It took me a while to understand it, but with maturity, I finally did. Training consists of two separate and different elements: Work and recovery. They are equally important, and they complement each other. Their symbiosis confirms the Aristotelian saying that the whole is more than the sum of the parts.
Recently, I heard that the second element is labeled as The Invisible Training.
It got me thinking about a classic Emil Zatopek quote where he states: âWhat you do when the stadium is full is important, but what you do when the stadium is empty is a thousand times more important.â
For us amateur weekend warriors, a standing ovation at an Olympic stadium is no more than a pleasant dream. Yet, well into the XXI Century, each one of us has the equivalent of our own Olympic stadium, and we have become addicted to that standing ovation of kudos Strava, followers on Facebook, and likes on Instagram. These may be cool for many, but they wonât get you any better.
As Zatopek (a 4-time Olympic gold medalist and multi-world record breaker) said, that is not the key to success. It is what we do outside the limelight that counts. A thousand times more.
âş It is the strength training that will help you get stronger, more resilient, have a better form, and make you injury resistant.
âş it is the physical therapy you do to take care of your bones, muscles, and soft tissues. Not just face-to-face with a professional, but as a prehab to avoid a recurring injury.
âş It is your daily nutrition that allows your body enough of the good stuff to repair itself and be appropriately fueled for your activity.
âş It is the hydration throughout the day that will allow you to sustain a hard run even in the harshest of weather conditions.
âş It is the scheduled recovery for your body to adapt to the stress we have put it through and accepting that sometimes it will require more time.
âş It is understanding that sleep is the champion of recovery tools in your arsenal and that lack of sleep is not a badge of honor.
âş It is accumulating knowledge about the sport and the function of your body, which will allow you to understand whatâs happening and why.
âş It is the evaluation of your training, especially when you have bonked or screwed up, and accepting it as an opportunity to learn and build experience.
âş It is living a balanced life, one where your job, your family, and your friends wonât be neglected, and end up resenting you and your running.
âş It is allowing yourself to have fun outside your running life. Keeping it all in perspective and always remembering why you are doing this.
These are just ten of hundreds of parameters of what is encompassed within the realm of invisible training.
In summary, everything you do while you are not running is equally essential to the running time.
Yes, it all sounds intuitive, simple, even obvious. But weâve all fallen into the trap of only accepting hard work as worthwhile training. And to many, an injury has taught us how wrong we were. My wish is that this brief writing will help avoid the injury part for you, dear reader.
Share your thoughts in the box below so other runners may benefit from your experience.
No sugar coating it: Running in the heat and humidity of the summer sucks. It does. However, if we want to remain active during these challenging summer months of running and have any chance of having a solid racing season come fall, we must continue training. And to make hot weather running enjoyable and safe, the only way is by making substantial adjustments.
I’ve shared summer running tips every year since I began blogging, but this time I decided to do something different. I have gone through my previous writings on the issue and consolidated the tips. These, plus a handful of new ones I’ve added, bring the final count of summer running tips to 39.
To be clear, nobody expects you to apply all 39 of these hot weather running tips on every run. These are just guidelines and suggestions with very short explanations to get your thoughts started. I have included links to posts where I have explored the issues in more depth. And if you’re looking for more background or science behind these summer running safety tips, a quick Google search will point you in the right direction.
So, without further ado, here they are:
1 – Listen to your body â If you feel dizzy, nauseated, or overheated, don’t hesitate to stop, cut the run short, seek shade, ask for help, or just call it a day.
2 – Recognize heat stroke symptoms â Know the difference between exhaustion and heat stroke and familiarize yourself with warning signs like confusion, rapid pulse, or clammy skin.
3 – Hydrate all day â Hydration should be a 24/7 habit that keeps you close to fully hydrated by the time you start your GPS watch.
4 –Don’t overhydrateâ Overindulging in water or sports drinks can cause hyponatremia, a condition in which diluted sodium levels may lead to seizures, coma, or worse.
5 – Use electrolytesâ Supplementing with sodium, potassium, and magnesium helps your body retain and use the fluids you’re drinking more effectively.
