Changing Seasons

Fall is in full swing here in the Midwest, and I’m still chugging along. I have one more race on the calendar for the year, a 25K trail race in November, so I am trying to build a little speed while hoping I don’t reaggravate some dumb running injury. I’m also hoping to run over 1000 miles this year, something I didn’t do last year, only hitting 800. I’m confident I can get that done.

I had two decent runs this week, a 10.5 miler on Wednesday and a 12 miler on Friday. I was happy with both efforts, running them straight, without taking any walk breaks. Even though I am still running the A/C at home due to some lingering warm fall temperatures, both Wednesday and Friday were cooler than what I was used to. In typical “me” fashion, both days resulted in my overdressing for the run. You would think that in my thirty-plus years of running, I would know how to dress myself for running success. Nope. On Wednesday, I wore shorts and doubled up on top with a long-sleeve shirt covering a short-sleeve one because I was worried about being too cool. By mile two, I had warmed up nicely and was sweating heavily and cursing myself for not dressing smarter. Then I went and did the same exact thing on Friday.

It’s been a struggle for me year in and year out. Every year, I promise myself that this will be the year that I keep some sort of journal on what to wear for the weather to be comfortable. I neglect it every year.

Wearing layers is the smart thing to do, and that is something I don’t fail at. If you get too hot, you can take off a layer and put it back on if necessary. But it’s not just about knowing how many layers to wear; it’s also about wearing the right things, as well. When I started running in the late 1980s, there wasn’t any sort of industry-wide clothing for runners. We had cotton shirts, shorts, socks, and you wore what was comfortable. If you signed up for a race, you were given a cotton shirt. I wore them like badges of honor, even though they held on to sweat and became miserable. According to Google, Nike didn’t debut its Dri-Fit clothing until 1991, and it took a while to convert us running neanderthals. When tech fabric (generally made of polyester) became widely available, it made a huge difference in running for me.

It’s interesting to see how others dress when the temps get cooler. I saw a woman running the other day in shorts, a short-sleeve shirt, and an ear covering headband, clearly worn to keep her ears from getting cold. In the fall, when the temperature hits the 50s, people start wearing pants and sweatshirts. In contrast, on the same type of weather day in spring, they won’t be wearing anything like that, happily enjoying their runs in shorts and t-shirts. I guess going from cold to warm is an easier transition than warm to cold. The picture of me above was what I wore on a spring day. Looks like I was ready for the warming temps.

Well, since I don’t have a handy-dandy reference log to tell me how to dress perfectly for the changing seasons, I guess I will just keep changing clothes with the seasons.