Take It and Run Thursday: An Encore Presentation

Runners' Lounge has this great feature called Take It and Run Thursday. They pick a topic, you write about it, and it helps to get the virtual running community together to share ideas and knowledge. Since they just hit the 1 year anniversary of Runners' Lounge today's theme is: Best of the Best. I scoured through all my blog posts and nothing really stood out at me. Since I'm now hopping for tons of nice warm weather and sunshine this post made me think back to the time when impending cold weather might not necessarily be the worst thing in the world:

Wow how things can change here in a couple of days. Last week I was revelling in the somewhat warm temperatures. Then last night the snow started to fall. When I woke up it was -12C (10F). Brrr. At least the sun came out today resulting in a fantastic run through -5C (23F) weather over lunch. Sometimes I wonder about this whole "training for a marathon in January while living in Calgary" thing. I think it gives new meaning to the term "endurance running" because not only do you endure long distance training runs but you endure cold and crazy weather. In an effort to put a bright spin on things I thought of all the things I love about winter running while I was out today:

• Cold weather makes you run faster. You want to hurry up, run, and get back indoors.
• Cold weather running mitigates the need for an ice bath after your long run. Indulging in an ice bath seems like an invitation for hypothermia around here if you ask me.
• Running over snowy pathways helps you pay special attention to your balance as you try not to slip and fall, and gives you something else to think about besides how far you are running. I think it also helps to promote a better gait as I concentrate more on shorter strides and faster turnover on slippery surfaces.
• I love the crunching sound I hear as my sneakers impact the snow.
• You can ogle all of the men out running the pathways clad in liberal amounts of spandex. Although maybe this isn't always a good thing.
• The fluid in your water bottle stays cold.
• You get to see what everyone else wears to stay warm. Today I saw a woman in this crazy coloured ski outfit, complete with hood with furry trim, wearing a dust mask.