Wednesday, October 19, 2011

WIWW

There's a lot of Wednesday blog memes (WIAW, Wordless Wednesday, WTF Wednesday) and I'm going to throw another one into the mix: What I Wore Wednesday.  This isn't going to be about my normal clothes, though.  While I make an attempt to look cute on a daily basis, I'm no fashion expert.  However, it has come to my attention that a lot of people don't know what to wear when they run once the temperature starts to drop.  After three Wisconsin winters, that is something I can claim to know a bit about. 

So from now on, each Wednesday I'll post a description of the weather conditions, show a picture of what I wore (just warning you, I need to work on my self portrait photo skillz), and tell you how it worked for me.  I think I'm also going to tag the photos with the temperature range so if you want to know how I add layers as the temperature drops, you can search that way.

This morning, according to Weather.com the temperature was 39 degrees, "feels like" 33.  The reason for the difference in temperature is that it was really really really windy. 

 
Here's what I wore from the bottom up: athletic socks and shoes (not pictured), Under Armour capris, a tech t-shirt underneath a long sleeved tech shirt, a reflective vest, a regular headband to keep my hair from bouncing around, a fleece headband to cover my ears, and a headlamp.  I also wore some thin cotton gloves. 

This outfit ended up being perfect for my 6mi run.  The only time I felt cold at all was when I was running directly into the wind.  I'm kind of cold-natured and another runner could probably get away with wearing shorts instead of capris and maybe even ditching the gloves and fleece headband.

The one thing I plan not to show in future pictures that I will ALWAYS wear is my reflective vest and headlamp.   For me, both items are a must when I run in the dark (which is every morning from Oct to April).  I want cars to see me and I want me to be able to see the ground.

Do you run outside in the dark?  If so, what kind of extra precautions do you take?

2 comments:

  1. Yes I love running in the morning darkness! I try to have all the right stuff on - reflective vest, headlamp, flashing red light but I know that sometimes cars still don't see me. But I think its safer in the mornings than in the afternoons when everyone is coming home from work. At 5am I usually only get passed by a handful of cars.

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  2. I do run outside in the dark, but I'm very lucky. I live by a running trail and park with lots of lights, and a lot of people are outside already, so I'm not alone. Pretty safe.

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