A focused guide to using heat training during winter—why it works, what adaptations you’re actually chasing, and how to implement sauna, hot water immersion, or layering protocols safely and strategically.

Heat training is usually framed as something you do before a hot race. But the physiological adaptations don’t care what month it is. Plasma volume expansion, improved thermal regulation, and cardiovascular efficiency can all support training during winter—even if race day will be cold.

This episode is an edited and streamlined version of Episode 4, where we originally covered heat training in depth. Here, we’ve removed the broader discussion of racing in hot environments and narrowed the focus to one question: How can runners use heat protocols intentionally during winter training to enhance performance?

Episode Description

This episode is a practical, research-backed breakdown of how to apply heat training protocols during winter running.

Matt and Molly revisit the primary studies that shaped their understanding of heat adaptation, then walk through:

• Why heat training matters beyond hot race preparation

• The physiological mechanisms behind heat adaptations

• The three core methods for inducing heat stress

• How to implement layering, sauna, and hot water immersion during winter

• How long adaptations last and how to maintain them

• When to schedule heat exposure within a training cycle

• Key safety considerations to avoid digging a recovery hole

Rather than treating heat training as seasonal, this episode reframes it as a tool. One that, when applied carefully, can support cardiovascular development, resilience, and recovery during winter blocks when training quality matters most.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Heat Training and Personal Experiences Driving Our Understanding

01:11 Context for Episode And Focus On Heat Training Protocols During Winter Training

02:23 The Primary Studies We Reviewed In Preparation For This Episode

03:57 Major Reasons Why You Should Care About Heat Training

06:39 Why Running In The Heat Is Challenging

11:41 Anecdotal Experience with Heat Training In Recent Ultra Performances

13:30 The Three Heat Training Methods We Cover and General Physiological Benefits of Heat Training

14:37 Thermal Regulation and Adaptations

16:46 Protocol by Protocol Analysis

17:09 Protocol 2: Adding Layers to Augment Heat of The Natural Environment

36:28 Protocol 3: Hot Dry Sauna and Hot Water Immersion (HWI) - Actual Implementation Steps

38:39 Protocol 3: Hot Sauna Benefits and Considerations

41:01 Protocol 3: How Water Immersion (HWI) Benefits and Considerations

46:03 Maintaining Heat Training Adaptations

48:26 Timing and Strategy for Heat Training

52:31 Safety Considerations When Heat Training

Top 5 Takeaways

1. Heat training is not just for hot races.
   The adaptations—plasma volume expansion, improved cardiovascular efficiency, and thermoregulation—can support winter training blocks as well.

2. Layering and passive heat exposure are often the most practical winter tools.
   You don’t need a hot climate. Strategic layering during runs or post-workout sauna/HWI can induce meaningful adaptations.

3. The goal is controlled stress, not exhaustion.
   You’re chasing adaptation, not dehydration or glycogen depletion. Overdoing it can compromise recovery.

4. Adaptations are transient but quickly re-established.
   Benefits can fade within roughly two weeks without exposure, but can often be restored in just a few sessions.

5. Safety matters more in winter than people think.
   Heat protocols layered onto hard winter training can create cumulative stress. Hydration, fueling, iron status, and recovery awareness are essential.

Always training, never improving? How periodization fixes your running by helping you plan an entire season, not just the next race.

Most runners know how to train for a race. Far fewer know how to train for a season.

Trusting that a more holistic approach to your training over a year, can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. This episode examines why so many runners feel stuck in a cycle of constant training, frequent racing, and nagging fatigue. Matt and Molly explore how the pressure to always be “in shape” or “race ready” quietly erodes long-term progress, and why time off is not a failure of discipline but a necessary part of improvement.

Drawing from coaching experience, personal mistakes, and the realities of modern running culture, they unpack periodization as more than a buzzword. Instead, it becomes a framework for understanding when to push, when to build, when to sharpen, and when to step back. The conversation reframes downtime as productive, structure as liberating rather than restrictive, and progress as something measured over months and years, not just race weekends.

Episode Description:

In this episode of Legwork, Matt and Molly tackle one of the most overlooked problems in running: training hard all the time without getting better.

They break down periodization, not as a rigid system reserved and eligible for elite athletes, but as a practical way to think about an entire training year. From off-seasons and base building to race-specific preparation and recovery, they explain how each phase fits together, and why skipping any of them often leads to burnout, stagnation, or injury.

