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Heat acclimation training can improve performance in hot and cold conditions. It also helps protect against heat injury and is particularly important when training for spring races.
==Introduction==
Training for a spring race requires extra caution as you will have been training through the winter and be unprepared for warm conditions. While a spring race may be cool, there is also a risk of conditions that are warm enough (above 40f) to impair performance (see [Impact of Heat on Marathon Performance] for more details). Heat acclimation training, sometimes called heat adaptation training, can prepare you for these warmer conditions. This type of training is also valuable if you are traveling to a warmer climate for a race, or if you are training in the cool part of the day for a race in the warmer times. In addition, heat acclimation can improve cold weather performance. One study<ref name="performance"/> showed that heat acclimation improved performance in the cold by 6% and by 8% in heat.
* On return to a cool climate, acclimation lasts for about a week, then decays<ref name="Armstron1991"/>
* People who have always lived in hot climates are believed to have superior adaptation<ref name="Noakes"/>
==See Also==
* [[Running in the Heat]]
* [[Perceived Temperature For Runners]] (An experimental chart)
* [[Impact of Heat on Marathon Performance]] (also see [[VDOT Calculator]] which adjusts for heat)
* [[Heat limited running pace]]
== references ==