(door opening)
(foot stomping)
(door slam)
- Morning trainiacs!
We are at the end of a rest week
and it's like tolerable outside, about -8C.
So I'm gonna get off of that treadmill.
I've got no specific run to do, just I don't know,
go for like 40, 45 minutes, whatever I feel like.
It's the first time I've been outside running
in like two months.
So what we're gonna do here today is, after I do this run,
I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna talk about how to run
around freezing, a little bit colder than freezing
and bloody cold and I'm gonna talk about tricks
like using surgical gloves to keep your hands warm.
Should you or should you not use spikes on your shoes
or Yaktrax?
Probably the biggest thing that people get wrong.
We're gonna see how it goes.
I think it's slippery out there, very powdery.
(upbeat electronic music)
(uplifting electronic music)
- Well that was actually quite enjoyable.
I haven't really done a nice winter run all season.
I've been traveling too much or it's been too cold
or too slippery.
That was good.
Alright, let's go through winter running.
That is disgusting, I'll explain.
Ew.
(disgusted groan)
Alright so let me start by giving you some of the
guidelines for winter running.
Winter running is not your race effort kind of mileage.
If you are in a place like where I am
where you are training for a very key race...
(mumbles)
(banging)
There.
(shuffling)
There.
Ten and a half kilometers at a 548 pace.
So it was a...
An hour basically on the nose.
Now the reason that I say this isn't your race pace
kind of efforts, when you start getting into strength
and speed season or race season in particular,
is because of exactly that.
Your pace is off because your footing is off.
The traction is off, your breathing is off
because the air is thinner.
So good runs to do in the winter are
your base building miles, your off season miles.
Just kinda your slow and steady miles
and a good thing to work on at this point
because the footing is so off,
is actually speeding up your cadence,
is getting off the ground quicker.
Reducing your ground contact time
because if you can do that when you're in the snow,
you're going to be able to get off the ground
really quickly when you've got good footing on pavement.
Now as far as dressing goes,
good guideline for are you dressed properly is
are you cold for the first five to ten minutes?
If you are, that's good.
Now you don't wanna be absolutely shivering cold
but certainly chilled because what's going to happen is
your body is gradually going to heat up
and eventually you're going to end up sweating like I was.
I was cold and thinking about like,
oh jeez my hands are just freezing for the first 10 minutes.
And then warmed up, by the end of it, completely enjoyable.
Let's get into how to dress basically
if it's around freezing, below freezing
or really below freezing.
Here are all the goodies that you can intermix
based off of the temperature that you are dealing with
and the specific conditions.
So if it's around freezing, you wanna get yourself
a pair of Merino tights.
Merino is your friend because you can sweat in it
and it doesn't end up stinking, getting gross long term.
It also has a little bit of warmth even as it is wet,
where as a lot of synthetic fibers,
when they get wet, they stop being warm.
So when it's around freezing, we're talking like
give or take just a few degrees,
get yourself a pair of Merino full length tights
and then over top of that, just put on a standard pair
of running shorts just to break the wind from your bits.
That's about it.
As far as socks go, just one layer of thicker socks
but we're not talking like really thick insulated socks.
Just not super thin like cycling socks.
Just kinda like regular socks.
For a top, Merino wool again, is your friend.
So a thin Merino top.
It could be ice breaker, could be smart wool
but a nice thin top to do the same thing as the tights.
And over top of that you can use just almost like
a see through, wind proof vest
or long sleeve like this
is basically just a wind shell because it's going to trap in
that heat and when you're right around freezing,
think about 15 degrees warmer.
If you're just standing around,
you wouldn't need a ton of insulation.
So a thin wind shell on the outside.
Toque is optional.
Some people call it an insulated cap or beanie.
We're Canadians, this is a toque.
And then one layer of small mitts
and I recommend mitts or lobster claw gloves,
not actual glove gloves because
when you've got your fingers together,
they kinda warm each other up and you can get
a little bit of friction with them between each other.
That's about it around freezing.
What about when it is below freezing?
Something like today where it was about -12C.
I wanna say that's like right around zero Fahrenheit.
As far as socks go, you go with maybe just one layer
of thicker insulated socks as opposed to the thinner socks
that we did around freezing because you need
a little bit of insulation for those tootsies.
We bring back the same tights.
You don't have to double up or get those any thicker
but on the outside, instead of the shorts,
you can put on a full wind pant with maybe even
just a little bit of insulation.
We again bring back the Merino wool top
and you can at this point make it a little bit thicker.
I don't really like bulking up the jacket too much
but instead, bulk up on your base layer.
This is a hundred weight Merino wool from Icebreaker.
This is a 200.
So just a little bit different.
We bring out a wind shell for the jacket
that has just a little bit of insulation on it
but you would actually look at this and say
how do you take that outside?
