Adjusting running pace for temp and HR
I'm sure this has been covered, at least in part, but cannot find. So I was thinking yesterday while running in 85F degrees and humid conditions: For a race, in my case 2 HIMs this season, should I be adjusting my pace for change in HR caused by heat, humidity or just hilly conditions? It seems to make sense that my Z3 or Z4 cannot be based on times alone since my HR in "unfriendly" conditions will be higher. Looking 2 weeks out, they are forecast weather in the 90's for Vineman 70.3. also racing an Oly this weekend and forecast is hot/humid. Thoughts?
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Since you are training record the temps and your own pacing numbers just for the fun of it you may learn something.
I have been looking at this exact topic. One thing I have found is it is more to do with the dew point. Since I read it on the internet, it must be true. But....I have "felt" the difference. Add the temperature and the dew point. 130-149 the tough workouts will be pretty tough but doable. RPE will be higher but manageable, obviously the lower the better. Above 150 and hold on. It's definitely a challenge. Tough workouts will be hard to finish. I did an easy run off the bike while it was a combine score of 155. 81 degrees and 74 dew point. I could barely manage z1 pace with RPE around zone 3 and HR in the 170s. 25-30 beats higher than normal. Today I had a combined score of 142, Dew Point of 69 and temperature 73 and the 2 x 1.5 mile z4 intervals were hard but not crazy. Both intervals happened to be slightly faster than z4 but more because the RPE was not as hard as it has been.
Even last night's run with a combined score of 150 wasn't too bad (81 t and 69 D). RPE much lower than the 85 Temp and 75 Dew Point nastiness.
One of the suggestions is don't reduce pace or effort. Just reduce the amount of time doing the interval. That is a tough one for me to take, however. What's better several intervals to get my session in or reduce the speed to do the session and it's prescribed time?
I'm with you on the dew point. Nothing evaporates in DC right now. I mean nothing. My cycling jerseys weigh five pounds when I come back inside. T shirts drenched in 15 minutes @ z1.
Here are a couple of runs that I have done this week. Course is along the same route. Both 8 mile runs. One at 78 degrees with 73 dew point. The other at 71 degrees with 69 dew point. I have two other runs but one was at 86 degrees at 71 dew point and that really skews it for the worse. The prescribed runs were 2 miles warm up, 5 miles steady and last mile z3. I took steady to be z2 MP.
Run 1
Entire run: 58:05 (8.02 miles) 173 AVG HR.
Mile 1 is 7:32 for NGP 7:43 Skewed because warm up mile always is all over the place.
Mile 2 is 7:56 for NGP 7:27 Avg Hr 163 Max 168
Mile 3 is 7:04 for NGP 7:43 Love the downhills. Avg Hr 167 max 171
Mile 4 is 7:05 for NGP 7:09 avg 172 max 175
Mile 5 is 7:04 for NGP 7:00 Avg hr 176 max 180
Mile 6 is 7:15 for NGP 6:54 Avg Hr 179 max 184 Ugh, up hills.
Mile 7 is 7:25 for NGP 7:08 Avg hr 181 max 185
Mile 8 is 6:36 for NGP 6:55 Avg HR 184 max 188
Run # 2.
Entire run: 57:08 (8.01 Miles) 164 Avg HR.
Mile 1 is7:38 for NGP 7:49
Mile 2 is 7:52 for NGP 7:37
Mile 3 is 6:59 for NGP 7:10 Avg Hr 158 Max 162
Mile 4 is 6:54 for NGP 6:59 Avg Hr 164 Max 167
Mile 5 is 6:57 for NGP 7:00 Avg HR 167 Max 172
Mile 6 is 7:04 for NGP 6:42 Avg Hr 167 Max 173
Mile 7 is 7:07 for NGP 6:51 Avg Hr 170 Max 174
Mile 8 is 6:30 for NGP 6:37 Avg Hr 176 Max 180
After running in the heat and seeing the RPE very high for paces that weren't hard earlier in the year. A cool day and some looking over data is very much a confidence booster. Both efforts were good efforts. But a few degrees in temperature and dew point are very big difference makers. 10 HR beats is a lot for RPE as the second run felt awesome as the first felt miserable. The first run was fresh as I had not run in a few days. Run two was after 4 of the same exact runs aka...not fresh. This is very telling for me and glad I saw this.