Tag Archive: cold weather

Running log: 2009/12/13

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Sun. December 13, 2009

This morning, as I started putting on my running gear I turned on the TV to catch the weather predictions. The forecast called for freezing rain starting at some point during the morning. I just shrugged and carried on doing what I was doing. I don’t know how I got to this point, but I’ve learned to keep getting out there despite any wicked weather. Actually, that’s not true. If the weather calls for thunder and lightning then out of safety I’ll stay at home. However, if it’s raining or snowing I won’t let it scare me outright. If the snow is several feet deep, maybe I’ll reconsider, but only because it’d be a bitch to travel all the way north of the city.

Anyway, today the schedule called for a 10K run. I used the same route as last week. The feedback I got from the group last time was that it was challenging due to its hilly nature, but everyone was happy to have gotten through it. Today seemed to be the same. Although we had to deal with the added challenge of icy sidewalks. Luckily, it was really only on the first stretch where we had to tread carefully. Man, you’d think that the sidewalks by HWY 7 would be well maintained, right? Guess not. Every now and then I turned back to have a look at the people behind me, praying that no one had fallen flat on their ass like J.Lo at the AMAs. Fortunately everyone stayed upright–that includes me.

Today we had a good sized group of people. I’d imagine that make twenty something people ran with my group. Over the first few kilometres the group spread out nicely. The nimble people were off in the distance. The casual runners were doing their thing. I was somewhere in the middle making sure everyone was OK. I swear, the last few long runs have been feeling relatively relaxed and easy. Today seemed ever so slightly tougher, but I still managed to keep a steady pace. At the beginning I was feeling a little bit cautious because my right ankle wasn’t feeling right. There was a slight ache toward the back of the foot. The first thing that came to mind was Achilles tendonitis. I was afraid all of the ice on the sidewalks would aggravate the ache, but to my surprise the ache faded as the kilometres piled up. By the time I ended, the ache was gone. Of course, now it’s back. It feels like there’s a bit of tightness there. Anyway, it’s something that I’ll need to keep an eye on over the next little while.

So far, about one third of the way through this clinic, the weather’s been rather kind to us. Of course, winter hasn’t even officially started yet. I’m sure there are going to be some heavy duty storms to contend with in the next month or two. Even so, I get the feeling that people in my clinic are facing the next little while with a great sense of optimism. Having that is entirely necessary in order to make it through the dark days. I just hope I can keep everyone motivated, you know?

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Aren’t you cold?

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Thu. December 10, 2009

The other day I was reporting that my cold tolerance seems to have gone…well, I’m happy to report that I think it’s back. At least, I think that I’m happy about it. Hmm. Anyway, this morning, I saw my sports jacket sitting in the closet, not getting any air time. Since I had taken the blazer out for a spin the day before, I figured that the sports jacket needed a chance. Besides, the dark grey pattern seemed to look better with what I had on in comparison to the black blazer. Oh yes, I’m sure I could have just gone with my leather jacket, but whatever man, I was already committed. As soon as I stepped out the door though, I questioned my choice of not going with the leather. The wind immediately started attacking my body. It was blowing my unbuttoned jacket, kind of making me feel like I was a character in some sort of movie scene walking toward some sort of helicopter with its blades going. All I was missing was a pair of aviators and a suitcase full money. The wind was fierce, but I didn’t seem to mind at the time. I had my gloves on, and that seemed to be enough to not make me run back to my place to dress more appropriately.

Upon arriving at work, I got the usual comments about interviews, but I just laughed with everyone. On the inside I was still feeling slightly out of place, but all of that was squashed when I got remarks about how I was well-dressed. Great, right? People also commented on how I didn’t bring a thicker jacket. They asked, “aren’t you cold?” My immediate response, which was meant to be a bit cheeky was: “It’s the middle of December, of course I’m cold!” I mean, really. Sure, I was cold, but I was covered enough for whatever short trips I had to make out there. I really was just fine up until maybe the last few hundred metres back to my place. It was close to 7 p.m. at that point and it felt like the winds were twice as strong as they were in the morning. As I walked, the wind was pushing me with enough force to make me look like I had a bit too much to drink. There were some icy patches along the way and I was afraid that a sudden gust would just knock me on my ass. I was OK though. My nose was dripping but the cold blasts took my attention away from it. At that point, yes, I totally wish I had a thicket jacket, but considering that I only thought that for a few minutes out of the whole day of Mother Nature violating me, I did well. I plan on being a bit more sensible on Friday because I’ve made my point to myself. I’ve still got it. I’m strong. I’m healthy. I’m foolish. I can take it.

