Running in Hot and Humid climates

Running in the intense humidity has issues all of its own. I did finally find though a great place in Panama City to run - which was full of other runners around 6-8pm when it was a bit breezy and below 30 degrees c.

The Causeway, Panama City - perfect for running

The place i mean is the causeway, at the end of the Panama Canal - you can knock out 5km there and 5km back, in fact more if you round the block a little at the landward end. Its a beautiful narrow road that connects 4 little islands, lined at time with very romantic restaurants and with a beautiful view of the Panama City skyline. Because of he breeze, it doesnt feel so humid, and so, while of course you still sweat like hell, you can run almost normally.

However i ended up the next week in Jaco, Costa Rica - talk about humidity! The beach is great for running along though, it's about 10km up and down (my battery ran out on my i-pod yesterday so i cant tell you exactly until tomorrow)  Tonight at 7pm i ran a 7km race through Jaco - it was quite well attended, a few hundred glistening, aclimatised, Tico bodies. And one Scottish idiot with a full backpack on, sweating profusely. I went back to the old ways, i mixed honey with my water bottle, which i like to think improved my time (40mins odd)

My biggest problem with running in this hot and humid weather (it was still 29degrees c at 7pm!) is breathing. Just like if you are in a really hot steam room, i found myself struggling to take full breaths, and trying to get air into my lungs took up a lot of the focus of the race. Of course the sweat drips off you instead of evaporating so you sweat more and more and don't cool down, which is probably the root of the problem. Theres a great link about this and the health issues here . (i.e. it's quite silly to do excercise in hot humid weather, you might die)

The starting line, Jaco - so humid even guys with no shirts are sweating like crazy!

And yes, of course its beginning to dawn on me (especially when semi-concious while running in this damn heat) how difficult this marathon des sables is going to be. I have a month and ten days to go from struggling to do 10km with full pack on in the searing humid heat here, to (by 2 weeks) i should be at least knocking out 80km a week including a 30km run or so.

Well, ive knocked the drinking on the head and im eating better now, and every day im swimming and cycling (and surfing badly) so i think im making the right moves at least. I could murder a pizza though right now so i think thats just what ill do.....adios!

My new running track, Jaco beach, Costa Rica

Year Zero

So I made my first ‘hot weather’ run of the season, here in Panama City. And i’m still alive.

Although i understand it was just a mild 31 degrees, I can safely say, it was certainly the hardest 3km of my life (im running 3km and i have a 250km race next month, dammit!).

Note forced smile for the camera -I could hardly stand up

Can you imagine sitting in a very large sauna, just beginning to sweat as some Finn put lots of water on to show off. With running gear and an 8kg backpack on. Then running 3km? Well, sounds easy, if you’re sitting in your bed reading this, or tucking into fish and chips somewhere. Well, maybe i packed my pack too heavy, it jostled about as it had my laptop etc in there (ill bring a towel this time as i’m soaking with sweat here in the air conditioned heaven of Dunkin Donuts)  or maybe it was because i just came from Baltic winter weather last night, or maybe it was just the sheer humidity taking it out of me,  but to be honest I barely made the 3km today. (19 mins by the way in case youre asking,  6 and a bit mins a km)

 From the map there seemed to be three decent choices – a trail in the national park that borders the city, the promenade along the waterfront (its about 3 km long) and the causeway  beside the Panama canal which is about the same. It was a hot day and i had my pack on so i opted for the easiest to find, at the seafront. I walked about and got myself familiar with the city too (ok ok it was noon and i was scared to run in such heat)

Either way it really brought it home to me how difficult and different running several marathons in severe heat  will be compared to running on a nice easy indoor running track back home. How i laugh now at how i nievely thought that running 10km circuits every few days would prepare me for such hell. Fortunately most runners are North European and don’t know what the hell they are up against, so maybe this month of hell in the tropics will give me an advantage when it comes to the race. Either way im going to try 4km tomorrow, i think ill try the causeway then, its about 2km there, 2km back, and ill pack my bag with the same things as ill take in the MDS itself – sensible huh?

 I think tomorrows run will be better as im more aclimatised to the heat (i feel a total dickwad whinging about sruggling over such a short distance already, but i may as well be honest about it)