I Hate Running in the Heat. This Training Switch Led Me to Love It—and Faster Times

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After nearly 25 years of living in Atlanta, I should be used to running in the city’s brutal heat and humidity. But when the temperatures (and dew points) start to soar every summer, my motivation for even the shortest and easiest of runs tanks.

And I’m not alone.

“Running in hot conditions is really hard, even if you’re one of the best in the world,” says Hayden Cox, founder of Railroad Athletics and a USATF-certified coach who works with athletes like reigning U.S. mile champion and American Record-holder Krissy Gear.

Through the years, I’ve tried all the usual tricks for beating the heat—getting up early and running before the sun rises, hitting shady (and flat) trails, and backing off paces while upping my hydration. But nothing jolted me out of my summer running slump like hitting the track for the first time after a five-year hiatus from training on the oval. I gave it a shot, though, as a way to work my speed leading up to my first-ever national track meet in July. I didn’t realize just how much it would help my overall running performance.

For much of this spring and early summer, I swapped longer road intervals for laps around the track. Not only did I thrive running in a controlled, car-free setting (with bathrooms and water fountains, no less), but those track workouts dramatically improved my summer speed and heat tolerance—I recently ran my first sub-7-minute mile race since 2020 (and I turn 50 in December).

While track workouts are great tools for building speed and power year-round, Cox highly recommends incorporating them into your schedule one or twice a week in the summer, especially if you live in a hotter climate.

“Speedwork is easier to do when it’s warmer outside than to do longer tempos and steady-state runs,” he explains.

Plus, there’s nothing like sprinting full out to remind you of why you started running in the first place—it’s a ton of fun, with no bib or pricey registration fee required.

Whether you’re just looking to break up the monotony of hot-weather running or working toward a marathon PR, here’s how track workouts can jump-start your summer running goals.

How to Mix Up Your Speed Sessions

If you’re used to running a marathon every fall or the same neighborhood 5K every summer, adding in or upping your existing track workouts can be a fun new challenge, says Cox.

For me, that meant dusting off my spikes after the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler this spring and entering a series of free, all-comers’ track meets. Along with a few hundred other runners ranging from boisterous elementary school kids to spry seniors, I raced everything from 400 to 5,000 meters—many first-time distances for me (hello, automatic PRs!). And there’s nothing like being shoulder to shoulder with your competitors and hearing your friends cheering you from the sidelines to push you to do your best.

No track races in your community? Cox suggests challenging yourself with individual time trials on the track.

“I coach an athlete who’d run a marathon every six months for two to three years and was readily improving but getting bored and wanted a new challenge,” he says.

He added time trials in the 400 meters, 800 meters, and mile to her training calendar.

“She had fun going out there and running as hard as she could for two to eight minutes, plus there were no race registration fees and no travel,” he continues.

If you don’t feel up to an individual time trial, Atlanta-based USATF-certified running coach Lisa Gausney suggests incorporating short interval workouts like 100-meter repeats into your routine once a week (or every other week).

The goal of speedwork is to improve speed at longer distances, whether that’s a mile or a marathon. So after three or four interval sessions at 7 to 9 RPE (rate of perceived exertion), she recommends adding another rep or two to the workout or swapping out standing rest for a walk or a jog to build endurance and power that help with those endurance races.

“As a former sprinter, I’ve always thought short bursts of running are more fun,” she says. “Yes, the pace is fast, but you just have to push yourself for one to five minutes as hard as you can, and then you can take a rest break,” she says. “It’s much easier to do sprints in hotter weather than a tempo run, long run, or even short recovery run.”

Improve Heat Acclimation With High-Intensity Intervals

Short, high-intensity track intervals can also help your body acclimate to heat more quickly, says Sharon Horesh Bergquist, M.D., a board-certified physician, research scientist, and author of The Stress Paradox.

“Hot weather raises your core body temperature, so exercise feels more difficult in warm weather, especially outdoors, because the body is simultaneously managing two sources of heat stress: internal heat generated by exercise and external heat from the environment,” explains Bergquist.

While short bursts of speed—think 4 x 200-meter repeats—rapidly raise the body’s core temperature, they also force you to sweat earlier and more profusely than you would doing something lower intensity like a zone 2 run.

According to Bergquist, hard track workouts can “increase sweat rate and distribution, all of which help with heat acclimation,” she continues.

These high-intensity efforts also rapidly deplete energy stores, signaling to the body to make new mitochondria and repair existing ones—in other words, short sprints can improve your aerobic capacity and endurance better than longer, steady-state workouts.

Gausney agrees.

“Track workouts allow you to push the pace, but are also short enough that you can give your body a break and let the heart rate go down before starting the next rep,” she explains. Whether you’re taking walk or jog recoveries or complete rest between intervals, keeping your heart rate from spiking too high, too quickly is also critical to adapting to hot, sticky conditions.

But your body won’t adjust to hot conditions in just one workout, on the track or off. Cox recommends walking or running for 30-45 minutes several times a week for a minimum of two weeks to acclimate to the heat. And making one or two of those weekly activities a track workout can help speed up the acclimation process—and make those easier runs feel easier.

Tracks Help You Control Your Workout

Stopping at multiple traffic lights and loading your pockets up with gels and fluids is a pain any time of year, but especially taxing in the hotter months.

Not only does the track offer a safe, car-free running environment,“but it’s also helpful for planning your fluids and carbs, especially when you’re trying a new product or practicing increased intake,” says Cox.

Say you are doing your fall marathon training in a hot and humid area. It’s much better to find out that new-to-you gel or chew upsets your stomach when doing a longer 400- or 800-meter repeats session or a tempo run than in the middle of a 90-minute—and far away from a bathroom—outing.

Gausney also recommends dropping cold fluid bottles (possibly with electrolytes) at the 200 and 400 meter marks, so you can sip on hydration during rest intervals or as needed without lapping the entire track.

According to Cox, it’s also easier to adjust workouts on the fly in the middle of a track session than when out for a normal run.

“If the workout goes wrong, or if you need to add more rest or cut it short by a couple of sets, there’s flexibility built into the track,” he says.

Plus, if you have major race day anxiety (guilty!), practicing your warmup, hydration, and fueling strategies in a low-key setting with built-in rest breaks can make actual competition days feel more practiced and calm.

And while summer is still my least favorite season for running, I know that putting in hard work on the track in these hot, steamy months will lead to fitness gains that will pay off in the fall. And the science backs that up. According to a recent study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, heat acclimation improves cardiac output and time-trial performance in both hot and cold temperatures. So until the temperature dips under 70 degrees again, you can find me out on the track.

Try It!

Want to start injecting speed into your summer training? Try these Runner’s World-recommended track workouts.

For beginners: 200 Meter Repeats

• Warm up 10-15 minutes
• Run hard for 200 meters (½ the track or 1 curve + 1 straightaway)
• Recover by jogging or walking 200 meters (the rest of the lap)
• Repeat 6 to 8 times
• Cool down

For experienced runners: Elimination 400s

• Start with a pace that’s about 50-60 percent of your max effort and run 400 meters, noting your time
• Rest for 1 minute
• Run 400 meters, 10-15 seconds faster than the first interval, noting your time
• Rest for 1 minute
• For your third 400 meters, aim to finish it a little faster than the previous interval
• Repeat for 12-16 total reps (beginners can do 10-12), increasing your speed with each interval, or until your last repeat is not faster than the one before it