Tips For Running In The Cold Weather
The snow is finally here, but some of us want to continue running outside. The fresh air can be nice on those beautiful winter days, but the weather can be quite unpredictable. This season don’t let the cold weather keep you from your goals, here are some ways you can stay cautious but continue running outdoors:
Do a good warm up inside first. Not just running, dynamic movements too. If you have a treadmill doing a few minutes before heading out can also be good so you are warm beforehand. Even before that if you have a sequence of warmup exercises you like (which most runners do), try doing them inside first. If you don’t have a sequence yet.. that is also something you will want to add! Even more important for when running outdoors as we will not warm up as quickly if we just head out the door like we would in warmer temperatures.
Keeping our head and hands covered when running outside will help maintain our body heat. We release a lot of our heat through the hands, head and feet. Making sure these areas are covered will help keep our body temperature higher and keep us from having bare skin exposed to the cold winds. You can have lots of layers on but sometimes having no gloves or hat will still make it very uncomfortable to run outside.
Drink enough water before and after you head out into the cold, this is really an important tip for running in any conditions. The cold air in the winter has less moisture than warm air. When we breathe, our lungs moisturize the air for us. Our lungs take this moisture from our bodies to moisturize the air, so we must be hydrated. Most people tend to feel more “dry” in the cold temperatures at regular, so imagine what it will be like trying to run in it.
Shoes with traction, this is one of the most important ones. There are items we can buy to place on our shoes for the winter weather conditions, but having a pair of shoes with traction is usually our best bet. It’s like buying snow tires for our cars, the all seasons will probably do but it’s still a bit risky. Something with a thicker rubber sole will help keep stability when running through the snow and ice, gripping the ground as we go.
Save your sprints for the treadmill, at least until the snow is gone. Its not necessarily the cold temperatures that will affect this one as much as the snow and ice will. Fresh fluffy snow isn’t so bad, if it’s a milder day and the snow is just coming down it could be okay to do some sprints. Once its slushy and there is ice we can’t see, sprinting outdoors really just isn’t worth it. If we get ourselves injured.. then we can’t run at all!
I hope these tips help you, here is a great article on how running in the cold weather can actually be good and help improve performance for the runners out there: