Air Quality and Running

[George]

At various times of the year the air quality deteriorates in the Midlands so much that you find it almost impossible to run. On those days do you reschedule or avoid training? Has your coach ever called off a training session because people were struggling, or do you plough on no matter what?

Yeah, the air gets bad here, maybe worse than elsewhere.

[mudskipper]

I haven't had that issue here, but I do know of palces where it gets like that. Normally they either trained inside the gym or called off practice. If its not safe, its just not safe, you know?

[Richie]

There's no point trying when you can't breath right. You won't perform well at all, and I don't know how dangerous it could be.

I would imagine training inside would be best if you have air conditioning or an otherwise fairly enclosed gymn.

[purple]

Normally here when we have such air quality warnings, its not safe to be outside unless you really need to, and any increased exhertion would be asking for trouble. I know one year our track team got special eprmission to run at the mall after the closed. It wasn't perfect and we had to be careful to not slip, but it was cool and safer than other things.

[Richie]

Yes, heat would be the other confounding issue on days like those, that would just push the body to the point that it couldn't cope with the adverse conditions. Purple-what do you know of the effects to the body on days like that?

[purple]

I've been told it makes it incredibly hard to breath, which would make it incredibly hard to run. Normally the young and the elderly are the first and most prone to ozone or pollutant warnings. It normally just makes me feel really tired and like I'm trying to walk through water or something at a lower level. I don't go out if it gets higher than the first or second.