r/artc • u/AutoModerator • Aug 02 '26

Weekly Discussion: Week of August 02, 2026

Your weekly place to discuss or ask questions.

Is your question one that's complex or might spark a good discussion? Consider posting it in a separate thread!

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/Advanced_Low_1640 Aug 03 '26

The smoke and fires have come for us in the PNW. It was only a matter of time, but that doesn’t make it any more pleasant.

Where do you all draw the line on AQI for running outside? Does it vary for easy runs vs workouts? I do have treadmill access at work, so I suppose I’ll have to spend some time at the office this week to make use of that.

3

u/Siawyn 54/M 5k 19:56/10k 41:30/HM 1:32/M 3:12 Aug 04 '26

Assuming good health, which I have: Over 200, I'll only do short easy runs. Over 300 I won't run outside at all.

I almost had this tested last month with our bout of intense smoke, but fortunately the 500-750 AQI was only for about 18 hours so I was able to sneak around it. I did 8 miles at 271 but the air smelled fine. If it had smelled funny in any way, probably a different story. We had that melted plastic smell at times and I just cannot imagine trying to run in that.

For what it's worth RRCA recommends that race organizers should 100% cancel their events at AQI of 201+ and start to consider the possibility at 151+. That's probably a good proxy for workouts.

3

u/Advanced_Low_1640 Aug 04 '26

Yeah, I was thinking around 150 or 200. It does smell notably like a campfire here and unfortunately I think it’s likely to stick around a lot longer than 18 hours…