6 – Run early or late â Run before sunrise or after sunset to avoid the most extreme heat and protect your body from overexertion.
7 – Monitor the heat indexâ Skip your outdoor workout if it’s over 98°F with more than 70â80% humidity, as your risk of overheating skyrockets.
8 – Slow down your pace â Running in the heat is harder, so let go of your pace goals and focus on effort instead of speed.
9 – Accept higher perceived effort â A rise in core temperature, not lactate or heart rate, becomes the main fatigue limiter in hot conditions.
10 – Use effort and time, not pace â In summer, pace and heart rate can be unreliable, so go by effort and run by minutes instead of distance.
11 – Recognize the signs of dehydration â Watch for fatigue, brain fog, darker urine, dizziness, or a dry mouthâthese may all signal fluid imbalance.
12 – Prehydrate before long runs â Do not cram your hydration; it doesn’t work that way. Hydrate throughout the day and days, not just before your run.
13 – Rehydrate after running â After a sweaty session, replace fluids with water or an electrolyte drink. Not only as soon as you’re done but throughout the day.
14 – Dress light and bright â Light-colored, loose, and moisture-wicking clothing helps reflect sunlight and allow sweat to evaporate more easily.
15 – Train in the shade â Routes with trees or buildings that block direct sun can be 10â15°F cooler and far more comfortable, and safer.
16 – Freeze your gear â Put your shirt and hat in the freezer before a run to delay overheating and make the first few miles more tolerable.
17 – Take short breaks â Stop for 1â3 minutes during a hot run to drink, throw water on your head, or reset your effort perception.
18 – Use water for recovery â Jumping into a pool, cold bath, or even running through sprinklers post-run can drop your core temp and revive you.
19 â Know where the water is â If you don’t know where the reliable water sources are, run with a handheld bottle or hydration pack.
20 – Run indoors if needed â If conditions are extreme, choose a treadmill or indoor track to get your miles without the heat risk.
21 – Build heat tolerance gradually â It takes a few weeks to acclimate, so ease into hot-weather running instead of diving into hard efforts.
22 â Move workouts around when necessary â Move long or intense workouts to cooler days and use weather apps to plan smarter each week.
23 – Use a heart rate monitor â Heat elevates heart rate, so monitor it to avoid overexertion while running.
24 – Expect it to suck â The first few weeks of heat running will feel awful, but your body will adjust and it will suck less. Proceed with caution.
25 â Adjust your training plan â In very hot climates, push harder workouts like long tempos to the fall and focus on base-building instead.
26 – Exploit cooler days â When temperatures drop, use the opportunity for a strong tempo or threshold session to boost confidence.
27 – Don’t obsess over metrics â During summer training, forget about pace, Strava comparisons, or even distanceâsurvival and consistency are the priority.
28 – Take advantage of trails â Shaded trails provide natural cooling, softer surfaces, and often more enjoyable running when it’s hot out.
29 – Eat hydrating foods â Boost your fluid intake by eating fruits and veggies like watermelon, cucumber, and oranges, which are 80â90% water.
30 – Beware of diuretics â Limit high doses of caffeine or alcohol around runs, as they increase urination and risk of dehydration.
Learn how to gauge your level of exhaustion (Photo: Tima Miroshnichenko, Pexels)
31 – Set hydration reminders â Pair water intake with daily habits like brushing your teeth, meals, or use phone alerts to stay on track.
32 – Sip, don’t guzzle â Drink water steadily throughout the day and during your run to avoid bloating and improve absorption.
33 â Internalize year-round hydration strategies â Treat hydration like a year-round discipline, not just something to focus on when it’s hot.
34 – Know your sweat rate â If you’re a heavy sweater, you may need more fluids and sodium than the average runner.
35 – Pair hydration with daily habits â Combine drinking water with routines like meals, workouts, or bedtime to form easy-to-remember habits.
36 – Double instead of going long â On non-long run days, two shorter sessions may be safer than a longer push under the brutal heat. Consider it if needed.
