Steve Christilaw: Sweat equity will pay off for runners in fall

I was sitting on my back deck, sipping on an iced tea the other afternoon. And I actually broke a sweat.

Never mind my level of personal fitness. The fact is that, with the temperatures well into the high 90s, you don’t have to do much to schvitz. Schvitz happens.

And that got me thinking about the weather in November.

No. That’s not a brain cramp happening. Follow me on this train of thought.

The fall high school sports season culminates in November. The weather will be crisp and often downright cold.

There is always the possibility of snow for playoff football and soccer games. That’s never much of a factor for sports like volleyball or for the state championship game for football, which moves indoors at the Tacoma Dome.

But it conjures the image of girls soccer players stacking base layers underneath their normal kit, with added gloves and earmuffs to defend against a nasty wind chill. I have actually seen players wince before going up to head a ball – frozen soccer balls have an outer texture akin to a bowling ball. It leaves a mark.

But for the state cross country championship meet, it frequently makes for a picturesque final weekend in Pasco. The leaves left on the trees are brilliantly colored and the morning air is brisk and the morning grass is always damp and occasionally crisp with early frost.

It is, most often, a perfect day for a sport like cross country.

But to get there, you need to put the miles in on days like we’ve been having – temperatures designed to suck the moisture out of your body.

Cold steel is forged in high heat.

All high school sports have summer workouts and fall sports approach theirs with a sense of urgency as they prepare for August and the official start to the season.

But cross country offers a different twist on that schedule. Yes, coaches do their best to build a team atmosphere and a camaraderie to help carry their harriers through these hot-weather training sessions.

But runners still have to lace up their shoes and put one foot in front of another for several miles every day in order to do the same thing for their school varsity.

As someone who has never taken to running as either sport or exercise, I have to tip my cap to them.

Running in high heat is a unique challenge.

For starters, it makes you sweat. It’s your body’s way of cooling itself, even if it doesn’t work all that well when the temperature approaches triple digits.

When you sweat that much, it logically follows that your body quickly dehydrates. The experts at Runner’s World say that even a 2 percent drop in body weight due to fluid loss leads to a 4- to 6-percent drop in performance.

They further explain that increased heat and humidity increase heart rate – as much as 10 beats per minute – while the blood your heart pumps carries less oxygen.

In other words, runners work harder for less return.

And there is an increased risk of oxygen debt – we’ve seen that in Olympic marathons run in high heat during the summer games or any Ironman competition. The startling images of runners trying desperately to reach the finish line while their body effectively shuts down. It’s painful to watch.

But since races aren’t run in July and August, all this work, done smartly and carefully, tends to forge a stronger, better runner.

It’s the runner’s equivalent to a batter outing a lead donut on their bat and taking practice swings. If you can get your work done in the heat of summer, it will feel much easier to perform when the weather turns much more amendable to strong performances.

I admire the runners I see out there getting their work done when I am much more disposed to having a cold drink in the shade somewhere.

They are actively embracing the challenge that goes with their sport.

It’s an invest-now, profit later strategy that deserves respect.

It will be fun to watch it all pay off.