Dc, I’m with you. Granted 2 generations ago would accuse all of us of being candyasses, but these kids now…they are serious candyasses! And the parents are giant pains in the asses–(if this offends you, then you’re one of “those” parents…you know the type that bitches out the football coach if your kid doesn’t play in the game even though he missed 5 days of practice, or the type that insists little johnny should have a perfect ballfield to play on even though he’s only 6 and doesn’t even fully grasp the concept of baseball, let alone play competently…but I digress…)
what’s sad is that in a recent 2 feet of snow on the ground, there was but one neighborhood house that had no marks of kids playing in the snow…they’re all inside sitting on their fat asses playing video games and crap like that. this is infuriating to me. what happened to playing outside? what happened to the desire to be a kid?
well, i still live in rochester, ny and last year i ran all winter outside. the worst was -17 with the windchill. it’s actually not bad once you get your ass out the door.
I used to go out in anything…coldest was probably around 0, and it felt like my shoes were frozen stiff. but after a serious knee injury I cut that out and seldom even go in the rain now. close to freezing is about the cut off, but really find myself indoor when november comes–there is alot of cold rain, sleet, etc. it sucks.
today is about 12 degrees again…I’ll happily stay inside.
ran intervals thismorning in lovely IN, it was -3F. tad bit nippy.
just an adendum to my previous post, I find that if you dress correctly temp isnt much of a factor. This morning I had on tights with a pair of desoto tri shorts over the top to keep the “boys” from freezing, shortsleeve coolmax top, longsleeve coolmax top, longsleeve pearlizumi springweight jersey and a light adidas windbreaker, balaclava with fleece stocking cap over it and last but not least light gloves with fleece mittens over them. Sounds like alot but I was pretty comfy except for my thumbs. I had icecicles hanging from my eyelashes and frost all over my cap from my breath. Id love to know what people think when I run by them.
The last couple of winters I’ve run outside the whole season. For some reason I can’t get motivated this year. Today it is -1 F with a wind chill of -17 and I look at the people bundling up to run and think they must be crazy. We started out this winter with a lot of snow, making trail running difficult. Then last week it went from 50F to 2F overnight, making everything a sheet of ice. Of course, I’m really just making excuses- or maybe I’m getting old. Time to move south!
The -13 chill this morning was a little cold for about 10 minutes, but then felt fine. I’m not sure that I would run if the chill were below -20, but it hasn’t come up recently so I might.
Besides, cold isn’t really the problem, at least here in SE Michigan. It’s the ice and the fact that you might not see the ice when it’s dark. I take at least one good fall a year on it.
It would depend on the wind, but I would say that somewhere below -30C I would question my sanity. If it’s dead calm, -25 to -30C can be quite pleasent once you get going. Typically it is sunny in our area when it is this cold. However, if there is any wind it can be a real problem. The risk of frost-bite is quite high.
i also live in rochester, ny (no sissy’s in this town!!) and a couple of days ago i did one of my special “intentionally run out of gas” workouts.
1h on the trainer, than a moderatly fast 2 hour run. in the middle of the run i usually run out of fuel. 5 minutes after 1 or 2 hammer gels the power is back - i love that feeling of returning power. i think this workout helps a lot to interpret body signals. anyway - on this particular day it was about 0-5F and my gel was frozen!! so i stood there in the middle of nowhere, totally out of gas and no calories in reach. it took me a couple of minutes to warm up the gel …
Reminds me of the time I nearly broke my jaw trying to bight into a PowerBar back in the late 80’s during a winter triathlon( speed-skate, run, xc-ski) This was a long race 20K skate/15K run/20K ski. During the 15K run to the ski area, I reached into my jersey pocket and took out a PowerBar, peeled the wrapper and tried to take a bite. I nearly broke a tooth and my jaw. The -15C temps had left the bar frozen solid! Fortunately, I was able to load up on warm Gatorade at the run-to-ski transition.
I ran outside last night and the wind chill was -5 with the air temp at 9 and the dew point at -10 according to the weather channel. It was unpleasant just because I had to wear so many clothes. I would have rather been on a treadmill.
It’s never been too cold for me so far. But then again, we don’t get as cold as Embarrass here in Minneapolis. I’ve run in temps as cold as -25F (-32C) and windchill at -75F (-59C). You almost get the streets to yourself when it’s that cold
