Those who hail from the Midwest have been saying it for decades: it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity. If you’re living through a heatwave, you know that hot weather actually has a lot to answer for, but there is some truth to steamy conditions making life outdoors all the more unbearable, especially for runners.
If you’re dealing with more humid conditions than usual and you’re eager to get your trail running shoes on and pick up the pace, you’re going to have to take care and change your approach to running to stay safe. Sweating is your body’s natural cooling mechanism, but it only helps to cool you down when that perspiration on your skin is allowed to evaporate. Clearly, when the air around you is already saturated with moisture, that can’t happen and as you already know, humid days leave you extra damp and sluggish on the trail as a result, even when it’s not that hot out.
