- Morning, trainiacs.
As you can see, crap,
winter is now upon us
and every single year people start asking,
"Well how do you dress for winter?"
Living in Winnipeg i.e Winter Peg
I am a certified expert in how to dress for the cold.
It's not as tough as you might think.
I have actually bike commuted all year round,
all the way down to -40 Celsius.
It's the same Celsius and Fahrenheit at that point.
And I actually found it warmer to bike commute than to drive
because you actually warm yourself up.
So dressing for the winter
requires you purchasing a little bit of gear,
but it's quite pleasant once you get going.
So today I'm gonna give you the full system
of how to dress hands, feet, legs, torso, head
for a whole bunch of different temperatures,
depending on how cold you're willing to run
and where you live.
You hear that?
It's a sound of winter running.
(upbeat music playing)
(upbeat metal music playing)
So let's start off with saying
that you do not need spikes or coils
or yak tracks or anything on your feet.
That's usually the first question that I get
and very unnecessary.
What I've actually found
is that more often than not,
they make running in the winter worse
because what they do is
first they alter your gait and then things like coils,
they just slip on ice.
I'm on ice right now.
No coils.
Totally fine.
Whereas coils, they slip.
Studs on the other hand like spikes,
those work totally fine on ice.
But other than that, it alters your gait.
It's less comfortable
so you're much more likely to get an injury
and even maybe slip on something
you shouldn't be running on anyway because you think,
"Oh, I got these coils," or "I got these studs."
So just starting first with shoes,
I just have on normal runners.
What I do have is a pair of Nike's
that do have a little bit of tread on the bottom.
What you don't want is a pair of shoes
that are just completely flat with no tread,
real road racing shoes,
like Atreyu you, I love you guys.
You're not great for the winter.
The Nike Vaporfly 4%,
my favorite runners actually.
I might be tied with the new Atreyus.
Anyway, those are too flat.
You want a little bit of tread.
At most people from our run crew have gone to trail shoes
and that's the very most that they'd end up using,
basically normal runners.
Next thing is how to dress,
specifically the layering.
This is what's critical.
And in this case less is more.
You really don't want to be sweating
when you're running in the winter
because what happens when you sweat
is it's all fine and dandy when you're running just normally
and actually moving,
but then as soon as you stop for cars
or you slow down or you have to wait outside
before you can get in somewhere, you are going to freeze.
So the key is to dress
so that you're cold when you start and then you warm up.
Now of course, most people are going to sweat
and you're gonna sweat a little bit
but how do you dress
so that you don't turn into The Shining frozen
in a snowbank somewhere?
There's two main points.
First, Merino wool
as the base layer
and then wind protection on the shell.
And that is the key to your legs and to your torso
because Merino wool, it stays warm
even when it gets a little sweaty.
And then to make sure that little bit of sweat
that accumulates doesn't turn into frozen nipple icicles
you keep the wind off your body with a wind shell
on the outside.
So I tell you what, I'm gonna finish this workout.
And then when we get back,
I'm gonna give you the layering system
that has allowed me to ride and run all throughout the year,
all the way down to frozen Tundra, -40 levels.
(heavy metal music playing)
You're looking at about a 45 minute run
and ended with no gloves on.
This is, I gotta do the conversion,
minus six Celsius about 20 Fahrenheit
and with no gloves.
So you need a lot less than you think.
Let me go inside
and I'll give you an example
of all the accoutrements of gloves, of mits,
neck gators of hats,
beanies as you Americans like to call it.
And what that breakdown is for temperature.
So insulation, wind protection accessories.
We'll just touch on all these a little bit.
On a day like today, right around freezing,
what I'll have on the top is a Merino wool base layer.
And that base layer
depending on how windy it is, how cold it is,
it might be something as thin
as just a really really thin Merino wool base layer,
as thick as a really really thick,
very dense Merino wool base layer.
As it gets colder
essentially, I just get thicker and thicker base layer.
Very, very coldest,
we're talking -20 Celsius.
Let's see what that is in Fahrenheit.
I will add just a thick hoodie
on top of the base layer in between the base layer
and the wind shell.
That is almost too cold for me to be running in.
You won't see me out too much below -20 or 25.
On the bottom, same exact thing.
I'll have a Merino wool base layer.
You saw that today.
I had nothing but a Merino wool
like capris that were halfway down the calf
and then a pair of shorts on over top of that.
As it gets colder
that'll expand to full length Merino wool as a base layer.
