With the sweat dripping from my nose, elbows and fingertips

Blood, sweat and tears... or just sweat, sweat and sweat.

Why do we sweat when we get hot? It is the body's way of cooling itself down. When we sweat, our skin gets wet. As all liquids, the sweat evaporates in normal conditions, especially when the skin is hot, and the evaporation process cools the skin. So far so good. However, mind the phrase "in normal conditions". When the air humidity is very high, then the air cannot take up much liquid, and the sweat does not evaporate, regardless of how hot the weather is and how hot you are. When the conditions are like this, the sweat works actually against its purpose. Instead of cooling you down, it covers you with a layer of wetness that adds to the strain of running or training in hot weather.

Here in Bodrum, although I have been starting my runs very early in the morning (I try to finish them before the sun is up, except the really long ones), the temperatures have been around 27 degrees C at the start of my runs. As long as the air is not humid, this still works out pretty well, due to the constant pleasant wind along the shore. However, when the air is humid, even the wind is not enough to dry the sweat, although it of course gives a cooling effect. My pace has been terrible during the recent runs, and I was feeling a bit down about this. But then I started reading about the subject.

It turns out that under the mentioned conditions, one should add about a whole minute to one's pace (min/km). And one should monitor heart rate carefully for interval training, so that one only cares about the heart rate zone and not the speed. The heart rate goes up much higher than normal under such conditions, and pushing it too hard can actually be hazardous. It is also very important to drink plenty. There are a lot of small shops along my route, but their opening times vary a lot, from 5 am to 8 am. So I have to plan my routes carefully to make sure that I always have an open shop every 6-7 km, which sometimes means that I have to go back and forth instead of going all the way to the end during long runs.

Despite the conditions, I have been able to keep up two interval sessions, one or two 12-14 km go-with-the-feeling runs, and one really long slow run (the longest for me so far is 26 km) per week, in addition to two-three strength training sessions and two-three swimming sessions. I am really hoping that all this will result in a big improvement in pace and endurance once I hit the cool weather of Norway.

There is no shortcut to Amsterdam...