24 min
Challenges of Boston: Winter Training Luke Humphrey Running
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- Health & Fitness
In part one, we talked a little bit about timing, but more specifically how training starts at maybe the worst timing of the year- the holiday season. Today, I want to expand once into what will really affect a lot of people- the winter months!
Where I am at, in metro Detroit, winters aren’t too bad through the end of December. We might get some snow, but there’s been plenty of times when we don’t have any snow on the ground. The problem is, once January rolls around, the average high is below freezing and whatever snow we get is usually stuck until March! We might not get a ton of snow, but it’s usually very cold and the wind chill is brutal. The interesting thing is that, if you just go over to the other side of the state, in the Grand Rapids area, they get a ton of snow due to the lake effect off of Lake Michigan. The bottom line is that it is cold, dark, and windy. We tend to have poor footing and are wearing a bunch of layers. The cold affects performance in a number of ways. Training in it can seem like we are going backwards and knowing our true fitness level is often difficult.
If you are in a warmer climate, you are probably at an advantage and you don’t necessarily need to take this post in any further. By the way, if that is you, we are so jealous! For those who deal with this kind of weather, I probably don’t really need to explain the challenges it provides us. The biggest thing I can do is offer some guidance on how to approach and navigate.
When it comes to winter running and how to navigate, you know exactly what is going to be said and I can hear the collective “Ewww! No way!” or the macho acting tough and trying to tell me it’s not real running. Okay, sure whatever. Honestly, if a person is doing a base plan, or they are running 30-60 minutes a few times a week, then yeah I love the ability to get outside and embrace the cold. However, there’s a big difference between getting your daily exercise and training for a marathon. I want to run outside, I am definitely in the camp of “if I can, I’ll run outside.” However, over the years, I have seen so many athletes (and myself) develop issues in their feet, achilles, hips, knees, and calves from trying to just do everything on poor footing. I am 100% convinced of that. With that…
Balance time outside with time on the treadmill.
Invest $10/month and join Planet Fitness and commit to doing at least your easy runs on poor footing days to hitting the treadmill. While you’re at it do 20 minutes of strength training afterwards! Even if you only need it for January and February, you’ve spent $20 and kept yourself healthy. Say you use it once a week for two months, that’s $2.50 a run to just give your body a break. I feel like the ROI on that is pretty good.
The biggest thing I want to do by encouraging you to be open minded about a treadmill is more about just giving your body a break from the constant poor footing on sidewalks and streets. Secondly, every once in a while it’s not a bad idea to use it as a checkpoint with something like a harder long run or a tempo run just so that confidence is not all lost. We can adjust based on temperatures and recognize that if I am wearing five pounds of clothes, my performance will probably be affected. But, every once in a while it’s nice to not have to worry about all of that stuff.
The biggest complaint I get with doing runs on the treadmill is that I can’t run fast on a treadmill, I get bored, or I just get dizzy or vertigo. I want to discuss running fast in a second but quickly address the last two. Getting bored does suck. Podcasts and music will only do so much. I see it as an opportunity to get attentive to yourself- focused on what you are doing.
In part one, we talked a little bit about timing, but more specifically how training starts at maybe the worst timing of the year- the holiday season. Today, I want to expand once into what will really affect a lot of people- the winter months!
Where I am at, in metro Detroit, winters aren’t too bad through the end of December. We might get some snow, but there’s been plenty of times when we don’t have any snow on the ground. The problem is, once January rolls around, the average high is below freezing and whatever snow we get is usually stuck until March! We might not get a ton of snow, but it’s usually very cold and the wind chill is brutal. The interesting thing is that, if you just go over to the other side of the state, in the Grand Rapids area, they get a ton of snow due to the lake effect off of Lake Michigan. The bottom line is that it is cold, dark, and windy. We tend to have poor footing and are wearing a bunch of layers. The cold affects performance in a number of ways. Training in it can seem like we are going backwards and knowing our true fitness level is often difficult.
If you are in a warmer climate, you are probably at an advantage and you don’t necessarily need to take this post in any further. By the way, if that is you, we are so jealous! For those who deal with this kind of weather, I probably don’t really need to explain the challenges it provides us. The biggest thing I can do is offer some guidance on how to approach and navigate.
When it comes to winter running and how to navigate, you know exactly what is going to be said and I can hear the collective “Ewww! No way!” or the macho acting tough and trying to tell me it’s not real running. Okay, sure whatever. Honestly, if a person is doing a base plan, or they are running 30-60 minutes a few times a week, then yeah I love the ability to get outside and embrace the cold. However, there’s a big difference between getting your daily exercise and training for a marathon. I want to run outside, I am definitely in the camp of “if I can, I’ll run outside.” However, over the years, I have seen so many athletes (and myself) develop issues in their feet, achilles, hips, knees, and calves from trying to just do everything on poor footing. I am 100% convinced of that. With that…
Balance time outside with time on the treadmill.
Invest $10/month and join Planet Fitness and commit to doing at least your easy runs on poor footing days to hitting the treadmill. While you’re at it do 20 minutes of strength training afterwards! Even if you only need it for January and February, you’ve spent $20 and kept yourself healthy. Say you use it once a week for two months, that’s $2.50 a run to just give your body a break. I feel like the ROI on that is pretty good.
The biggest thing I want to do by encouraging you to be open minded about a treadmill is more about just giving your body a break from the constant poor footing on sidewalks and streets. Secondly, every once in a while it’s not a bad idea to use it as a checkpoint with something like a harder long run or a tempo run just so that confidence is not all lost. We can adjust based on temperatures and recognize that if I am wearing five pounds of clothes, my performance will probably be affected. But, every once in a while it’s nice to not have to worry about all of that stuff.
The biggest complaint I get with doing runs on the treadmill is that I can’t run fast on a treadmill, I get bored, or I just get dizzy or vertigo. I want to discuss running fast in a second but quickly address the last two. Getting bored does suck. Podcasts and music will only do so much. I see it as an opportunity to get attentive to yourself- focused on what you are doing.
24 min