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Cold resistance

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Sun. December 6, 2009

It’s December. The weather gets cold. That’s what it does. What am I? New to the country? No. I shouldn’t be surprised.

I like cold weather. That’s what I keep telling myself. For the longest time I’ve been rather sturdy against it. Where others would be wearing many layers I’d be there with my jacket open, defiantly facing the bitter winds. That’s how it is.

Actually…that’s how it was.

This evening wasn’t even that cold, but I was really feeling it. As I walked from my car to the building my whole body was shivering like I had some sort of illness. Pumping gas was an ordeal. All of the discomfort was compounded with a headache that seemed to clamp onto the back of my skull.

What’s going on?

I’m just second guessing what my body’s up to. I was wondering if I was hit hard just because I lost some weight. When I thought that, I told myself that I was just being a show off. I thought that I’d be just fine with a sweater though. Eventually I just decided that my body needed to get re-acclimatized to the seasonal shift. That’s the most logical thing I could come up with. What if my body can no longer cope though? I don’t want to be one of those people that need layer upon layer as early as October. Aaaaargh.

I don’t think I’ll ever stop liking cool weather. Maybe now that I’m aging it just means that I have to be a bit more sensible and not so defiant at the natural forces at work. What’s the point, right? Hmm.

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Winter denial

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Tue. January 13, 2009

I really think I’ve been in a state of winter denial. No kidding. I mean, I’ve been driving around in relatively good weather. The last few times that there’s been heavy storm I’ve either taken transit in to the office or had the fortune to be able to work from home. Today’s been the first time this season I’ve had to make the commute on snow-covered roads. Even without snow tires I didn’t do any slipping around because I think I have the good sense to take it easy. Today shouldn’t have surprised me, but it kind of caught me off guard.

In terms of running, I’ve been good-natured about all of this winter-training. I didn’t train last winter, and now after the interesting runs I’ve had I kind of wish I did. What’s a little snow? Sure, it slows me down considerably but it’s still rewarding. All this time I figured the whole season would be this relaxed, but tonight, hoo boy. The wind chill was entirely brutal when I was starting out. The temperature was the coldest I’ve had to run in in a long while. I felt it most in my toes. Maybe I need to buy woollen running socks, I don’t know.

Going to work, I’ve been wearing my usual casual leather shoes. I’ve been meaning to buy boots, but the shoes had been enough over the past while. They give me good enough traction in slushy conditions. I just put up with it all. Today though, after a few too many puddles I had to take them off, and remove my socks for them to dry out. I had them drying on my computer tower under my desk so as not to offend my colleagues. After taking a good look at my shoes, I noticed that the accumulated salt stains were starting to have an effect.

So, anyway, I’m bringing up all of these small stories as examples of me not acting as if I’m aware what season I’m in. In many cases I’m still quite season-inappropriate. This morning, while sitting in crawling traffic I was thinking about how it was fortunate that I wouldn’t have to drive through many more snowy days being that the season is almost over. Oh, but then I actually did the calculations and came to the realization that we were even one lousy month into the season. That should not have shocked me at all, but yeah, it did. It’s kind of like I’ve been entirely oblivious to mother nature. With the big clump of snowy days in December, it almost feels like we’ve been dealing with this season for a very very long time. Of course, this isn’t true.

Well, I’m here to say that I acknowledge that we are into winter, and that there are still a few months to go before tamer weather conditions will prevail. I am in winter denial no more.

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Running log: 2009/01/11

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Sun. January 11, 2009

My body is now more or less behaving more like how I want it to perform in comparison to the whole recent post-holiday period thing that I’ve been experiencing. That’s not to say that running has suddenly become the easiest thing in the world. Oh, hell no: it’s still a long struggle. I guess the difference today is that it just seemed easier for me to just hang in there.

