As the dog days of summer approach, it is time to think about how you are going to train during the summer. Many runners train by pace--long runs and easy days are generally run at one pace while tempo and anaerobic threshold runs are at a different and faster pace. Continuing to train at these efforts during days of high temperatures and/or high humidity, however, may actually be counterproductive.

Those of us who train with a heart monitor witness what happens to our bodies during those brutal summer days. Take the case of someone whose easy effort (60% to 70% of maximum heart rate) is normally about 9:00 per mile pace on a 55 degree day. On days of high heat and humidity, a 9:00 per mile pace may translate to training at closer to 80% of maximum heart rate after a mile or two. Some but not all of this elevated heart rate is due to the body's cooling mechanism. The rest results from the fact that you have to work harder during a typical D.C. summer.

I learned my lesson the hard way almost twenty years ago-- before I was introduced to the heart monitor. I was training for a fall marathon and was building up my mileage to 40+ miles per week during a particularly nasty summer. At that point in my running career, I was still a slave to my watch. I tried to do all my runs at the same pace (except for speed work) regardless of conditions. Trying to run this way was a real challenge when the temperatures were in the high 80s or more or when humidity was close to 90%. I did not have the sense to slow down on those days.

I managed to make it through the summer and naturally figured that, come the fall, I would see a big drop in my times because of all of this hard training. Wrong! The opposite actually happened. I started getting slower in the fall, including my race times. My fall marathon was a real disappointment as I ran about 10 minutes slower than predicted even though there were ideal conditions on race day. What happened is that I had been training so hard each day during the summer that my body never had a chance to recover from one run when I did another hard run. The result of hard run after hard run, as I would learn later after being introduced to effort-based training using a heart monitor, is that I was over training. Over training results in staleness and diminished performance.

The solution to training in the summer is to slow down by sometimes as much as 60 to 90 seconds per mile. If you train with a heart monitor, following the monitor will force you to slow down. Otherwise, you need to use self-discipline. You can still use your summer runs to build up mileage and leg strength, which will improve your aerobic conditioning. When it is really hot and/or humid, take your watch off and just shuffle along. This will have a positive training effect and come the fall you will be in the position of being able to peak for your targeted races.

Kirt West is a private coach for motivated adult runners. Questions can be sent to kirtwest@comcast.net.