37 – Use treadmill for quality work â Use a treadmill to maintain pace accuracy or intensity when outdoor heat makes it unsafe.
38 – Keep someone informed â Always tell a friend or loved one your planned route and expected return time, or use live tracking apps.
39 – Know the line between tough and dumb â Being smart and cautious during summer training keeps you healthy and able to run tomorrow.
Did I miss anything, or would you like to contribute to the list? Please do so in the comment box below.
With Summer around the corner, maybe already here if you are reading this a few days after publication, it\’s essential to adjust your running routines to ensure a safe and effective experience. Running in hot weather requires intentional modifications to prevent dehydration, heat-related injuries, and negative impact on your fitness. These are 12 quick tips for summer running.
1 – Slow Down: Running in the heat is physically demanding, and your body requires more effort to maintain the same pace. Embrace the reality of running at a slower pace to accommodate the increased effort it requires. It\’s about maintaining the level of perceived effort rather than focusing on speed. It doesnât matter if it screws your Strava averages.
Running safely during the summer is perfectly possible, but it requires planning (Photo: Pexels)
2 – Plan Your Hydration: Proper hydration is crucial during summer runs. Plan your routes around areas with ample fluid sources or strategically seed water along your route in advance. Remember to consume water at scheduled intervals, before you feel thirsty, which may indicate dehydration has already set in.
3 â Overhydration is a Thing: While staying hydrated is important, be cautious about overdoing your water intake. Drinking in excess can lead to hyponatremia, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by dilution of sodium levels in the blood. Stay hydrated throughout the day, not just while you run, and ensure your urine is lightly colored as a sign of healthy hydration.
6 – Dress Appropriately: Opt for light-colored clothing, which reflects more light and deflects heat. Avoid wearing long sleeves, long pants, or outfits designed to induce excessive sweating, as these can hinder your body\’s ability to cool down.
7 â Freeze Your Running Clothes: Sounds weird, but if you place your running shirt and hat in the freezer and you put them on just before you leave home, your body will cool down, and delay the inevitable. Sure, it will get hot anyway, but isnât it better for it to start at mile 2 or 3 than at the first step?
8 – Stay Connected: Carry your mobile phone during runs. Inform somebody of your whereabouts and expected return time. Consider using apps or services that allow loved ones to track your real-time location for added safety.
Click this image to see the correlation between relative humidity and temperature
9 – Factor in Humidity: If you train in a high-humidity region, be aware that running in saturated air requires more effort compared to drier conditions. Adjust your expectations and accept that maintaining the pace may require additional effort, so you may have to run shorter. Mental preparation and acknowledging this difference may help you stay motivated.
10 – Adjust Your Training Schedule: Be flexible with your schedule, especially if you\’re preparing for a fall marathon. Should the weather conditions be extreme, consider rescheduling long runs or intense sessions to a more suitable time of day. Avoid pushing too hard in unfavorable conditions to prevent extreme exhaustion and/or injuries.
11 – Choose Shaded Routes: Plan your routes intelligently by selecting paths that offer ample shade. This will help shield you from direct sunlight and reduce heat exposure, making your runs more comfortable and safer.
12 – Listen to Your Body: Don\’t be a hero. If you feel dizzy, fatigued, or overheated, don\’t hesitate to stop, cut the run short, seek shade, ask for assistance, or just call it a day. Prioritize your safety and well-being, as taking these precautions will aid in faster recovery and enable you to resume running sooner.
13 – Differentiate Exhaustion from Heat Stroke: It\’s crucial to distinguish between normal exhaustion due to heat and a potentially life-threatening heat stroke. Familiarize yourself with the symptoms of heat stroke to avoid any severe consequences. Refer to the graphic below, borrowed from www.weather.org, for a comprehensive understanding of heat stroke symptoms.
Learning this information could save your life
Running during the summer months is possible with the right adjustments and precautions. Many of the worldâs greatest marathons, such as Berlin, New York and Chicago, take place in the fall, which means you must train during summer. By planning ahead, making smart choices, and prioritizing safety, you may continue training effectively and ensuring a smooth transition into the upcoming racing season.
