at otherwise unbearably hot times of day. Keep in mind, in about six months, you may be wishing for an 84-degree day.

Reach David Quick at 937-5516 or dquick@postandcourier.com.