Adjusting for heat and humidity

Training
1

For tonights workout the temperature is going to be 26C (~80F) and humid with thunderstorms rolling around.

For running, I have handy little guide which helps keep workouts equally taxing over as temperatures change (not that I always stick to it!):

| Temperature | Drop in Pace |
|—|—|—|
| 12.5 to 15.5C | 1%|
|15.5 to 18.3C | 3%|
|18.3 to 21.1C | 5%|
|21.1 to 23.9C | 7%|
|23.9 to 29.4C| 20%|
|Above 29.4C | Just for fun|

Does anyone any wisdom on adjusting workouts for heat and humidity? Tonight is only Kern -5 at 30 minutes, so ‘just doing it’, is doable, not sure I’d want to take on something more severe though.

For my last FTP test, it was a good 8C degrees cooler and good cooling is always empasised, especially when testing. However, I’m already running a powerful fan and don’t have AC. Im sure if I did an FTP next week I’d struggle to beat my last value even though I’m most likely fitter; the heat is going to have a big impact.

Makes me wonder if we need to define a normalised FTPn; done at sea level, at 16C!

2

If you adjust intensity based on temperature and humidity you likely are losing the intended goals of the workouts. This is not recommended per the TR Podcast. You are hitting power goals and percentages of power goals each workout, you are playing with the formula when you reduce intensity significantly (ie: over/unders are no longer over/unders).

You’re better off getting more or bigger fans, altering workout time to when it’s cooler or shortening the duration (least favorable) rather than decreasing intensity. Another option would be to push a hard interval day to when it’s cooler and substitute an aerobic ride when it’s too hot. Eventually over time doing hot aerobic rides you will achieve some heat acclimatization and be able to workout with higher intensity in those temperatures.

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