Depending on where you live, summer weather is either right around the corner ... or has already crashed through the wall straight into your living room and made itself comfortable on your couch.

And thanks to that summer weather, it’s likely that you’ll need to adjust your speed workouts in the coming weeks.

Before I get into how to make those adjustments, though, just remember that it’s not something wrong with you -- running in the heat is just straight up harder than in more moderate temperatures. 

The good news is that your body will adapt (at least to a point) to become more efficient, and that will actually happen in the span of just a few weeks as long as you do train in the heat.

Even after those adaptations, though, you won’t be as efficient as in cooler weather, so let’s take a look at how to adjust workouts to make them doable but also make sure you get the benefits.

VO2 Max / Anaerobic Workouts

When you’re doing these workouts (think 5k pace and faster), the effort needs to be pretty high to get the benefit.

So, slowing down the pace is going to risk losing some of the benefits. The rest period on these workouts is already pretty long, too, so increasing the rest won’t make much of a difference.

That’s why the best approach for these workouts is to make the reps shorter. 

For example, you can cut 1200’s down to 800’s or even 400’s down to 200’s. That way you can keep the total amount of faster running the same and keep the same work to rest ratio, but make the hard running short enough it’s possible to keep the right intensity.

Tempo / Threshold Workouts

Keeping the right intensity is important for threshold workouts as well, but in reverse. Here we want to make sure that the effort level doesn’t get too high. 

To do that, you could split the work into shorter segments, but part of the benefit of threshold workouts is the mental training of having to push relatively hard for a sustained period of time. 

So I think the better approach is to focus on effort instead of pace and “allow” yourself to run a slower pace. 

Since you’ll be working harder in the heat than you would in good weather, you'll still get the same benefits and not forcing the pace means you don't risk working TOO hard and missing the point of the workout.

Goal Pace Workouts

When I say “goal pace” I’m talking specifically about marathon and half marathon.

These workouts are tricky because certainly pace is important here. But part of the benefit of goal pace work is to see how the pace feels -- and how it feels in training during the summer is not (hopefully) what it will feel like on a nice fall day.

So the approach to adjusting these workouts depends a bit more on the timing of the race.

If it’s an early fall race where you’re realistically not going to get many good weather training days for long, sustained efforts at goal pace, then I think it’s ok to split them up to shorter efforts (short being relative -- think 1.5 or 2 mile repeats) at goal pace.

That way you get familiarity with the stride mechanics of running at that pace, even if the effort is harder than it *should* be because of the weather.

If your goal race is later in the fall, then I would focus on effort rather than pace for the early parts of the training cycle and transition to focusing on pace later in the training cycle as the weather improves.

That way you still get the opportunity to include this type of work throughout the training cycle, and you’ll get good pace practice before the race.

No matter what type of workout it is, remember that all workouts should be written in pencil -- and adjusting them can make the difference between a wasted effort and actually achieving the purpose of the workout.

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About Coach Carl
Coach Carl is a USA Track & Field Level 2 Endurance, Emerging Elite, and Marathon Specialist running coach who works with runners of all ability levels to reach their goals. He has been featured in Runner’s World, Women’s Health, Men’s Fitness, and Competitor. For information on his coaching services, click here.