Ladies,
Great workout today! We had at least four girls make the 5 miles today, and most of the rest did 4 or more. We're edging up, and that's what we should be doing. Just remember, when we make a mileage adjustment such as today, we want to watch pace closely. This is especially true under our current weather conditions. As of this writing, it's 84 degrees, dew point is 75 degrees, and relative humidity is 79%. By now you are probably hearing, "Whuh WHAAH, whuh-whuh WHAAAAH!" Let me break it down so you understand why those numbers matter.
The human body is a remarkable feat of natural engineering. You have a built-in coolant system based on water. By shedding water to the surface of your skin, the evaporative process carries heat from your body. Each little drop of sweat potentially carries a portion of heat away from you. Thousands of sweat drops carry away most of the heat, leaving you at a more comfortable temperature.
Now enter weather conditions. When dew point and relative humidity levels exceed a certain level, the evaporative process is hindered. Air can only hold so much moisture at any given temperature (relative humidity), and at a certain temperature it can't hold any more at all (dew point). If the actual temperature is near the dew point, sweat won't evaporate. You don't cool. Your body tries harder to produce sweat that doesn't evaporate, and soon you are soaked, and after that dehydrated, and after that either heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
Obviously we have to be careful. It may not be that "hot" yet, but you better believe these conditions stress you. We will reduce pace when conditions dictate, and today, they did. Let's see if this sounds familiar... you were running fine at first, maybe for the first two or three miles, then suddenly you felt awful. As you begin to dehydrate, you will feel sudden drops in energy, cramping in muscles, and maybe even nausea.
There's more. Since air can hold water, when it's humid, a lungful of air holds less O2 (oxygen) by volume. Think about it. Your lungs hold a set capacity of air. If I add water to that air, there's less O2 in the lungful I get. That means I have to breathe harder to get the same effort I would get under lower humidity. Now add that to dehydration, which lowers the ability of your body to deliver the little oxygen you can take in to the cells, and you get shutdown.
tl;dr - hot and humid means hard running.
Safety: stay together whenever possible. It's the best possible practice for all of us. Safety in numbers!
Physicals: I have two. Nineteen to go!
Stretching: do it.
Great workout today! We had at least four girls make the 5 miles today, and most of the rest did 4 or more. We're edging up, and that's what we should be doing. Just remember, when we make a mileage adjustment such as today, we want to watch pace closely. This is especially true under our current weather conditions. As of this writing, it's 84 degrees, dew point is 75 degrees, and relative humidity is 79%. By now you are probably hearing, "Whuh WHAAH, whuh-whuh WHAAAAH!" Let me break it down so you understand why those numbers matter.
The human body is a remarkable feat of natural engineering. You have a built-in coolant system based on water. By shedding water to the surface of your skin, the evaporative process carries heat from your body. Each little drop of sweat potentially carries a portion of heat away from you. Thousands of sweat drops carry away most of the heat, leaving you at a more comfortable temperature.
Now enter weather conditions. When dew point and relative humidity levels exceed a certain level, the evaporative process is hindered. Air can only hold so much moisture at any given temperature (relative humidity), and at a certain temperature it can't hold any more at all (dew point). If the actual temperature is near the dew point, sweat won't evaporate. You don't cool. Your body tries harder to produce sweat that doesn't evaporate, and soon you are soaked, and after that dehydrated, and after that either heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
Obviously we have to be careful. It may not be that "hot" yet, but you better believe these conditions stress you. We will reduce pace when conditions dictate, and today, they did. Let's see if this sounds familiar... you were running fine at first, maybe for the first two or three miles, then suddenly you felt awful. As you begin to dehydrate, you will feel sudden drops in energy, cramping in muscles, and maybe even nausea.
There's more. Since air can hold water, when it's humid, a lungful of air holds less O2 (oxygen) by volume. Think about it. Your lungs hold a set capacity of air. If I add water to that air, there's less O2 in the lungful I get. That means I have to breathe harder to get the same effort I would get under lower humidity. Now add that to dehydration, which lowers the ability of your body to deliver the little oxygen you can take in to the cells, and you get shutdown.
tl;dr - hot and humid means hard running.
Safety: stay together whenever possible. It's the best possible practice for all of us. Safety in numbers!
Physicals: I have two. Nineteen to go!
Stretching: do it.
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