Canadian running is such an adventure, from extreme cold weather running in the winter (-20C and colder) to hot and humid in the summer. The prairies don’t tend to be humid but we’ve been experiencing a lot of thunderstorms lately so the humidity is higher than I’m used to. I usually run around 8 am and it is often already in the low 20’s by then. This lady, she’s a sweater, no “glowing” for me anymore, just full on sweat. I’ve started running with a running hat and it keeps the sun off my face and helps a bit with the sweat in the eyes, but last week at the end of my trail run adventure, my eyes were burning as sweat ran in them. I decided I needed to find my little microfibre cloth and put it in my hydration belt to wipe my face. So Friday’s speed workout comes. 22C, humidex at 26C, sunny. By the time I finish my speed intervals, I’m overheated. I’m on the slow recovery part of my run so I deke into one of the public washrooms at the park, soak my hat down and carry on. It helped, but I needed more. I can’t wear less - I’m wearing lightweight running shorts, a nice thin lightweight tank top, short socks. Today’s run - a 10k at the lake. Slight cloud cover (nice!), a slight breeze coming off the water (perfect!), 20ish degrees (fine), thunderstorms in the forecast again today (pffft! Oh well. Moisture is good for our farmers right now). I don my hat, put Tailwind in my water bottle, and decide to bring my Buff along. I twist it to wear it over my wrist to start so it is out of my way and not adding any warmth. I have a few ideas how to use it to cool me down if needed, but even just to be able to wipe the copious amount of sweat off my face will be nice. By 3.5 k, I’m running through the campground so no longer can feel the nice breeze coming off the water, the sun is out full bore, sipping my Tailwind (or choking on it; I can drink water while running, why can’t I drink tailwind without wearing it and choking, sputtering?!?). I’m hot and my legs are heavy. This is supposed to be my long “easy” run today. I find a water spout and SOAK my buff. Not lightly wet it, I SOAK it. Now, how should I wear it? I decide to just wear it like a necklace, loosely draped around my neck. The difference is immediate! I INSTANTLY feel cooler, I find my groove, my legs are still heavy (last week’s trail run was harder on them than I realized) but my run feels so much easier! 2k later, I spin the buff 180 degrees so the front is now on my neck and it is still nice and cold. Relief again. By 8k I decide to resoak it, but this time I also soak my hat. I now have cold water running down my front, my back, my face.... my head is cool. I finished my run with a bang! I continued on to 10.5 k so I could end powering up a hill I usually avoid. Felt great! I often wondered why you see trail runners and ultra runners wearing their buff around their neck in pictures and now I know! Try it, you’ll be amazed and surprised!
Hot weather running - my 💡moment - Bridge to 10K
Hot weather running - my 💡moment
Great post!! Lovely to read about a completely different terrain / climate to ours. Well actually has been pretty hot and humid here too. Thanks for the tip! Happy running. 😊
Yes, I recall a few posts about your heat wave so thought this may help a few out. The humidity has been tough to acclimate to.
Suffocating to run in. 🤐
Great tip Saska! Next week in the UK is supposed to be hot and sticky but obviously not as hot as your temperatures. But I'll try this one! I hate running in the heat and am sweating just reading your post 😰 but I kept thinking of the cold beer you deserved afterwards 😋
I have dunked my whole head in water before going out for some hot runs and that helps a lot too. Oh to be in winter * sigh*
I’m not wishing for winter yet. That’s a whole different set of challenges i’m not ready to go back to yet. With back to back hot sticky runs though, my shorts kept creeping up today and I thought my thighs were going to chafe wearing my “good” shorts. Fortunately I just had to keep pulling them down. If thus humidity sticks around, I might have to start using Body glide on my thighs 😖. Winter I worry about frostbite and frozen eyelashes, summer it’s overheating and chafing. But I wouldn’t change a thing! Running makes me so happy 😊
Of course your winters are much worse than ours. My husband use to live in Canada and use to run there so he tells me plenty of horror stories. But it sounds as if Bodyglide should become your next friend 🙂
😂 I think so
Go Allie...you did your long (easy?) run!😀.. when did 10.5k become easy...?😉 this buff soaking idea is great, I can't wait to give it a try. I'm beginning to feel better now and starting to plan my next run. One more day of Antibiotics, then hopefully I will be hopping off the ic with a little 8k.