After the amount of coldness that I had experienced during last Sunday’s long run, I was determined to do more to stay warm. I managed to find my tuque, so I wore that instead of my baseball cap. I’ve complained about the wind piercing my gloves a couple of times in the past, so I invested in a good pair of gloves that have a wind guard. Basically, you can pull this hood over the glove fingers making it look like a mitt. It did a really great job protecting my fingers, which was really welcome because frozen fingers really are a distraction. The mitt hood can also be folded and tucked into the back of the glove, so when my hands started getting really hot late into the run I just peeled it back and I was good. Seriously, even though the gloves were a bit steep they were totally a great investment.

Over the rest of my body I wore many layers. On my upper body I had three layers–two technical tees and a light jacket. Given how much heat I tend to generate I thought that would be enough. Unfortunately, my gut area was actually freezing. I complained about this last week as well. See, I didn’t tell you before, after last week’s run I took a hot shower as soon as I got back. After the shower, my belly developed this horrible heat rash. It was so red! I figured that the drastic change in temperature was really drawing blood to the area. Not good.

Today was a colder Sunday than last week, so the cold stomach was even more pronounced. There were a few points where I thought I was developing frostbite. I was pulling the cords on my jacket as tight as they could go to prevent the cold air from venting up and under. It wasn’t enough though. Eventually, I took off my water belt and did it over my jacket effectively blocking anything from coming in. I figured that having an un-frostbitten stomach was a lot better than having frozen water. Duh. It helped a bit, but my belly was still really cold. I think next week I’m going to try a different jacket.

This week I did bring the boxes of raisins like I’d planned. I think they helped quite a bit. Although, it was a bit tough having to chew through a big lump of half-frozen dessicated grapes while breathing. Sure, I could have just stopped and went NOM NOM NOM but I didn’t want to stop. I just had to chew more carefully.

See, I didn’t want to stop because I really didn’t want to lose any more time than I had to. Over night we got a small dumping of snow–about 4 cm or so. God, that really does make a difference, doesn’t it? I could only develop small momentum. The shifting snow under my feet really kept me from confidently pushing forward. My legs were moving as fast as they usually do, but I was certainly going 1 minute/kilometre slower than where I’d likely be at. I acknowledged about a month ago that I cannot possibly compare my times during summer running to my times now. The conditions aren’t similar enough–so it’s like comparing apples to oranges. I’d originally told myself that for the race it would be great to come in a couple of minutes faster than my last half, but if I’m being honest with myself I think I’m going to just aim to finish. I don’t know what the course will be like–will they plow it well enough? Who knows?

Despite going slower, I was only 3 or 4 minutes behind last week’s time. Unlike last week, I wasn’t horribly fatigued. Sure, my muscles were tired–why wouldn’t they be after 16K? However, the whole affair was relatively comfortable. I felt great. In the end, that’s all you can ask for, right?

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How to convert temperatures in your head

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Wed. January 7, 2009

OK, so this post is a bit of a remnant from some brain activity that I was working through while my relatives from the States were visiting here. The weather stations here obviously do their forecasts in degrees Celsius. When the relatives see the forecasts, inevitably, one of them will ask me “how much is that in Fahrenheit?” All I could do in response is give off some rough number based on some ranges that I have in my mind. For example, I know that 32°F is freezing. I know also know that 80°F is a nice warm day. The rest was kind of a blur. Oh, how “fuzzy logic” of me. Anyway, it took me a while to figure out how to calculate conversions on the fly.

On the Internet I kept on encountering 5/9 or 9/5 as the ratio involved with conversion. I’ve tried keeping track of the fraction mentally but in the end with so many numbers would calculations were often off because of some transposed number, or something. What clicked for me was the realization that instead of nine-fifths, 1.8 was so much of an easier number to handle. Indeed. After that, all I needed was to keep a running total in my head and perform some easy addition/subtraction. All I needed were some key numbers to do some nice conversions:

  • Multiples of 1.8 up to 9: 1.8, 3.6, 5.4, 7.2, 9.
  • Multiples of 18: 18, 36, 54, (maybe 72).
  • Freezing point in Fahrenheit: 32.

OK, so what do you do? Well, let’s take Celsius to Fahrenheit first.