I'll still maybe have shorts.
I will have windproof shorts to protect my dirty bits
and then maybe a pair of shorts on over top of that.
But the premise is still the same it's Marino on the skin
and then wind over top.
As it gets colder and colder,
I'll expand from where it's just slightly cold
like a little bit above freezing
where I'm just using a Merino wool base layer
and no shell over top to today
where I'll have a cycling shell over top of that
because that's gonna take away the wind.
I like a cycling shell
because it protects from the wind really well
and it has just a little bit of insulation on the inside
allowing you to have something really thin on under this.
So this cycling shell'll probably run
in all the way down to -20 or 25.
Again, let's figure out what that is in Fahrenheit,
and I'll just get thicker and thicker base layers.
At around -15, -20 Celsius, Fahrenheit,
I will add a second full pair of pants as a wind shell
over top of my Merino wool base layer on the legs.
Again, same sort of premise to what the cycling shell is.
It's windproof on the outside,
it is slightly insulated on the inside.
At the very, very, very, very coldest,
this is like where I say,
"You know what,
most people aren't going to want to run in this,"
I will put on a wind proof jacket.
Now getting the right windproof insulated winter coat
is critical.
This is a PrimaLoft North Face jacket.
Whatever PrimaLoft you have,
I don't care what the manufacturer is,
PrimaLoft is great because it's a synthetic material
that doesn't stink when it gets sweaty.
It also doesn't get cold when it gets sweaty.
I have ran in this all the way down
to about -27 or 30,
finished the run and found out that on my chest,
it was just a wall of ice, but I was still warm.
And then as far as the accessories go
that's where things get fancier.
On my feet that's really simple.
I use a thin normal running sock
and maybe at that -15 and lower
I'll put on a thicker Merino wool sock.
On the shoes maybe once a year if it's really windy,
I'll put a little piece of duct tape
on over the toe to keep the wind from coming in.
But as far as layering all of the accessories
getting your extremities warm, it basic running toque,
what incorrect people might refer to as a beanie.
This is going to last me most of the winter.
At its very coldest I might start layering on a buff
just to get the neck to stay warm.
And then you can go like this.
That usually what happens is as you start moving,
as long as it's not too windy,
you're able to bring this down a fair bit.
When it gets really, really cold,
what I'll have is again insulated on the inside,
windproof on the outside,
a full, I actually just get this from snowmobile stores.
And if it's extra, extra cold, put the beanie on over top.
Simple as that.
Put on a pair of glasses
that are your normal running glasses
so they have a little bit of air movement
so it doesn't frost up and you are good to go
as far as your head is concerned.
Hands, that's a little more personal.
You saw me running in nothing but these thin little gloves.
I'll run in these as long as it's not very windy.
When it starts getting windy
I'll look for something like a split finger cycling glove.
These here allow the fingers to warm each other up
and it allows you a little bit of dexterity to move around.
At its very, very coldest,
again we're talking
- 25 Celsius or that Fahrenheit and colder
I will put on thick snowmobile,
split finger, cycling gloves.
Wind and insulation.
Pro tip that I'll give you
is to try this out and you wanna do this
on shorter runs and gradually build up longer and longer.
If you find
that your hands are really, really cold,
you can put a pair of rubber gloves,
latex gloves, surgical gloves on underneath your gloves,
whatever gloves you've got.
This ends up basically keeping the wind out a little bit
but more than anything, it keeps that dampness in.
It's like a wetsuit for your hands.
Trick to this is that you don't wanna stop too much
because your hands get so, so sweaty
and if you stop for a long period of time,
these get really clammy and you might lose digits.
I mean, I've never seen anyone lose digits
but I mean, this actually works.
I've done this with long, long bike rides outside
and it's not too bad.
Now before you go
this video is related to a series of blog posts
that virtualrun.world hired me to do
about how to train in the winter,
how to select a treadmill
so that if you wanna run inside, you can,
how to set up a home gym
that isn't going to cost you
several thousand dollars like this,
how to dress for
and how to actually bike throughout the winter,
how to keep training
throughout the winter fairly easily
without a huge amount of costs
and without freezing your little terrines off.
So if you wanna check that out at virtualrun.world you can.
I'll put a link in the description below
to all of the blog posts that we did with them
for running biking, setting up your home gym,
selecting a treadmill, all those things.
And if you aren't already subscribed
hit the subscribe button below.
Later trainiacs.