The Cold... and Cold Weather Gear

Ok, so running in 20 degree weather turned out to be a luxury. Today it's nine degrees with winds gusting up to 30 mph! I may be crazy but I'm not that crazy!

Actually, I was going to go to the gym today and swim a quality workout, and then spin easy. But I just couldn't get myself to go swimming when it's this cold outside. It's counterintuitive. So I did a good ab workout at home (which really counts as a day off), and I'll go to the gym tomorrow. It's a high of 20 tomorrow, so that shouldn't psych me out from the pool. :)

I did a hard spin at the gym Friday, then had an awesome massage. Holy shmoly, that felt good. My upper back and neck are sore from my fall. And my head was ringing all day Friday. So you'd think I would have learned my lesson. But on Saturday I thought I'd go to the MKT trail where surely ice wouldn't be an issue. Wrong! I guess the traffic on the trail packed down the ice and snow, which made for a nice layer still yesterday. I did a lot of stopping, walking tentatively, and yes, one good slide... ugh. Running like that wears you out! Is spring here yet??? Crud, winter's not even here yet! I did my usual gearing up, taking a mere 25 minutes this time, and ran 6.5 miles.

Speaking of gearing up, it's kinda funny the things that come to you in your sleep. I woke up this morning thinking about the gear I would manufacture if I had my own line. First of all, long hair sucks when you talk about cold weather. Last year I made my own pony tail stocking cap; I couldn't believe nothing like this existed. I cut a slot along one of the seams of my hats, and button hole stitched it with stretchy thread, and wellah... a place to pull a pony tail through. I guess not all girls sweat like I do; I get soaking wet from head to toe, no matter what weather I'm running in. Yesterday (and Thursday), my hair turned to dreadlocks and took forever to untangle. I had tucked it into the back of my coat, and the up and down motion was like a one hour ratting session. I wore baseball hat because there was precip, so my ponytail hat didn't fit right. If I could make my own perfect cold weather running hat, it would cover my ears good but have little elasticized poke through holes for ear buds or a headset (which I prefer), have slots in varying places along a back seam for a pony tail, be warm but breathable, have a nice band across the inside forehead to wick sweat, have a band that velcros to the back that you could pull around the front for a face mask, and have a flip down visor to have optional protection for your eyes (which is nice not just for sun, but for rain and snow, too). Perfect! I think I'll work up a prototype!

The second thing is some sort of warm, thin, waterproof but breathable running socks. Not as good as the hat, but still they'd keep your feet from getting cold and soaking wet when running in cold and precip.

Third, a good pair of mittens! I wear my ski mittens which are huge, but my hands stay warm in those. My Asics running gloves are nice, but they don't come close to keeping my fingers warm, so what good is that? "My" mittens would be light, small, and warm... and here's the part that makes them "mine"... I'd have a place (another elasticized hole!) to poke your pointer finger out. Have you ever tried dealing with an iPod or cell phone with mittens on? You just can't resist trying, which of course is nothing but frustrating!

So, who knows... if you see this stuff in the next couple years, you can say you heard it here first. And if you're reading this Nike, don't steal my ideas! :)