W.A.R.T's -- We All Run Together for Sandy. Wear a bright color shirt, show up at 9am at the OC AQUATIC CENTER (1735 Simpson Avenue, Ocean City, NJ 08226), and bring canned goods, blankets, etc. for those dealing with the aftermath of Sandy! Run, walk or crawl 5k or 5 miles!
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| Black compression top |
Well, now that I had 2 colder runs coming up, I used the rest of my birthday funds to buy some cold weather running gear at Target. I was really anxious to get outside and see how all of this stuff worked, figure out what would be comfortable and what wouldn't, and also just run in the cold. So yesterday I geared up and went outside for a crisp morning run!
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| Black running tights |
I also recently obtained an iPhone so I wanted to use MapMyRun for the first time. However, it did not fit with the armband that I had for my iPod so I struggled to find a way to keep the phone on me. I ended up using the pocket from my water bottle to hold the iPhone and just stuck the earbuds in my ears. The earband worked great at keeping them in too! However, I had to leave the pocket zipper a little open to let the wire come out which made me nervous that I was going to drop/break/lose the brand new phone. So I need to come up with a better way of doing this. My sister told me about some wireless earbuds but they cost about $40 and I don't want to spend that much money on a solution for this. So I think I'm going to look for a cheap iPhone arm band. The other problem I had was that combining the weight from the water bottle & the phone made holding the water bottle uncomfortable for me. Usually I don't start to get annoyed with the bottle until the end of the run, but maybe a quarter of the way in I was struggling. I did notice that I drank a lot less in the cold than I do normally, but I don't know that that was a good thing or something that I want to repeat. So yeah, a new arm band it is!
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| Long-sleeve zip top |
A few minutes in I realized that I had overdone it with the shirts. Since I am a total spaz there was no way I was going to be able to strip the top layer off while running (hell, I had a hard time taking it off while standing still in my room!), so I said, "Oh well!" and kept right on running. The route I had in mind was going to be somewhere between 2 & 3 miles (wasn't sure until I did it) so the absolute longest I would have to suffer is half an hour. Totally do-able. The other thing that I hadn't gotten right was the gloves...my hands were still cold. Since it wasn't even that cold out I'm thinking that I might need to invest in something warmer than what I got. Everything else was great!
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| Touch screen compatible gloves |
Interesting finds:
- Running in the cold sucks!! My lips & face felt chapped from just a few minutes in. I wish I had lathered my face with vasoline or something before heading out, that's how awful it was and it's only going to be worse on the days of my runs! Not sure what to do about that one...suggestions anyone?
- I was thankful for my gloves even though my hands were still cold because they gave me something to wipe my very runny nose on, lol. Gross.
- I felt as though I was running slower in the cold than I normally do. After looking at my pace on MapMyRun, it looks like I started out a little slower than my normal pace but then I slowed down as the run went on. I'm not sure if this was from the cold or if it was because the only thing I consumed before leaving the house was some juice. I don't normally run totally empty like this, except for the few times when I run early in the morning. I don't want to waste the time of getting food together & then having to wait even longer for it to digest a little before I run. It hasn't been an issue in the past, but I'm wondering if it didn't slow me down a bit.
- Towards the end of the run I felt like my body was going to give out. Again, I'm not sure if this is a cold thing or lack of food thing. When I've gotten tired during a run it's always been the difficulty breathing that's gotten me and not fatigue in my legs. Yesterday my legs felt like they were having a hard time working right, and as I approached my house at the end I felt like I was going to throw up.
- Aside from the warmth from having too many shirts on, I didn't really sweat at all until I got back inside my house & started to stretch. That's when the sweat started pouring from my head. I thought that was odd.
- As with every other time I have run outside, today my hips are killing me in a way that they don't when I run on a treadmill. No clue what's up with that.
- Wearing black tights & a black compression shirt (under the zip top) made me feel like I was wearing a cat suit. I proceeded to prance & pounce around the house mimicking a jazz cat for a while. It was amusing. Especially if you appreciate Fosse.
That's all I've got for now! If you want to check out my run & stats, you can click here.
Yup, running in the cold is def an acquired taste! Few thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. you might have felt low energy due to food for sure, but also because you were too hot - esp when you describe feeling nauseous- that is def something that happens to me when overdressed. It's good you are experimenting, soon you will know just what to wear in what conditions! if i overdress and get overheated, it is def worth it to me to pull over and remove some layers. if that is not possible, take off your gloves or hat to help with heat release.
2. my hands are ALWAYS cold and when it gets very chilly, i find gloves with flip over mittens do the job better than mittens or gloves alone.
3. sweating after you run more than during normal - your bod is just trying to cool off! http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/sweat_after_exercise.html
4. chapstick before during and after!
5. hips - are the roads around your house even or on a slant? slanty roads lead to hurty hips, so that could be it. Did you notice that in OC? the boards are even, so if hips hurting even then, might be something else. but slants always kill me too!
Love this! Thank you!!
Delete1. Still unsure if it's because I was too hot or lack of food...I tend to get nauseous when I don't eat enough, but I've been fine with heat so far, so I don't know. I'll be playing with what to wear in the cold and I'm NEVER not eating before a run again!! Time will tell!
2. I actually have some of those so I'll resort to those if it's really cold!
3. Very interesting!
4. And a lotioned face beforehand as well! I did much better in OC with this one!
5. It's mostly sidewalks that I'm running on by my house - they seem even except for the dips when I hit the driveways, and the road that I run on is angled to allow water to flow to the gutters, so that totally might be it. It happens on the treadmill too, but I do run with an incline on that. ZERO pain/discomfort to ANYTHING in OC - it was amazing! Usually something hurts a tad - hips, back, something!