Winter: a Time to Shiver... or Stand and Deliver
by: Brent Terry

What with temps nearing seventy, the mixed-up calendar bringing week after glorious week of blue skies punctuated by refreshing rains; what with running in shorts and a t-shirt on Thanksgiving, it’s been hard to come inside and write about winter running. However, as forecasters start using the “s” word and crews decorate the light poles with tinsel and candy-canes; and, this after all being Minnesota, it finally seems time to say a few words about training through the time of short days and long cold-spells.

For the many who ski, snowshoe or skate through the winter, or those for whom running is a seasonal activity requiring light and unfrozen nose hairs—get those blades sharpened, stock up on wax or taped reruns of Baywatch, and have a jolly season! But for you who have dreams of spring glory on the roads, or want to run a spring marathon in relative comfort—this column is for you.

While your first instinct may be to run just enough to allow for another piece of fudge, another nip of nog—or, God-forbid, to stop running altogether—resist this urge. Instead, buy another pair of tights, some reflective gear and a breathable top, and beat winter by getting out in it—a lot! While the idea may seem counterintuitive (or downright crazy) it makes sense for many runners to actually increase their mileage during December, January and February. The reasons serious runners of all paces should think about goosing the mileage a bit during the winter are fourfold—two mental, two physical.

If you can’t beat it, join it!
Even a late starting winter such as this can seem interminable once the Ides of March roll around and there’s still no end in sight. Cabin fever can set in to a degree where once-affable family members retain all the charm of Charles Manson with a toothache. With the right gear and the right attitude all this can be avoided. The winter air is clean, the bike paths are empty of the sort of riffraff that only come out when the mercury soars, and the very coldest days bring brilliant blue skies—the early evenings; stars that seem close enough to touch. After a bracing run with friends or family, a hot shower and warm drink, one feels refreshed and invigorated. Winter regains its majesty. The grim months grow shorter; the walls no longer close in. Running allows us to face the season on our own terms.

The toughness factor.
Minnesota has cranked out more international-caliber marathoners than just about any other state. Ron Daws, Janice Klecker, Garry Bjorkland, Dick Beardsley, Steve Plascencia and Bob Kempainen are all Minnesotans who have garnered glory on the world stage; and while all were no doubt talented, it was more than talent that made them some of the best runners in the world. No matter at what level you run, the last miles of a distance race force you to look inside and answer some hard questions. Did I train hard enough? Am I tough enough? Can I deal with this kind of discomfort?

If you have piled in the miles through a Minnesota winter, if you have drunk the cocktail of twenty miles at twenty below, if you have enjoyed the salty tang of a snotsicle growing over your upper lip, your answer, as was the answer of your Olympian forbears, is a resounding, Yes! By bashing yourself, day after day against the cold, the wind, the dark and the bad footing; by taking winter’s best on the chin and coming back for more, you have hardened yourself against discomfort, created the mindset of a champion. After all, no little race can throw as much at you as old man winter.

Muscles and organs and stuff.
The physiological benefits to running outside during the winter are manifold, but can be encapsulated in two seemingly contradictory words: work, and rest. When the conditions outside make running difficult at best, and downright dangerous at worst, the temptation is to cut it short, or go inside to run. Except in the most icy, dangerous conditions, or if you have an important early-season race in the sunny South, resist the urge to take your running inside. Running on tight health club tracks day after day can lead to a whole slew of imbalances and their attendant injuries (not to mention boredom-induced psychosis). And running too often on the hard, slippery floor at the Dome can make hamburger of your shins and knees. Treadmills are safer, but imbalances and boredom are still factors that weigh against them.

Instead, slow down and run a bit more. By increasing mileage during the coldest months, you will gain valuable strength, making even more effective the faster training that comes later. This strength manifests itself in two areas: musculo-skeletal and cardiovascular. By running day after day on the smorgasbord of crud that a Minnesota winter can produce, you can be pretty sure that no two footstrikes are exactly the same. This constantly changing gait will strengthen small muscles at every joint, the result being both to make you more efficient over any surface, and to build a layer of protection against future injury. The large muscle-groups benefit from this work too, making you a fitter, faster animal come spring. As always when building strength, some muscle soreness is unavoidable, but give those muscles, tendons and ligaments time to get stronger slowly. Build into running on uneven surfaces gently. And stretch a ton after every winter run!

Your cardiovascular system stands to benefit even more from added winter mileage, particularly if this added mileage comes in the form of a weekly long run. (I know long is in the eye of the beholder, but lets say long, is a run of one and one half hours, to three hours or more.) By going long once per week, and adding a bit of time to your everyday runs, you increase capillarization enabling more blood (and the oxygen and glycogen that blood carries) to reach your working muscles. The long runs drastically increase the output of you heart and lungs, the pumping stations that allow all this oxygen and fuel to reach those shiny new blood vessels. The more oxygen and fuel that are allowed into your internal combustion system, the more work the body is capable of doing.

More work means running faster. Think of your training as a pyramid, with all this winter mileage being the base. It’s simple geometry to know that the bigger the base, the higher the peak. In running terms this translates to mean that all the winter miles make you faster before you even begin tempo, VO2 -Max, or interval work. And once you start these faster workouts, their effects are intensified thanks to all those winter miles. This translates to much faster race times, and much more enjoyable long runs when the green leaves and little birdies return.

And the rest part of the equation? Once your body is acclimated, all this longer, slower running is surprisingly easy on the system. You may feel plenty tired after a run, and even a bit sluggish when starting up the next day, but by and large the effort is not as taxing as running fast. The reason Minnesota has produced all those fast runners is not just that they have toughened themselves mentally and physically. We all know that if competitive runners can squeeze in one more hard run, they will. The weather here eliminates the possibility of going out and cranking out a fast one, day after day. This lowers the risks that attend fast running. People who are cursed with nice weather year round tend to run too fast, too often and with too few periods of slow, strength-building mileage. So yes, rest and work can be accomplished at the same time.

Tidbits.
• Ease into this winter running business. Increase your mileage by no more than 10-15 percent per week.

• Get expert help. Let the fine folks at GEAR Running Store help outfit you for the season. Hire a coach to set up a personalized training program. (I can think of someone who might be interested.)

•Try running in trail shoes when the roads get crappy. Purchase Ice-Joggers or screw 1/8” sheet-metal screws into your shoes for serious icy roads.

• Do more flexibility exercises. It is hard to keep muscles supple in the winter.

• Try and up the tempo a bit every week to ten days. Do a fartlek with short accelerations of no more than 200 meters on dry patches, or do 4-8 reps of a two or three block long hill, jogging slowly back to the bottom. A treadmill is a great place to stretch out the legs a bit, but try to keep it to once a week.

• Always run with others or let someone know your route, particularly at night. A bump on the head or sprained ankle can easily lead to freezing to death.

• Run for time or distance, but not both, when running outdoors in the winter. In the cold and crud, how fast you are running does not equate with the quality of the workout.

• Know your limits and respect the conditions. Some days it really is best to stay inside (maybe even with a toddy in front of the fire). In general you can dress to beat any temperature, but ice can be deadly, particularly when combined with wind and darkness. Finally, slow down. Enjoy the beauty of the season, smell the tang of fireplace smoke; look at the Christmas lights (after all, Minnesotans leave them up until June.) Have fun and when that gun goes off this spring, you’ll be ready!

• Finally, slow down. Enjoy the beauty of the season, smell the tang of fireplace smoke; look at the Christmas lights (after all, Minnesotans leave them up until June.) Have fun and when th gun goes off this spring, you'll be ready.