#fakerunning is such an endearing phrase I’ve heard for running on the treadmill. While I think we can all agree the effort exhausted and calories burned are definitely not fake, it does completely lack the amazing feeling of freedom when your feet hit the road. As soon as you take your running routine outdoors, there is a question that begs answering. What the heck am I going to wear? While I’ve addressed the need for a fanny pack or vest and talked briefly about some running shoes, I’ve not yet discussed the rest of the required attire.
My daily running partner (friend I torture), Amanda, and I have had a daily decision to make on what we plan to wear on our morning run with the changing seasons. We started at the end of the summer in really nice weather so at first it was a no-brainer. As the temperature continued to plummet we just kept on adding layers. Sometimes we got it right, sometimes we are freezing our bums off and sometimes we are stripping layers off.
It amazes me how fast the body temperature rises and you start to sweat. A lot is common sense in the essence the hotter the temperature is, the less clothes and the colder the temperature, the more clothes. The main trick being to just add in layers you can manage during your run. With the cold, you have to keep your sweat contained beneath many layers so your wet clothes are not exposed.
After all our trial and error, we’ve put together a trusty chart (mostly so we don’t forget and torture ourselves so more). This would have been great to have when we started so now it is yours too:
Important to note, while we have our temperature limits, there are tons of other runners out there that far exceed what is in this chart. So don’t limit yourself! I’ve seen facebook post of Alaskan and Canadian runners outdoors in negative 20-30 degrees. Here is a pictures of Amanda and I with ice sickles hanging off our eyebrow and eyelashes when we ran at 1 degrees. It’s a little hard to see under the dim street light, but we could barely get phones to even work at that temperature.