This was made by Scody which makes basically all my gear
and they said oh yeah this is like what we wear
when it's like 10 degrees outside.
Well it's also what I wear when it's -10 degrees outside.
I just bulk up a little bit on the inside.
Toque is a complete must, neck warmer optional.
Just if you like being cozy around here, you can do that.
At this point we go with mitts
and the trick of these gross surgical gloves
is that they don't breathe whatsoever.
So any moisture that is coming off of your hand
is going to basically collect and get gross in there
but it's also gonna be really, really warm.
Trick to that though is try not to stop
because if you stop and you expose this cold, damp hand,
you're gonna get quite chilled.
Ew.
What about when it's outright cold?
This is outright winter weather.
Totally do-able.
I ran down to about -25C somewhere around,
I think that's minus 10 to 15 Fahrenheit
with a windchill on top of that.
You can stick with the same tights
that you've got on the base layer.
Have the same leggings that have some insulation
but I would add a wind brief
to keep your bits and pieces from tipper getting cold.
I would put on two layers of socks.
The thicker socks from the last temperature
and the socks from the first temperature.
These are going to keep your feet basically dry.
These are gonna keep your feet warm.
Definitely the thicker Merino wool top
and if you start getting quite cold,
I mean you can run in this thinner shell
with a little bit of insulation
probably down to about -15 or -20C.
I don't know what that calculates to in Fahrenheit.
Minus 10 or so.
But if you really wanna start running in cold weather,
what you can get is a wind proof shell.
Always wind proof on the outside
and look for Primaloft.
I think that's what it's called.
Yeah, that's what it's called.
It's Primaloft insulation.
Primaloft insulation is a synthetic fabric that is made
from natural fabric but the nice part about it is
that it can get soaked, absolutely soaked
but still maintain it's insulative qualities.
So that is an excellent thing.
The summit series from North Face
and this is just a really really thin jacket
that I've warn actually throughout the winter,
walking around because it's so warm.
Toque and neck warmer, a total must.
You might, if it's really windy, wanna have like
a full head shell that is wind proof.
Glasses; a complete must to make sure that
there are no exposed areas of skin around here.
This tends to freeze and get quite cold.
And you might wanna consider goggles
but I find that they fog up pretty easily.
These at least have a little bit more air kinda coming in
and around them and it keeps the cold air off your eyes
while keeping enough air circulating around
so that it's not getting frosted up.
As far as gloves go, thicker mitts.
Not these little thin ones but we're talking
big, thick mitts with again surgical gloves underneath
and if it gets extremely cold, put another layer
of magic mittens over top of those surgical mitts.
Now the big question is what you do about shoes.
Everyone, everyone, everyone,
when they start running in the winter, me included,
thinks I need to get studs put in my shoes.
I need to screw some traction into there.
I need to get some Yaktrax.
There's a lot of people that, even coaches out there
that come from the southern states, that are like
oh yeah Yaktrax is what you need.
Well we up here are experts at running in the winter.
Very, very few of us actually run in Yaktrax
or anything like that and the reason for that
is that there's two things.
Number one is that it doesn't work in all conditions.
It works in a perfect soft snow,
slightly packed kind of condition but the situations
that you're going to be running in are real life
and you're gonna go from packed snow to soft snow to ice
and what's gonna happen is there's going to be
some of those situations where those studs or Yaktrax
are actually much more slippery than regular shoes.
And a lot of people end up going down,
especially with those coils and Yaktrax.
Now beyond that, it alters your regular running stride
which I think is probably the bigger issue
because it can lead to chronic injury
that you don't even notice in your feet, in your knees.
You change how you're running.
You're a little bit more gentle.
What I would recommend,
this is actually what Sarah True recommends,
she comes from New Hampshire
where she runs in the snow quite regularly,
is just getting a little bit beefier a shoe.
Something that has maybe just a little bit
of extra kind of grittiness underneath.
More edges, more kinda edge area to push off of
and in my case right now, what I would recommend
is having a shoe size that's larger.
So this shoe is actually an entire size larger
than what I regularly run in and I've done that
so that I can fit that extra sock in.
So do all that and you can actually have
a quite enjoyable experience running in the winter.
Now you're not gonna get in your quality runs at this
but it's going to be a nice change from
the mind numbing experience of running on a treadmill.
Of course when you start getting into race season
and you've gotta go on a treadmill,
I'd recommend something like Swift running
with the stride running foot pod.
And at that point, it starts getting a little bit
more interactive and coming inside isn't so bad.
You can get those quality runs in
and because you've been running outside
with really good form, getting off the ground
really quickly, you've got a huge base of fitness.
So when you start sharpening up at those race efforts,
(claps)
you're ready to go.
There you go, trainiacs.
I have a lot of re-packing up to do.
Later.