Heart Rate: Heat, and Humidity

by SteveO

With heat and humidity, Heart Rate increases and pace no longer matches the guidelines. During a session, is it best to match the suggested HR (slower than normal pace)or match the suggested pace (with higher than listed HR)?

Answer : Excellent question. On those sessions it is wise to still stick to heart rate but allow yourself to go about 5 beats higher towards the end of the session compared to what is suggested. Say I have written 160 - 174 on a session, then you lift the "roof" heart rate of this session, which is 174 up to 179. The reason for this is something called cardiac drift which is caused by heat (among other things) I have found out from my stays in Kenya that if you lift the high end heart rate of the session about 5 beats up, then this is about right when the heat is around 80-90 degrees.

Kind regards,
Marius