‘Tis the season to be silly. Because the holidays are here to disrupt your life. 

There are too many tourists. Perhaps you’re a tourist. Or, school’s out, and the usual family pressures change. Too much food, lots to drink. Too hot. Crowds, lack of routine – maybe even summer illness (something we’ve become accustomed to). 

Staying fit and healthy over the early months of summer, paradoxically, can throw up a few challenges. Good intentions always follow the change in season, and many of us hit the ground running (literally) as we attempt to capitalise on the better weather to catch up on fitness that may have slipped over winter. But while the weather is improving – warmer mornings, lighter starts and longer days mean more training options – the period between early December and January, when your normal routines begin to re-establish themselves, is a tricky one.

The Heat Is On
Your first challenge may be the temperature. While we don’t have major extreme weather in SA (except perhaps for short periods in places like Durban, where heat and humidity team up to make running very challenging), the swing in temperatures is large enough that if you come off a period of training in cool conditions and then run in the heat, you’ll know all about it.

…as long as you’re training consistently as these seasonal shifts happen, you’ll adapt in time with the temperatures.

Fortunately, the solution is rather ‘designed’ into the calendar; because as long as you’re training consistently as these seasonal shifts happen, you’ll adapt in time with the temperatures. That’s because physiology responds to the heat as an additional stress, and over time, we become better at dealing with that stress and running in the heat. 

But time, as is so often the case, is the key here. It just takes time: no short-cuts, no magic, no secrets. Just a period of time to acclimatise. A period during which your body will make more plasma, improve your ability to sweat (which helps you lose heat), and thus keep your core temperature under control. 

How much time? In lab studies where they test the sudden imposition of heat on runners, it takes 10 to 14 days of exposure to adapt. Runners who are quite comfortable running for an hour at a given pace at 15oC will fail and give up after only 25 minutes on day 1 of running at 30oC. But by the 14th day, they’re able to run the full hour.

Again, this is not what you’ll be doing, provided you’ve been running through the transition between winter and summer. Your adaptation will be more gradual, and you should avoid the ‘emergency’ of huge shifts. 

However, there will be outlier days when it’s very hot – perhaps because a disruption to your routine mean you can’t train before 8am, and instead have to run mid- to late afternoon. When that happens, you just have to reassess your objectives for that session or week. The heat slows you down; it’s unavoidable. So just accept that; and don’t run at your normal pace, or aim for the same performance, until you’re fully acclimatised. 

Let It GHo
Speaking of acceptance: dealing with challenge number two is all about state of mind. The disruptions of the holiday season can mess up many a well-formed plan. Ideally, we want to use November and December to build a nice solid base, so that when we re-focus in the new year, we have a platform on which to enjoy our training and pick our moments to perform. But that’s not always possible, especially if you travel and have family commitments.

The best thing you can do about this is, well, nothing. Just accept it as part of life, and be agile in your training. Roll with the punches, take the opportunities that present themselves, and don’t panic if you miss a few days because of disruptions. 

The good news, physiologically, is that provided you’ve earned yourself a decent level of fitness in the months leading up to the holidays, the disruptions won’t set you back nearly as much as you think they will. There are studies on ‘detraining’ (when a trained person is suddenly forced to either rest or cut their training in half), and they consistently show that we lose between 2% and 3% of our fitness per week. Measures like haemoglobin levels and red blood cell count (crucial for oxygen transport) go down, plasma volume is reduced, skinfolds and body-fat percentage go up, muscle strength falls, fuel oxidation capacity declines; and as a result, crucial performance variables like VO2max, power output and time to fatigue all decrease.

While this isn’t ideal, it’s also not a catastrophe. It’s a few percent; and the really good news on the other side of detraining is that during a period of retraining, we gain that back in at worst the same time as we lost it, if not even faster. That is, if you detrain for two weeks, and lose 3 to 4%, studies of retraining suggest you’ll get it all back within two weeks. At most. Often less. 

Here’s the trick, though – you only maintain this ability to keep and regain fitness by doing small amounts where you can. In other words, if you normally run, say, 40km a week, and your holiday plans disrupt that, try to get just 10km in, even if it’s two runs of five kilometres each. It may feel wasted, but your physiology will appreciate it, and it’ll help your retraining go more smoothly on the other side of that holiday. (For more ways to exercise when you’re slacking off, see ‘Six ways to stay fit…’ below.)

So rather than panic about any loss of running fitness in December – potentially costing yourself a joyful (and much needed) vacation and family time – be reassured: a bit of rest, a recharge, some light training when and where you can, and then retraining will get you back to where you were pretty quickly, and ready to launch into 2023.

SIX WAY TO STAY FIT… EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T WANT TO!
Exercising over the holiday season is a las. These tips will help you survive and thrive.

Plan ahead. If you say “I’ll run when I feel like it”, you won’t. Look at the week ahead with all its disruption, and find a couple of half-hour spaces you could run in. Write them down (in blood, if necessary). That’s a promise you’ve made yourself. Don’t break it. 

Get creative. Walk to the shop instead of driving. That’s a workout. Take the stairs. That’s another one. Soccer in the backyard with the kids (that’s a <itals>big one). Walk the dog, do some gardening… come on, this is easy.

Anything is better than nothing. Okay, you missed the half-hour run you planned. Doesn’t mean you’ve wasted the day. You can still spare 10 minutes, which is 10 minutes better than diddly squat. Google HIIT. Do 10 minutes. (You’ll never miss a half-hour run again.) 

Phone a friend. Any training activity is easier with company, and you’ll be more committed. If you’re away on holiday, what about those people you met in the pub last night? They seemed fun. Family works too. Misery loves company.

Don’t binge (much). Yeah, sure. It’s a holiday, you’re <itals>going to eat and drink too much. The key is not to do it all the time. The day after a blow-out meal, eat normally. Drink lots of water. See how many days you can keep that going. You’ll feel better too.

Listen to your trainer. What trainer? The one on your wrist. Your watch can help you set (reasonable) training goals, track your (sketchy) progress, and give yourself rewards (see Point 5 above). If you can follow instructions, you can stay fit this summer.

 

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