Day #4: Easy 5 and Heat Training

I got in an easy 5 miler today in Ann Arbor.  I finally found a somewhat flat route to follow.  Thankfully.

As you can tell from the heading, I experienced some 'heat training."  That's training in any temperature above 90 F I believe.  Anyway, there's a cool article in Running Times that documents the benefits of heat training:

A former NCAA champion and Argentine Olympian in the decathlon, Santiago enlisted 20 elite cyclists and put them through an identical training regimen, but for one significant difference: One group rode easily for 90 minutes (50 percent of VO2 max) at a comfortable temperature of 55 degrees; the other group rode at the same intensity in a heat chamber set at 104 degrees. The cyclists did ten of these sessions. Both groups continued their normal training outside the lab. After the test period, the groups did all-out rides in the two environments. As expected, the heat-trained riders performed better than the control group in the heat chamber. The real surprise, however, was when both groups were tested in the 55-degree chamber: The heat-trained cyclists outperformed the other group by an average of 7 percent.

That's big.  But will it stand up for marathoners?  I don't know.  But I'm trying it out.