The heat is on

"Be careful what you wish for, 'cause you just might get it." (Eminem)

Istanbul has been really hot the past week. You might remember that I complained about the cold weather in Norway in some posts, and bragged about how pleasant the temperatures early in the morning in Istanbul are. In fact, even though spring started to turn into summer, early mornings kept cool, breezy, and pleasant. Two weeks ago I was running in the forest and it was 10 degrees C when we started at 6 am. But then everything changed suddenly. Yesterday the same spot at the same hour was 20 degrees...

Running along the sea on our usual IstRUNbul early route has required a lot more sweat this week than earlier, and longer weekend runs that continue until 8 or 9 am have started to feel like running in the desert. OK, I am exaggerating, but the weather got very quickly very hot. Much hotter than what is normal for June. On the positive side, the weather is preparing me for the south of Turkey, which is much warmer, where I am headed in a little more than a week. Another positive effect of too hot compared to too warm is that the muscles, joints, and tendons are warm and soft and relaxed and no such part complains about pain or injuries.

But effort-wise it is a lot tougher to run fast in the heat than in the cold. I already experienced a tough hot run during the mountain marathon in Bergen a few weeks ago, and I am now certain that when it comes to how fast you can run and how much you can push yourself, too cold, though not ideal, is better than too hot. I am running quite a bit slower now, in fact most of my friends are. All advice about running in hot weather says that you should not care about the speed, but rather watch your heart rate. Sometimes some of us get dizzy or a too high heart rate and start walking. My body has adjusted quickly and nowadays starts sweating already in the beginning of the run. In the end, all my clothes are completely drenched. Sweating is good; it means that the body is able to adjust and cool down, but it feels unpleasant. Everything becomes slippery, and gear starts gliding and sliding, resulting in sores at the usual places. I have stopped using the heart rate monitor; it is after all bikini season and I do not want too many blemishes all over my body.

I have started to take precautions against the loss of body liquid and salts during training. I am taking some supplements containing a blend of minerals that one looses when one sweats a lot. I have the impression that it works; I feel a lot less tired. After a run, instead of drinking plain water I drink mineral water. I also drink a lot more mineral water than usual also throughout the day. And of course I try to drink much more water than usual in general.

It is interesting how the weather of where we live affects our training for races. In Turkey, most runners prefer the spring races because they are able to train for them throughout the winter in pleasant temperatures though it might rain and even snow every now and then. Preparing for races in the fall is a lot tougher because of the hot summer. In Norway it is the opposite. The pleasant temperatures of the summer, after the cold of winter and spring, give perfect conditions and enough time to prepare for the fall races. This year I will have a mixture of both. Preparing for the fall race in Amsterdam, I still have more than a month of Turkish hot summer, but then come two months of cool and pleasant Norwegian early fall.

In the meanwhile, I am really looking forward to the rain...