I'm wondering how often people generally need to go out and run to maintain their level of fitness - not necessarily improve it, just keep it where it is. I live in the south of Spain, and the heat is killing me! The only time it's cool enough to consider running is first thing in the morning, preferably before 7, but my partner and I help at a local animal charity first thing five times a week, with just weekends off.
So, will running once a week, just on Saturdays, until we get to cooler weather, cause me to lose my hard earned ability to run for thirty minutes at a time? If only there were a fitnessy pause button I could press until we get to September and it starts being manageable again!
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sophistikitty
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That looks very hot indeed! Good idea to cut down a bit. Perhaps introduce some swimming as an alternative to one of your weekly runs? When I have been in maintenance mode, I have followed the advice in this article: runnersworld.com/for-beginn... which says you can cut down your training volume with one third and still maintain fitness.
I spent three months in the Middle East last year, day time temps got up to 42 C in June!
We literally got up sometimes a couple of hours before sunrise to be able to WALK! So 4:00 am rises were not unusual. We had to be off the hill by 8:00, by which time it was already too hot, until the sun went down at 7:30 in the evening.
So yes most of my limited exercise was carried out in the dark, and was mostly some sort of hill walking.
A relatively cool 26C today here. Its a Rest day for me but if I were going out the door it would be with the mindset that NO WAY am I going to push things. But I do think that even five minutes of actual running is valuable just to keep my 'muscle memory' somewhat intact Do be careful though people - an experienced runner guy in California died during a 5k fun run over there yesterday because of the temps
We're wondering about something inside with the air con on! Maybe bodyweight exercises done fast enough to make it a cardio workout. Sadly swimming is less of an option as we're a bit of a way from the coast (also I found when living on a boat that swimming fitness didn't do me much good when I started running).
And wow, I was sort of figuring that a relatively short run wasn't likely to cause too many issues, at least in terms of heat exhaustion or heatstroke. Although it did strike me this morning, at quarter to eight when the sun was very very hot and the sweat was pouring down my face, that maybe a bottle of water would have been a good idea.
It's kind of irrelevant really, you can only do what you can do!
That said the suggestion of doing some other activity on days you can't run is a good one, swimming's been mentioned, and you could work on maintaining your strength and flexibility. Arguably this is one of those situations where a treadmill can be a boon.
If you've been running regularly for a while then potentially you could get away with running both weekend days if you wanted. If you are still getting out there weekly I think you'd not drop away much if at all before cooler weather arrives.
But fitness is a broad concept in my view and I am sure you are contributing to your all round fitness in the voluntary work you are doing.
I ran yesterday at 6 am in 26 degrees and was OK. But it's about my limit - I couldn't get my hair dry after my shower because I was still sweating too much! And I see people running in temperatures I couldn't cope with, so I think you can train your body to deal with heat. I'm certainly better than I was last year. But I must admit 8am would be about my time limit for a run where you are. Can you go out immediately after your charity work, or try to get up even earlier, just for a half hour trot?
By the time we're back from the charity it's definitely too late - we did try beforehand once, but because we're also fostering kittens ourselves factoring in time to run, shower, clean out and feed the kittens and gulp down some coffee it becomes quite off-puttingly early. And bed calls.
We did run all through summer last year, but we were getting up ridiculously early anyway because of a very restless cat. I wonder how boring jogging on the spot for half an hour in the air conditioned living room would be...
It won't do any good whatsoever for Cardio, but just thinking what about the strength & flex podcasts, which would at least keep your muscles toned up? And then whatever you can at weekends?
I'll see if what I write this time is at all similar... and if it actually gets posted...
Your temperature chart backs up what I often say - mornings are cooler than evenings. But I have to be out of the house before 7 in the week, so that's hard enough as it is without trying to fit a run in.
I'm a bit of a Goldilocks runner normally - winter is too cold, wet and windy and summer is too hot and humid here. But occasionally I surprise myself, like this week when I managed a "fast" 5k in the late afternoon. I have been running for over 4 years now though (when the conditions are "just right ) and have lived here long enough to be quite acclimatised. Don't feel guilty about not getting out during the week if you can't run when it's cooler.
In terms of maintaining your fitness, a slow run at the weekend for half an hour (if this is what you have reached so far) is a good start. Then during the week, in the cool of your AC (not jealous at all, but I don't have any in my house!!) you can do some aerobic fitness exercises using YouTube or a DVD. Half an hour a couple of times a week would be much better than nothing. You can also work on your core with some core strengthening exercises, and do squats and lunges daily to maintain your leg muscle strength. Plenty to keep you going there!
I wrote a reply to someone else earlier and it vanished too!
It's definitely cooler in the mornings than the evenings. It's 9pm and still 36 degrees outside! Which is due to a heatwave, but even so.
I'm a pretty recent graduate, so at the moment I'm just keeping up with the half hour runs - and I think trying to push past that is a project for after summer.
The AC isn't quite as good as it sounds; we bought a baby portable one, which isn't remotely big enough to cool a room the size of our living room, but it does take the edge off. And the house stays cooler much longer than the outside world does. Hopefully some indoor exercising will stop too much backtracking
I bought a portable AC and it's terrible. Makes a right racket and has to have an extractor tube going outside, much like a tumble dryer. But the thing you're meant to put in the window opening isn't tall enough for my windows, so you end up with some open window which doesn't make sense to me. AND the thing generates a whole load of heat, so I've given up with it.
I want to sell it on 2nd hand as it's hardly used, but I don't know that I've got much of a sales pitch going!!!
I keep the blinds down on the side the sun is aiming at and that really does help.
Ours is a bit pathetic, and yes we have to have a window open, but it does make this lovely triangular oasis of cool in the area directly in front of it.
We keep the curtains closed on the sunny side too, but our house has very little insulation and a metal roof, so it does heat up a lot.
I've said before but this is why I run on a treadmill in the ac! It's rarely below 30ish here, mid twenties during the night at best, sometimes Monsoon's, always humid!! Got to do what you can do and as John rightly points out no point killing yourself in the process!
Rope jump is an excellent way of keeping fit .... do it inside with the air con on ... build up to 10 minutes you should do 120 skips per minute when fit. Do as many skips as you can in ten minutes trying every day to improve.
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Do be careful though people - an experienced runner guy in California died during a 5k fun run over there yesterday because of the temps 
) and have lived here long enough to be quite acclimatised. Don't feel guilty about not getting out during the week if you can't run when it's cooler.
How to fit it all in?
Run to keep fit or Keep Fit to run?
holy fitness, Batman!
What's your Fitness/Speed improvement?
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