Hope your son's birthday party is going well😊xx
It’s crazy to think of a 10k run as “easy” but with all the speed runs and hills, it’s all about keeping it slow and steady at a conversational pace. The campground was quite busy so had to keep my singing in check 🤫. Wouldn’t want the campers thinking there was a dying animal 😆. It is so nice to feel like a run can go on forever versus being completely knackered at the end like my last few have been.
I’m glad to hear you’re making it off the IC soon. It’s tough not being able to run and feeling crappy. Soon...very soon... you’ll be back at it, whipping out an easy 8k 😊.
Oops... hit post too soon. The party is going well. We’re in the middle of quite the thunder storm so the boys are boat bound but they’re quite an artistic group and are collaborating on making their own comic. They got sugared up, were out running in the rain and are now back just as the thunder restarted to carry on with comic creating. I love seeing them use their imaginations.
Sounds like a strong run SaskAlliecat , the buff tip is great, not sure how hot our heatwave is going to be, they promise us one every year just to keep our hopes up but it’ll be nothing like the temperatures you run in I’m guessing....phew, I’m like a beacon on my runs! I’m sweating just reading your post!! 😓
I try not to complain about the heat given winter is so long and cold but it definitely brings it’s own set of challenges. If I wasn’t such a creature of habit, I could maybe get out sooner but I must have my cup of coffee and breakfast before running. I try to get out before the sun is too intense.
Thanks for the tip Allie, I have just asked for advice about running in the heat on another thread so I’m so glad I just saw this!
Sounds like you had a great run despite the conditions though 😊
Glad I could be of help 😊
Great place to run, but wow that heat!! I get the same problem, I sweat like a pig. I always take my buff or wipe my eyes on my top! I love the wet buff idea, I will need to give that a bash....
I never though of myself as a sweater before, but since restarting running after my hysterectomy, I definitely belong to the sweat like a pig category. It just means we’re working hard and doing right by our bodies 😁.
So true, I am going through the menopause at the moment and I’m sure I deliver at least 1 bucket of sweat per day ( at least half at night)!!
Sweating is good for cooling you down but when the salt stings your eyes it's a real pain. I have started wearing a hat which soaks up the sweat and stops it ruining into my eyes. It needs a rinse out after every run at the moment. My drinking water cools me as like you, half of it misses my mouth if I try and drink while running!
Who knew drinking could be so hard 😂. The hat seems to help with the sweat in the eyes problem. I’m not a huge hat fan so was still wearing my buff up to a few weeks ago which soaks up the sweat ok but I’ve actually come to like running with my hat.
I run in the south of France in summer, a couple of years ago I was given advice by someone here( Vixchile where are you?) who runs in Chile. She told me soak your hair before you go out, and yes, carry a wet cloth. I do indeed wear mine around my neck, swapping between front and back, and it certainly helps. By the way, I've found I'm cooler if I cover up - I wear a loose short sleeved top rather than a vest, and knee lengths rather than short shorts.
Interesting point in covering up more keeping you cooler. I assume you’re wearing a thin technical shirt? I may have to look into this and try it (perhaps on a shorter run first) but it really seems backwards. I can’t wrap my head around it. The science geek in me wants to know How? Why?
Keeps the sun off your skin I suppose...
Fair enough. Will need to give it a try.
I can totally relate to this. I ran a 10k race on the West Coast (Ucluelet, Edge to Edge) and it hit 30 degrees that day. It was mighty tough. All hills, sun beating down on you. I wasn't able to run it all. Too hot! I couldn't get my body temp down. I was still reasonably happy with my finishing time and know I could have finished more quickly if it hadn't been so hot. Next time I run I'm going to try the wet Buff around my neck. Thanks for that! We've been having high humidity and unbearable temperatures lately in BC. If the weather stays like this I will stick to shorter runs for the summer.
I couldn't imagine racing in that temp! Good on you 💪. Give the wet Buff a try. I can’t get over what a difference it made. I’m not willing to give up my longer runs and I have a 10k trail race in September so we must find a way to keep it tolerable.
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