Temperature Turmoil

Eric S., Canadian

Years ago when I started running, I encountered the same problem many of us encounter when we run: How do you dress for different weather conditions? At the start of the Brooklyn Half one year, some friendly Flyers and I were expressing our frustration at the stress we always felt before every cool-weather race. How many layers were necessary to keep a runner comfortable? How many would be too much? Having too many was fine and dandy if you had a lot of clothing you could just throw away, but what if I really liked that extra long-sleeved shirt? It was the same question at each race, so finally, the “type A” side of my brain took over, and I started writing down what I wore and how comfortable I was after each run. It didn’t take long – really just running from fall, through the winter, and into the spring. The key was to figure out what the threshold temperature was between wearing a layer and adding/subtracting one. When was it too cold to run in shorts? When did I need to add gloves? What about a jacket?

So I started writing things down – namely, the temperature, what I was wearing, and whether it was too warm, too hot, or perfectly comfortable for me. Yep, type A all the way. It seemed like a lot of trouble for the first couple of weeks, but then I got use to it, and it became pretty obvious what I needed to wear at what temperature pretty quickly. I’d recommend everyone do this.

Finally, I came up with a handy little chart that I put on the fridge for reference, where it stayed for five years. Here it is:

I mean it when I say it was handy. No more fretting about what to wear - just a glance at the chart and I was set! Granted, sometimes I had to look at the "Feels like" temperature, which would on occasion adjust the temperature into the next bracket, but the chart still worked great. Maybe some of you might want to use the same very chart. Or maybe you’ll adapt it slightly by a few degrees. At any rate, I hope it helps somebody. On the other hand, you could just find another source online.

At this point, I could perfectly well end this blog post. Unfortunately, I personally know that the Blogmaster, that tyrant, wouldn’t be happy with such a short, uninteresting post. That’s why I never posted this last winter, when I first thought about it. I just didn’t feel like there was much to it. So I figured out what I needed to do.

I moved to Canada.

Things are a little different here. Now, Canada’s not the 365-day long frigid wasteland that everyone else in the world seems to think it is. The day I moved here, in mid-July, Ottawa was at the tail end of a 100°F heat wave, much like what was going on in NYC at the time. Normals are in the 80s like many nice summery American places.

But it does get cold in winter – much colder than NYC. For the first little while, I turned a blind eye to the winter, but the truth was unavoidable. I finally looked at the monthly forecast, and for January, the average high is 20°F. 20°F! And the average low is 4°F. By comparison the average NYC high temperature is 38°F, low of 26°F.

Anyway, back to my topic. So much for my chart. If I want to run here in winter, I’m going to have to suck it up and get used to the cold. And let’s just be clear about something: I hate the cold.

At any rate, I’m of course reworking my little chart. I can no longer call ten degrees the “stay indoors” temperature. And now, the lower temperatures include a ski mask. It’s true - it’s cold here in winter. But I’ll deal with it one day at a time, and I’ll keep running, whatever it takes.

Anyone else have any weather-related running advice?
- Eric S.