  1. From the absolute value (disregard positive or negative–calculate using positive), for every 10 degrees Celsius count 18.
  2. Take the left over unconverted degrees Celsius, and if it’s over 5, count 9 more degrees for those 5.
  3. For the remainder of unconverted degrees, count 1.8°F per degree and add that to the total. Rounding will simplify things.
  4. If the temperature is below freezing, subtract the total from 32. If it’s above freezing, add it to 32.

There. Looks kind of ugly, yeah? Well, let’s do an example. Let’s convert 23°C.

So, 20°C is 36°F. And 3°C is 5.4°F, but let’s say 5. The total is 36 + 5 = 41°F. Since it’s above freezing, 32 + 41 = 73. So: 23°C is about 73°F. Nice!

Let’s try -16°C.

10°C is 18°F. 5°C is 9°F. 1°C is 1.8°F, but let’s say 2. The total is 18 + 9 + 2 = 29°F. Since it’s below freezing, 32 – 29 = 3. So: -16°C is about 3°F.

Not so bad once you get the hang of it. How do you go the other way though?

  1. Subtract 32 from the total Fahrenheit.
  2. Disregarding whether the result is negative or positive, for every 18°F, count 10. Key numbers: 18, 36, 54, (maybe even 72).
  3. If the remainder is above 9°F, count 5 for those 9.
  4. Count out the remainder using multiples of 1.8.
  5. If the starting number was below 32, the temperature is negative. If it was above, the temperature is positive.

So. Let’s try converting…96°F.

96 – 32 is 64°F. We can convert 54 from that to get 30°C. There’s 10°F left over and we can count 9 of that 10 as 5°C. The one degree left over is close enough to 1.8, so we can kind of count it as 1°C. So, the total is 30 + 5 + 1 = 36°C

What about converting 17°F?

17 – 32 is -15 degrees. We know that 9°F is 5°C. There are 6 degrees of 15 left unaccounted for. 6 is just a bit more than 5.4°F which is 3°C. So, the total is 5 + 3 = 8°C. We know the temperature is below freezing, so we say that 17°F is about -8°C.

I swear, these conversions aren’t that bad. I find it interesting to give the mind some exercise by switch units. Impress friends and family with your mad skills!

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Running log: 2009/01/04

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Sun. January 4, 2009

Given that my race is in two months time, I’ve really had to knock my mind and body out of holiday mode. Holy crap, it’s been tough! I recently wrote about the Resolution Run being tougher than expected. I figured that that was just an isolated thing, after all, it was a race meaning that my output would have been higher anyway. I tested that hypothesis out yesterday, Saturday. I had a 5K easy around-the-block steady run pencilled in. Someone slowed down to run with me the whole way. I felt like I was really using some extra effort to keep a steady pace with her. The sidewalks were clear enough with occasional patches of snowy uneven ground. By the end, I was shocked with myself at just how I was finding the run hard. There’s no reason that it should have been–I’ve done that route so many times. So, just like the Resolution Run, yesterday’s run was tough. When I got back to the store, I spoke to one of the speedier people in the group who was stretching out at the side. She too was noticing that it was harder for herself. She had a theory that the few extra pounds that she packed on during the holidays were really making a difference. That’s a great theory if it’s true. In my case, I’m lugging around another X number of pounds that I haven’t had to run with since early 2008. I guess that’s enough incentive to continue to work harder to shed the weight and make running easier.

This morning, I was scheduled for a 16K long, slow, distance run. I hadn’t done a long run since the 12K two weeks ago. I was a little apprehensive about doing it, but I pushed myself out there. I mean, in the last half-marathon clinic I did we got to the 16K runs in August. The distance isn’t what scared me. It’s just that I wasn’t sure what my body was going to do. Soon into it I was basically left alone with one of the pace leaders running back to check on me once in a while. My pace really was slow, but I felt that I had to keep at that low level just to make sure that I could make it through the whole distance. The wind was piercing through my gloves so I had to keep my hands in my sleeves for long intervals. I could feel the wind finding its way up my jacket, making my stomach a bit colder than I wanted. I don’t know why I didn’t tighten the bottom of my jacket to block the air. Beats me. A few times, I could feel the back of my neck becoming quite cold. The sweat dripping down the back of my head was actually freezing making my neck numb. I popped the collar on my jacket up to keep it warm.

