Workout Wednesday: Running to Beat the Heat

My treadmill is trapped.  Forced into a temporary fold up due to the sheer volume of garage sale stuff that has taken over my basement.  And we are in the middle of a heatwave in Calgary.  

I've written about running in the heat before. This time I am going to take a more local spin on it by providing some information about how runners can take their workouts indoors to beat the heat in Calgary this summer (or escape the chill this winter): 

Deep Water Running


I cool down my kids nowadays by letting them stay as wet as they want when outdoors.   No reason I can't do that myself with a little deep water running.

What is deep water running, you ask? Here's a pretty good link to explain it to you

And where can you do it in Calgary?  If you have the equipment, you can likely do this anywhere.  Most pools may even have equipment you can use during open swim, but call them first to confirm.

Here are a few local places who do organized deep water running

• University of Calgary 
• City of Calgary Indoor Pools

Indoor Running Tracks 

The big upside to finding an indoor running track is that you will have a climate controlled space to run in.  The big downside, however, is that you don't want to do too many of your long runs inside on a cushioned surface...and you might get bored of going around and around (especially if the track is shorter than 400m).  It is also possible that the track could be quite busy during certain times of the day.  You may want to contact the facility first to see when the best time to use it might be.

These are pretty much all pay-per-use tracks, but when the temperatures soar, they can be worth the price of admission.  Plus - the day pass you end up buying for $10-20 to allow you to use it also gains you the other benefits the facilities have to offer.

• University of Calgary 
• Talisman Centre - 2 tracks, including a multi-lane 200m track.  Available times 
• Mount Royal University - Athletics  
• Spray Lakes Sawmills Family Sports Centre (Cochrane, but worth the drive) - great indoor track around second level.  A monthly pass to the track is only $25 so this is something I am really considering for winter this year as my runs get pretty long in our typically cold December. Fees | Track

This is by no means an exhaustive list, so if you know of others, please list them in the comments to let everyone know.