Heat Cheat

“I really struggle with the heat. It makes me avoid doing any long summer races on the trail, so I usually just stick to shorter road races. Any tips for preparing for and dealing with the heat?”
— Aishah

In his How Or Why series, coach SEAN TAIT, founder and Running technique coach at Off the Mark, digs deeper into specific issues troubling TRAIL readers.

This is a common challenge among runners residing in warmer climates. It only takes two or three bad experiences to turn ourselves off running on hot days, and developing the idea that you can’t run in the heat.

The good news is that although we can’t necessarily change where we live, and most certainly can’t control the weather, we can do a lot of things to make our lives easier on those hot runs and help our body adapt to running in heat.

There are two parts to this response: when