Bring on the heat

We are down to the last 4 weeks until race day and I've entered the final phase of my training for Badwater, heat training! Can you ever really get used to running in that kind of heat? Probably not. But, with proper heat training you can actually make changes to how your body deals with extreme temperatures. The most significant change that happens within your body is the increase in blood plasma. This can happen in just a few weeks of intense heat training. Since your body cools itself by pumping blood to the skin where it is cooled by sweat and air, adding blood plasma is a lot like adding more coolant to the radiator of a car. It just works more efficiently. The body will also begin to increase the amount of sweat and initiate sweating sooner to help cool things down. Another significant difference in the heat acclimated person is the sodium levels in your sweat. Sweat actually begins to taste less salty as the body begins to conserve those all important electrolytes.

So how am I making these changes happen within myself? I'm taking both an active and passive approach to heat acclimation and by race day I'll be shivering when it's 90 degrees!

A couple months ago I began doing hot yoga mostly to improve flexibility and secondly to acclimate to the heat. Little did I know.....it is really HOT. My first experience was humbling and just surviving the 90 minutes was an accomplishment. Over time it has become more comfortable and I've even done a few back to back sessions which winds up being 3 1/2 hours in the hot humid yoga room. I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive about doing yoga at first but hot yoga is the real deal and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Beginning last week I started the real intense portion of the heat acclimation and have been making a daily trip to the dry sauna at the local gym. I'm currently barely able to handle 45 minutes in the 180 degree sauna but will hopefully be comfortable in this heat for up to an hour just a few weeks from now. It is amazing how the heat elevates your heart rate and drains your energy while sweat drips from your body in a constant stream. The minutes begin to feel like hours and when I finally leave the sauna I feel like I've run a marathon.

Then there is the passive heat training which entails adding heat to my normal daily activities. For previous races much of my heat training would consist of driving around in my truck in the Summer time with my heater on. It can be a bit awkward at times when you roll up to a stoplight and the person in the car next to you looks over to see you sitting there with sweat pouring off your face. Nevertheless it is an effective way to spend an extended period of time in a hot environment. I just schedule my out of office appointments (when I don't have to meet with anyone) for the end of the day, crank up the heater and train. So one day I was curious how hot it was in my car and I brought my digital thermometer. Unfortunately, at 125 degrees the LED display started to not work so I went looking for a another thermometer that could handle the heat. The only other one we had was a meat thermometer. I never did find out exactly how hot it got in my truck but I do know it was hotter than a cooked ham in there.

Then there are the afternoon runs in the heat of the day just to get used to running in the heat. To increase the body temperature a little I'll wear several layers of clothing with a black outer layer to amplify the heat of the sun.

To be honest, none of this sounds like a whole lot of fun to me but I know that without it I wouldn't stand a chance of finishing a race like Badwater. And maybe there is that small part of me that likes the idea of trying something new and seeing how much I can take and how well I can adjust to extreme heat.

I've always run well in hot weather. My race results in hot temperatures are likely what got me into Badwater. But I've never really felt what it's like to run 135 miles in temperatures over 120 degrees with surface temperatures over 180 degrees. So this weekend I'm taking a trip to Death Valley to see what it's going to be like. My Dad (Crew Chief) and I are driving down Friday night and will do what I would call experimental running on the Badwater course with the intention of seeing what we are up against and dialing in the hydration needs and planning our race strategy. I know that after this weekend, after running and seeing much of the course we will come home with a very real picture of what we are up against and what it's like to run in real hot weather...... Badwater hot.

The Mr. Muth Bump

After 11 years at Franklin school, teaching and coaching Cross Country and Track, Mr. Muth will be moving on at the end of this school year. It truly is the end of an era and he will be missed. To quote another Franklin parent, "He is an icon at Franklin." That is how the parents and more importantly the kids of Franklin view this teacher.

Having younger kids who had not yet had Mr. Muth as a teacher but just a Coach, I only recently got to know him and realized the difference he has made to this school. My first taste of his influence came last year, a few months before my Go the Distance run. I had created a Facebook page for the event so I could update the parents, kids and community on the plans and progress we were making. After a month or so I had roughly 75 fans of the Go the Distance page and they were mostly parents and local runners. One day at school I was having a conversation with Mr. Muth and mentioned the Facebook page. Being an avid runner and huge supporter of Franklin School, he inquired about how to find it on facebook and how he could start following that page. Great teacher but not terribly advance at Facebook! So I got home and sent him a link to the page and walked him through the process. The following day I was happy to see he had in fact become a fan of the Go the Distance Facebook page and would be keeping up with things as they evolved. Then it happened! Over the next few days the number of fans more than doubled! Every one of the the new fans were Franklin kids or former student of his! I declared it the Mr. Muth Bump. Weeks prior, I had been around to all the classrooms and told the kids about what I was going to do and tried to get them behind it but the simple fact that Mr. Muth supported Go the Distance and became a fan led the entire student body to buy into it. Imagine the benefits in being a teacher that has that kind of influence and respect of their students. I firmly believe that a teacher's job goes beyond reading the words from a text book and in order to teach a kid you need to connect with that kid.

Since then I've had the opportunity to get to know Mr. Muth much better and each week I spend a few hours on the trails running and talking with him and his wife Jessica. (favorite and definitely the most comical run of the week....maybe ask him the lizard story sometime) Recently I listened as he struggled with the decision to take an opportunity teaching at another school. What stood out to me the most was the weight he put on the fact that he would be letting some kids down by going to a new school. The move was clearly a good opportunity for him but he was distraught with the fact he wouldn't be there for some of the kids coming into the upper grades and that made his decision very difficult. A perfect example of a teacher who is there for the kids first and therefore has earned their trust and respect.

As Franklin loses an icon, I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank Mr. Muth for the years he has spent at Franklin, not only teaching and coaching, but also for leaving a lasting impression on the kids of what a teacher should be.