Wow. It has gotten cold! Like, chug-multiple-cups-of-boiling-hot-chocolate-just-so-that-you-can-stop-shivering-even-though-you're-indoors cold (I can't say that the mouth burns and stomach ache were worth it, but it did warm me up). So, perfect time to start running again, right? Right. And no, I refuse to run on a treadmill due to previous unpleasant experiences (it tricked me into thinking I was getting good at running!), so all of my running will be done outside.
I must admit that while I was dreading it, running in the cold isn't all that bad. My face may have gone numb, but at least I don't sweat as much. My lungs may have burned from the cold air, but at least I didn't feel nauseous like I do when I run in the heat. I may have had to use a hair dryer to thaw my legs when I got back, but at least I now have a good excuse to buy pants (my summer running capris just aren't cutting it in the winter... and no amount of knee socks have been able to change that). I think my favorite part about running in the cold (other than the fact that no one else is out running, so less people are there to witness how inept I am) is that I run so much faster! I think this is due to a combination of wanting to finish up and get back inside as fast as possible (which is funny because I base my runs on time rather than distance... so it literally makes no difference how fast I go) and wanting to get moving in general because the increased blood flow warms you up (which is probably the dominant factor).
Another upside to running in the cold? I get to wear a hoodie, and hoodies have pockets. My summer running attire has only one tiny pocket built into the tramp-stamp region of the waist of my capris. This pocket is only large enough to fit a key and possibly, with a lot of jimmying and finessing, the access card I need to get into my apartment. Also, since it's located on the small of my back, whatever is stored in said pocket inevitably gets as drenched in sweat as I do. My hoodie, on the other hand, has four pockets: two on the outside and two on the inside. When I go running in my hoodie, I could take all of my keys, my phone, my iPod (which I don't actually take because I am a static electricity machine, so running in the cold with ear buds usually results in my ears getting shocked with every stride), and up to 3 novels (for what we like to call "X-treme Night Reading").
Now before you start thinking that I'm lobbying to become the spokesperson for the National Hoodie Council, I should confess that running with a hoodie does have its downside. The long sleeves of the hoodie cover up my watch, and as I base all of my running intervals on lengths of time, watch visibility tends to be a big issue. As a result, I've started wearing my watch on the outside of my sleeve when doing any sort of outdoor training, which, as you can all imagine, is pretty attractive and not super lame at all (it's almost as bad as that one time I wore the anklet my high school boyfriend gave me on the outside of my uniform knee socks because I wanted to show it off to my classmates).
But pockets and speed aside, I think running in the cold will be good practice for the 5k that my kickball team has signed up for in February... at about the time of year that we usually have our annual ice storm. In the meantime, I'll enjoy running by all the houses decorated for the holidays.
Do you prefer running in the summer, winter, or never? Is there anything I can do to mitigate the static shocks while running so that I can finally listen to some music? Want to join my X-treme Night Reading league?
No comments:
Post a Comment