Late into the run I was starting to really regret not bringing along some extra nutrition. At home prior to the run, I was considering bringing along some mini-boxes of raisins just so that I’d have some sugar hits on me if I felt the need to get my levels back up. Unfortunately I forgot to bring them. Unlike my summer runs I wasn’t feeling dizzy from running low on energy. Instead, my body was just mildly rebelling. It’s like, I could feel my hips aching. It wasn’t pain, but more like my muscles dictating to me that I wouldn’t be able to run any faster. I imagined them yelling at me: “Listen! I don’t care, you’re only going *this* fast.” Who was I to argue? There were a few points where I did try to produce more output but I simply could not. By the last kilometre it felt like a miracle that I could just lift my legs to keep going. When I made it back to the store, I was really thankful.

So what did I learn from this long run? Well, for one thing I’m definitely at the point where I totally need to bring along gels or food. I’m a big guy so my energy expenditures are up there. According to my HRM, with this run alone I burned through 2100+ calories. No shit. It’s not like I can stuff away that many calories prior to the run and feel good about it. I’d probably end up puking somewhere along the way if I did that.

In any case, this whole process is a long battle. It’s one that will be won, but just slowly.

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Running log: 2008/12/07

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Sun. December 7, 2008

Seems that for every few great runs where I feel unstoppable or particularly determined, I have runs like the one I had this morning that bring me back to Earth. There are so many variables that determine how each run is going to be for me. Time and the position of the sun play a factor. Sunny days are different from rainy days are different from windy days are different from snowy days. Humidity levels can wreak havoc. On the really hot and humid days this past summer I’d sweat like mad and my salt levels would become depleted so much faster causing me to become light-headed. If I don’t hydrate well the day before my muscles start complaining earlier on. If I don’t eat I run out of gas. If I eat too much I feel bloated, bogged down and gross. If I don’t wear proper clothing for the weather I’m prone to overheating. If I tie my shoes too tight, I get shin pains. If my shoes are too loose, I don’t get enough support. If I start out too fast, I fade out fairly quickly.

So, with all of this knowledge, you’d think that I’d have a good grasp on everything that I need to do to be optimal. Ha! I think there are just too many things to pay attention to. That being said, I can at least make some things better for myself wherever possible–I can’t be perfect. And if a factor outside of my control decides to whip my butt, what can I do?

Well, all of my long distance half-marathon training has so far been in the summer. Over the last winter I decided to take two months off, so I missed the worst of the winter weather. I’ve yet to learn how to cope properly with these conditions that are entirely new to me. Overnight it snowed leaving a good amount of cover on the sidewalks. The temperature this morning was -6°C but with the wind chill it felt more like -20 something °C. I wore a long sleeve base layer, a heavy tee and a windbreaker up top. For my legs I wore tights and another pair of pants on top. I had my tuque and a pair of gloves. I was ready to go. Over the first 10 minutes, the front group was pulling far ahead. They were dealing with the uneven soft sidewalks really well. The back group was taking it easy, and I was somewhere in the middle of the mass of people. This continued for a couple of intervals. On some residential streets, I had to get off the sidewalk and run on the street. The winds were fierce and really added a good amount of resistance. There were many moments where I felt like I wasn’t making any forward movement at all because the wind was totally pushing me back. The wind also pierced my gloves making me fear frostbite. I had to put my hands in my pockets. I was really struggling with the snow on the ground. Just by running on it, I could feel my glutes and hamstrings working extra hard. After a while, I started to feel aches in those muscle groups. I had to slow down significantly.

Eventually the back group caught up and passed me. I would have been content to just let them go, but I decided to up the effort just to keep up somewhat. They were never more than 100m ahead. This run was brutal! I was sweating profusely and had snot dripping. My mustache became really frosty from all of the moisture I was exhaling. My backside was really feeling it. I had no choice but to go really slow.

Overall though, I’m proud to have finished this 10K run. It takes a lot of character, and perhaps a touch on insanity to put up with such conditions. I often tell people in my running group who’ve had a rough run that any completed run is a good run. I had to heed my own advice today. I’m going to call today a learning experience. This won’t even be the worst of it–it’s only December: conditions will only get worse. It’s going to be a crazy few weeks!

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