This week's Runna Podcast, Ben and Anya sit down for a summer special on training through the heat: what's actually happening in your body, why adaptation happens faster than you'd think, and the practical adjustments that separate a wasted summer from a genuine training advantage.
🌡️ Feature Spotlight: Adapt for Heat
Runna's Adapt for Heat gives you a recommended pace adjustment based on the "feels-like" temperature and your workout duration, so you train to the same effort, not a pace that ignores the conditions.
Head to your workout the day before or on the day itself, tap Adapt for Heat, choose your planned hour, and review the suggestion. Accept it and your session updates automatically, no guesswork required.
Why Running in the Heat is So Hard (and why that's a good thing)
It's a familiar feeling to choose the sofa and an ice cream over a hot run but Ben and Anya make the case that heat training can actually be a secret weapon. Running in the heat forces your body to work harder to stay cool, which is exactly why it's uncomfortable, and exactly why it adapts so quickly: around 75% of heat adaptations happen within the first week of consistent exposure.
Ben describes it as "a poor man's altitude training" – the same training block that produces a 5% VO2 max gain in cool conditions can produce closer to 8% in the heat.
Tip 1: When and where to run. Shade, water, and breeze matter more in summer than any other season. And the treadmill isn't cheating, the training that counts is the training you actually do.
Tip 2: Adjust your expectations. Expect to run 20-30 seconds/mile slower for every 5°F warmer, that's not failure, that's physics. Train by RPE instead of pace. Runna's Adapt for Heat feature gives an hourly, colour-coded pace adjustment for exactly this.
Tip 3: What to wear. Light, breathable, sweat-wicking fabrics; watch out for chafing; hats and cooling headbands help.
Tip 4: Hydrate before you're thirsty, not after, and keep it up before/after the run too. Cooling hands, feet, and head at aid stations makes the biggest difference.
Tip 5: Fuel harder. Heat burns reserves faster, so under-fuelling is riskier in summer. Sauna and cross-training help build tolerance too.
Listen To The Full Episode