Beat The Heat - advice for training in a very hot climate

Ha! In your face heat!


So, after suffering something of a setback during my morning run thanks to Dubai's thermostat being nudged from 'volcanic lava' to 'actual hell', last night I headed for Dubai Masters for a swim session. The nicely chilled water reminded me just why I was enjoying swimming so much at the moment!


In fact, the pool was so chilled that I managed to wear my wetsuit for the whole session - swimming in a triathlon wetsuit is quite different as the suit makes you very buoyant and changes your position in the water; it's important to get used to this, as well as where the wetsuit is a bit tight and limits your movement and discover anywhere it may rub a bit. As the sea here in Dubai is of the sort of temperatures at which chefs send lobsters to their untimely deaths, the pool in my only option. It's a lot of fun swimming the session in the wetsuit - I was the strongest swimmer at last night's session anyway but add the suit and I looked like pre-spliff Michael Phelps in there!


Anyway, did 3,500m total and am getting more and more used to swimming in the wetsuit which is good. I'm generally swimming really strongly overall which bodes well for Ironman but also thee season ahead.


This morning, my programme informed me, I was scheduled to do some shorter, quicker runs. Obviously, after yesterday, I was not looking forward to running again. Sure, the distance was much less but the intensity was supposed to be much higher, which means a faster heart beat and higher core temperatures. Fortunately, yesterday before swimming I did something very wise indeed! I did a spot of shopping...


To paraphrase those Mastercard adverts:


2xu lightweight running cap: 60 dirhams (10 quid)
Bag of ice: 3 dirhams (50p)
Having a freezer box full of ice flakes to shove in your hat and down your top every loop of the track: PRICELESS!


So, it wasn't pretty, but I got through the run session - 1.5k slow warm up and then 10 x 400m fast runs with a 200m easy jog between each. The temperature when I finished a 6.15am? A mere 44C!


Obviously, I only have another week till I'm back in the UK - keeping up training in this kind of heat would be plain stupid - but I think this does serve as some sort of example of what it takes to do triathlons, namely a good dollop of dedication and a soupcon of resourcefulness.


It's not always about training for an Ironman in melting hot conditions; it may be fitting in a lunchtime sprint session because you've had to work late all week, or adding some cross-training because of a running injury, or getting a flat on a training ride and using your skewer to wrestle your tyre off because you've broken your tyre lever... triathlon is a pretty good metaphor for life in that it will throw enough things at you to beat you. If you let it. 


Or, you can see a problem as a challenge and then it's time to start looking for a solution. Even if that means a hat full of ice cubes.


Anyway, hit the gym for an hour of intervals on the stationary bike (cranking up resistance but holding cadence at 90 rpm) which was pretty tough but tomorrow is a nice, easy day with a touch of stretching in the morning (i.e. bit of a lie-in!!!) and just a steady one hour masters swim in the evening. Before the last off the truly GIANT training days on Friday (165k ride, 12k run).

Run Stat Boy Run

There are many reasons why I love triathlon – the whole body workout, the pre-race atmosphere, the sense of accomplishment, the fact there’s always new gear to lust after…but one of the main ones for me is my interest in exercise, physiology, nutrition and general fitness. For that reason, as well as a few others (i.e. it’s pretty expensive here in Dubai!), I’ve shied away from joining a triathlon club so far and have instead remained self-coached.

I design my own programmes through a mixture of knowledge, reading, experience and feel. I enjoy that aspect just as much as training/racing; each week, I spend at least five hours reading or listening to podcasts about new sports science breakthroughs or discoveries, gadgets that could change how we train etc…I also try to stay open-minded to new protocols.

After all, until relatively recently, training for endurance events meant non-stop mile after mile after mile in the pool, on the bike and on the road…all at a steady, easy pace. Now we know that shorter high intensity work is just as important. Although the weekly long ride and long run are still the principal tenets of any IM programme.

Conditions here over summer have forced me to look at other ways to train. Frankly, a long 25-32km run once a week is simply not feasible in these conditions. Therefore, I started splitting that long run up and doing half in the morning and half in the evening. This is a tactic recommended by lots of ultrarunners, marathoners and coaches – your legs don’t have time to recover, so the effect is the same as a long run, but you don’t fatigue as easily, maintain better form (therefore stand less chance of getting injured) and, most importantly, have a few hours to rehydrate and eat between runs.

This protocol worked for a while but then the evening runs just got too hot to continue, so I needed another solution. And while I can grin and bear a 6km brick run or even a 10km training run on the treadmill, the thought of staring at a wall in the gym for two or three hours was always a no-go.

A lot of marathoners nowadays may only do a straight long run once every two or three weeks. As well as doing a double day run, as I was, another tactic they use is to do two mid-distance runs on back-to-back days (you’d usually not run at all the day after your long run). This seemed like it might work and, so, yesterday morning I put it to the test.

Yesterday I headed to Safa Park and managed 17.5km. Doing this mid distance run and knowing that I wasn’t running again till the next day meant I was able to put a bit more effort in.  The first and last laps I did as steady 6min/km warm up/cool down, but the three laps in between I did at steadily increasing paces...it was a great workout.

Last night, I hit the gym for one hour on the stationary bike. The main set was a pyramid of 3, 4, 5, 4 and 3 minute simulated hill climbs pushing against a really big gear in an attempt to ready the legs for the hilly IM Wales course. My legs were a little fatigued from the run but fine on the whole.

Waking up at 5am this morning, I was starting to feel a bit sore but not awful and was looking forward to the second of my back-to-back run mornings. Again, I headed for Safa Park but I knew something was wrong on the first lap – sure, it’s hot here, it’s hot all the time and running is a sweaty, unpleasant mess…but today it was HOT! I just couldn’t cool down – it was as though someone had lit a fire in my head. I managed a warm/up lap and two faster laps on about 5.30/km pace but I had to cut it short and did a cool down lap with plenty of walking just to stop myself from throwing up – I felt light-headed, my heart beat was out of control and I could never imagine being cold again. It was horrible.

Getting back to the car, I downed a litre of water and poured another litre over me. The news on the radio driving home revealed that it’d been 40°C overnight and was currently 42°C but, due to the low clouds and humidity, felt like 46°C. Yep, 46!!! No wonder I’d struggled – running 14km in almost 50°C is lunacy! That’s a temperature for slowly cooking something, not running. Anyway, 31km over the two days isn’t too bad all told.

I’ve tried not to moan about the conditions here too much and find solutions – after all, no one’s making me do Ironman, right – but I have to confess now that I can’t wait to get back to the UK in just a week or so’s time. I’ve one long ride and another back-to-back run day between now and then, so will have to find a way to cope. I keep telling myself that doing all this in these conditions is going to pay off when I return back to the UK (which will be a massive 20 degrees cooler!) so I just hope that is the case and I’m not deluding myself. Planning on putting myself through a 2hr steady run the day I get back, so that should provide some answers.

Anyway, back in the pool for a master’s swim session tonight. Actually, back in the nice, chilled, temperature-controlled pool for a master’s swim tonight...!