Cooking from the inside

This afternoon I decided to carry on with the "chilled out weekend" and not do any deadlifts... ready to start up with my usual routine tomorrow, hopefully feeling refreshed and back to normal. So, I did a sauna session instead, and began by really making sure the hole at the top of the sauna was well blocked up and so I took my time putting the tin foil and a towel over it so well that not even a breath of air could pass through.

I began by doing 19 minutes in this, which was really sweltering. I can't begin to tell you how much more difficult it is when the head hole is blocked up to such a degree. I got out and stood for 1 minute in the loft that was much cooler than usual, and then I went back in for the remaining 10 minutes.
I then got out and had 8 minutes where I stood with as much of my upper body as possible hanging out of the skylight, and then I went back in for another torturous 9 minutes. This session now being the longest I have managed yet!

While I was in there, I was thinking about things I've read about heat training. Another runner who ran Badwater also used an FIR Sauna for her training (as did William) and I read how she swore by this method of heat training because FIR rays heat your body from the inside, in much the same way as the sun does. (I couldn't help but feel I was being cooked as opposed to heated!).

I also thought about my run the other day in 23 degrees and very high humidity. I have also read somewhere along the line that humidity is like adding 5 degrees to the temperature (although I don't know how true that is). Both London marathons were too hot for me (the last one I did being only 19 degrees but very humid). Marrakech was unbearable at a very dry 24 degrees.

I hope the weather is warm next week for our race, purely because it is all good practice to see how much the sauna is helping... although I think I am already convinced that it is most definitely making a huge difference.