Always err on the side of caution and enjoy running while staying safe.
When I started running marathons back in the early 1980s, the only fueling strategy available to most weekend warriors was to drink enough water so you wouldnât dehydrate. Yes, I know. This is not a fueling strategy. But consuming calories during a race was not a thing back then. The most calories I consumed during a marathon were when a friend handed me oranges al mile 15 or my girlfriend waited with a sugary lemonade around Mile 21. No wonder I hit the wall every time.
Carbohydrates with a bit of protein is still the pre race day preferred meal (Photo: Engyn Akyurt, Pexels)
But both science and the running consumer goods industry have developed exponentially in the last 4 decades. Not only do we know that the average body doesnât have enough resources (beyond fat if you have trained to properly tap into it) to last you 26.2 miles, but we also have dozens of products to assist us on which calories should be consumed and when.
Despite the average body having enough fat stored to run over 1000 miles, and the first known 100-miler without fueling was recorded just a few months ago, most runners are not trained to run on fat as their prime fuel source. So, we depend on glycogen, of which we have a finite amount, around 2000 calories, which is needed to fuel everything, not just your running muscles, so it is insufficient to last a marathon.
When it comes to fueling, it is not just about the gels you will consume in your race. There are four distinctive phases you need to address. From the list below, the âDuring Raceâ segment is not intended for 5K or 10k efforts, as an average well-nourished and well hydrated body should have plenty of resources for those distances. While most intermediate and advanced runners should be able to complete a half marathon with no additional fuel, it isnât required, either. But when you go for a marathon or an ultra, you must fuel the body, so your tank wonât deplete, and you wonât hit the wall. And yes, it is like hitting aa actual wall.
DAY BEFORE RACE â By this time you should know what works and what doesnât work for you. As healthy as a big bowl of salad may be, consuming all that fiber right before a race may not be a clever idea. Complex carbs and protein are usually what work best. Fatty foods should be avoided, same as simple carbs. The carbs in a bag of Doritos will be burned way before you need them at the race and are crap. It is obvious that your pre-race fueling strategy is not just a dinner thing, but a full day affair if not a full week one. Also, please, you need to dine at a time that will allow enough time to digest it. Last thing you want is compromising your digestion within hours of the starting gun.
PRE-RACE â Your body consumes glycogen and other resources just by being alive. The brain, the liver, the beating heart, etc. need energy to perform their duties. So, to get to the starting line with your tank topped off you need to replenish whatever was consumed during the night, if you have a morning race, or during the day for an afternoon affair. You can certainly run short races in a fasting state, but when it comes to a half and beyond, why would you start with your tank at 70-75% when you can do so at 98 or 99%? Carbohydrates and a touch of protein is the way to go. And, as usual, this must be perfected during training. Donât wait until race morning to try it out.
Chocolate milk is the post-race refueling product by excellence. This is my favorite brand.
DURING RACE â Fueling strategy is as personal as your choice in running shoes. It is what works for you, not for your friend. Your fueling strategy on race day is the execution of the plan youâve already perfected during training. So, apply it! Mile 20 is not the time to figure out a caffeinated gel will send you to the port-a-potty, or that you canât stomach a 5th serving. Fueling also includes replenishing electrolytes either though a product you already know, trust and you carry yourself, or through whatever your race is serving. Personally, I donât advise relying on the availability of Gatorade in a race. After youâve invested so much time, money, emotion and effort on your race, better carry what youâll need and know works for you.
AFTER RACE â Once your race is over, it is time to splurge, sure, but donât rehydrate with alcohol and junk food. That comes later. Both carbs and protein need to be consumed as soon as possible to replenish and start the muscle repair process right away. Chocolate milk is the recovery drink for excellence. This is the day to go crazy. Have all the extra beer you want, that fatty burger you passed on during training or go for the entire pizza instead of just a couple of slices. But please do so after youâve taken care of your initial post-race care recovery.
