It's Freakin Freezing!

Winter has arrived early here in the Washington, DC, metro area. There were brief snow showers today that moved through downtown DC, and tomorrow’s high is expected to reach a balmy 38, but with the good old windchill, it will feel like it’s in the 20’s. Perfect running weather, not! In the immortal words of Dr. Evil in the first Austin Powers movie, it’s freakin freezing in here!

Now I don’t mind running in cold weather. In fact, my fastest races generally have been when the weather is cold. The temperature at the start of the 2002 Chicago Marathon was 34 and the mercury only made it up a few degrees more by the end of the race. However, the wind was pretty calm and the sun was out, which made for pretty racing conditions. Here in DC, however, we’ve had the unfortunate combination of cold weather and lots of wind, which makes an early evening run feel like an excursion into Antarctica.

What to do? Dress in layers, lots of layers. Most experts recommend that runners wear a base of “high tech” material, a shirt that “wicks” away moisture, followed by either a similar type layer, and finished off with a running jacket or shell. Well, there’s the recommended way, and then there’s the Matt way.

As I prepared to go out for my run last night, I started with a cotton t-shirt, followed by a long-sleeved cotton shirt, followed by a good ole fashion sweatshirt. No high tech materials. No fancy synthetic micro-fiber shirts to wick away moisture. Nope, I went old school, Rocky Balboa-style. I actually own a few pieces of this new fangled high tech running gear, which I always wear for races, but when it comes to training runs and getting back into shape, there’s nothing like going back to basics. Tomorrow morning during my tempo run in Siberia-like conditions, the gray sweatshirt will make another appearance.