Together, they cover:

• Why racing too often can stall progress and increase injury risk

• What periodization actually means, beyond downloaded 16-week plans

• The role of the offseason and why time off does not equal lost fitness

• How to structure transition, preparatory, pre-competition, and competition phases

• Where Zone 2 training, strength work, and volume really belong in a season

• How to balance social running, races, and long-term goals

• Common mistakes runners make when they’re always training but never improving

Along the way, Matt and Molly share personal examples, coaching insights, and practical ways to rethink your relationship with training. Whether you’re chasing a PR, navigating a packed race calendar, or trying to stay healthy year after year, this episode offers a clearer framework for planning smarter and running better.

Chapter List:

00:00 Introduction and Reflections on Needing To Take Time Off

03:05 Managing the Offseason: Insights and Strategies

06:26 Why We Wanted To Do This Episode and Our Agenda

11:47 Overview of Running Plan Periodization And Phases Of a Training Cycle

15:05 Major Benefits of Incorporating All Of these Phases In A Training Cycle

22:07 Transition Phase: A Methodical Approach Between Major Training Bouts

38:09 Preparatory Phase: Building Your Base, Your Strength, And Engine

44:03 Preparatory Phase: Where Zone 2 Training Sits and Increased Aerobic Volume

48:52 Preparatory Phase: Balancing Volume and Intensity and Lifting

55:59 Pre-Competition Phase: Fine-Tuning the Engine

01:02:25 Pre-Competition Phase Cross Training, Strength Training, and Recap

01:09:35 Competition Phase: Race Specific Training

01:17:55 Post-Race Transition and Recovery

A live conversation with Nick Thompson on curiosity, endurance, and a complicated relationship with both a father and the simplest of sports: running.

This conversation between Nick Thompson and David Alm, a Brooklyn-based journalist, professor, and runner, offers a window to Nick’s process in writing The Running Ground, and to the people, stories, and moments that made it into the final draft and what didn't. Recorded live at Bakline’s HQ, the episode captures Nick in dialogue rather than interview, reflecting with David on the journalistic process, the discipline of editing, and the characters in his life, most notably his father, who shaped the person he has become.

There is much to be gained from reading or listening to The Running Ground, the audio version of which Nick himself narrates. Its opening chapter alone should be required reading for anyone preparing to step onto the New York City Marathon starting line. What emerges in this rare and candid conversation, though, is something broader: a meditation on perspective and curiosity, and on how our understanding of our own abilities shifts over time.

Along the way, Nick reflects on his relationship with his father and the role running has played in his ability to build and maintain a truly exceptional life, offering insight on how the sport can not only facilitate escape and drive, but also help us make sense of the world.

At its core, this conversation speaks to the importance of paying attention: to our bodies, to the relationships we build, and to the quiet ways we can learn to embrace all that makes us who we are–rather than trying to outrun it.

Special thanks to the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and The Atlantic for their support of this event.

Chapter List:

00:00 Introduction and Background

04:43 The Journey of Writing The Running Ground

10:14 Exploring Personal Connections and Themes

21:16 The Editorial Process: Structure and Format

24:14 The Editorial Process: The People Who Have Entered Nick's Life and Imparted Key Lessons

30:18 Writing About Yourself Journalistically

36:50 The Pain of Running and Broader Life Lessons

42:19 The Endurance Of Running and Its Impact on Nick

45:20 Approaching Running with Undying Curiosity

50:23 Pushing Limits: Personal Records and Race Experiences

53:54 Cultural Influences on Running and Personal Growth

55:13 Q&A: Current State of Running Culture

58:51 Q&A: Fatherhood, Relationships, and Emotional Connections

01:02:09 Q&A: Media Industry Insights and the Role of Running

01:02:44 Q&A: Nick's Personal Pursuits and Current State of Media

01:07:55 Q&A: Exploring Personal Archives and Memoir Writing

01:11:18 Q&A: Recommended Running Literature

01:12:44 Q&A: Evolving Running Goals With Age

01:18:25 Q&A: Favorite Greenway Runs and Community Engagement

01:20:58 Promoting the Book and Final Thoughts

Key Takeaways

• Perspective shapes ability

One of the central insights of the conversation is that limits are often internal before they are physical. Nick’s experience shows how a shift in perspective can unlock capacities we didn’t realize were still available.

• Endurance is less about toughness and more about attention

Running emerges not as an exercise in brute force, but as a practice in listening to your body, and to your pain. The same attentiveness applies beyond sport, shaping how we can move through work and stress.

• Understanding a parent often requires time, distance, and reconstruction

Nick’s reflections on his father are not about resolution, but context. Through diaries, archives, interviews, and memory, he comes to see how running helped his father hold together a complicated life.

• Curiosity sustains long arcs better than optimization

Whether in running, writing, or navigating change at a major organization, curiosity proves more enduring than a fixation on outcomes.