Written by Christie Aschwanden Reviewed by Coach Adolfo Salgueiro
I heard of Christie Aschwanden a few months ago when she was as a guest on a running podcast that I follow. She was talking about recovery and she seemed very well versed in the subject. Not only that, but her experience in high-performance athletics as well as her background as an award-winning science journalist at The Washington Post and The New York Times, made me feel she was legit. The host also mentioned she had written a book on recovery, so I immediately ordered it.
A good book worth the money and time investment for anyone wanting to know more about athletic recovery.
As weekend warriors we tend to forget that our hard workouts, our weightlifting sessions, or our long runs will do nothing for us unless we allow our bodies to recover and adapt to what we just put them through. There will be no adaptation if we donât rest and fuel ourselves properly. âGood to Go. What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recoveryâ will help you gauge the different elements of recovery and put them in the right perspective.
The book is a tour through the many aspects of athletic recovery. It covers the things âeverybody knowsâ through the ones that seem kind of way out there in the âsnake oilâ category. You can discern her journalistic and scientific background in her writing as she explored the many angles of each aspect of the science of recovery. I am not going to say that I read the papers she quotes to make up my mind on any aspect of what she presents, but if you start from the premise she is a solid researcher, as she seems to be, and an honest journalist, you will be impressed with what she presents in her book.
âGood to Goâ is divided into 11 chapters. Each one goes in depth about an aspect of recovery. Nutrition, hydration, rest, compression, ice therapy, sleep, etc. They are individually treated and from several angles. With pros and cons, science research to back everything up, and the authorâs personal experience trying many of the techniques and fads. Because the book was published in 2019, the author had access to the latest science and updates available, so you can learn a lot of new things.
The hydration chapter is fascinating. It goes through the history of the development of hydration as a science and how the sports drinks industry has taken over to popularize many myths that have become gospel in the endurance sports world. It is not that Gatorade doesnât work, but it is not what it is marketed out to be either. You need to adapt your body to use its fluid resources wisely and then assist it with hydration while it works. A certain level of dehydration is perfectly normal. You donât need to replenish every drop you sweat.
The author is an award-winning science journalist at The Washington Post and The New York Times.
As for fueling, I found was very interested in her debunking of the myth that there is a window of opportunity to feed your body after you wrap up your training. Weâve all heard that the magic window is the first hour, or even 30 minutes. She explains the science behind this and concludes that there is no âwindow of opportunityâ but a âbarn door of opportunityâ. Your body is not going to reject the nutrient it needs just because they were offered too late for them to be absorbed. She concludes that unless you are to work out or compete again in a short period of time, there is no necessity to start refueling right away.
When it comes to sleep, there is one paragraph that blew my mind: âThe benefits of sleep cannot be overstated. It is hands-down the most powerful recovery tool known to science. Nothing else comes close to sleepâs enhancing-recovery powers. You could add together every other recovery aid ever discovered, and they wouldnât stack up. Going to sleep is like taking your body to the repair shop. While you doze, your bodyâs recovery processes ramp up to fix the damage you did during the day and get you ready to perform againâ. Do you need to know anything else?
Of course I am synopsizing in one paragraph what I liked the most about entire chapters of about 20+ pages, with scientific quotations, personal experiences and field studies. What I am stating here is by no means the entire book, just a few comments to whet your appetite if you would like to learn more about these subjects.
The author also goes into detail on issues such as nutritional supplements, overtraining syndrome, and the placebo effect, providing you with scientific based information from several angles. These subjects, in conjunction with the other ones, will make you question some pre-conceived concepts you may have, and make you wonder if youâve been approaching your recovery all wrong.
By the way, the bookâs conclusion is that good sleep trumps every other aspect of recovery, so focus on that first. The rest is just icing on the cake.
âGood to Go. What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recoveryâ is not only a good book, worth the money and time invested in it. It is also well written, very entertaining, and will leave you with valuable lessons that will make you a better athlete.
![\"\"](\"https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2e49f525bf02ce9657df92/7f7e168e-ed2e-4527-851c-5c44b341a05c/Man.png\")
