Deciding what to write about this week was an absolute no-brainer: it’s been cold as all hell. After a mild start to the winter in the Canadian Rockies (I wore shorts to the Dirtbags workout the week before Christmas), the first polar vortex of the season settled in over the past week and took over western Canada, which translates to particularly frigid temps here in Canmore.
We had a solid 5 days with temps dropping as low as the -40’s degrees C (and F, at that point) and we were lucky when it “warmed” up to -15 (but still feels like -22 with the windchill) today. You were lucky if your car started without a boost (mine sure didn’t) and it’s a miracle if you were trying to fly anywhere out of Calgary over the weekend and managed to escape the airport (because it can be too cold to de-ice a plane). A water main broke in Banff and there were Alberta-wide emergency alerts on Saturday night begging people to conserve power to avoid rolling blackouts due to the increased energy demands from everyone just trying to keep warm and cozy. Simple, every day, mundane tasks we take for granted became cumbersome and unpleasant; walking to the mailbox about 100m down the street was straight up painful without a second pair of pants on.
So how the hell do you train for a marathon in those conditions!? If you live in the Rockies and are reading this, you probably already have all of these tricks up your sleeves, but hear me out.
- Anything is possible with enough layers. On the coldest days (and nights) I ran outdoors this week, this is what I wore. If anything, I was often a little warm!
- Base layer shirt & sports bra
- Second/thick top layer (usually a merino wool)
- Fleece-lined running tights
- Down running skirt (this will change your life)
- Down puffy
- Down vest
- Fleece buff (this is a winter go to, the thin buffs freeze since they are too thin if you don’t wear two, but the fleece buff has an extra layer and stays soft and unfrozen)
- Wool headband
- Wool Socks
- Mittens that are basically oven mitts. I have these Columbia ones with a reflective thermal layer on the inside and my hands always stay toasty
- Winter running shoes: The La Sportiv Blizzards are an absolute game changer for winter running. Are they a marathon training shoe? Um, no. Are they gore-tex, with built-in gaiters and spikes? Yes. Will they allow you to get out and enjoy even the harshest winter conditions? Hell yes.
- Keep it short – yes, anything is possible with enough layers but in these really cold temps, you WILL eventually get cold. I tried to keep my runs all around an hour or less this week. In addition to keeping comfortable, you have to be conservative if you’re going to run outside. You never know when the temperature will drop, or if you’ll get colder than you expect. I try to shorten the routes and avoid going too far from home, or a least somewhere indoors, should I need to suddenly get warm
- Take the workouts indoors – There’s nothing wrong with saying a hard NOPE and not even attempting to run outside. For me, working at a desk job during the day and also at home, I feel really antsy to get outside every day and hopping on the treadmil doesn’t quite scratch that itch. That being said, I did sign up for a gym membership this week so that I had the option to treadmill it up and I took the two workouts I had scheduled inside. It was a nice excuse to bring my shorts out of the closet and enjoy some creature comforts. I run all my treadmill runs at a 1% incline so that I don’t get too used to only being able to execute my paces at a dead flat grade and it’s an extra “fun” challenge to keep the workouts spicy. I also embraced mother nature’s suggestion to stay inside and made it to my first yoga class in months.
- Get creative – the long run is for sure the hardest to execute in winter, especially when it’s cold AF and you can’t really run with water (because it WILL completely freeze). On top of struggling to find somewhere with footing good enough to come close to my workout paces, I just knew I wouldn’t be able to keep myself warm enough for the 1 hr 30mins + I had scheduled. I planned to drive to the gym with my shiny new gym membership to knock out my long run. However, when my car wouldn’t start, I pivoted and decided to run to/from the gym and just do the workout portion of the long run on the treadmill. I had to be strategic with my layers and run to the gym in one pair of shoes/carry another to wear on the treadmill, but it ended up workout out great and I got in 23km. There’s the slightly awkward situation where there is a time limit on the treadmill (30 minutes is seriously lame) and I most definitely did breach that rule which I suppose isn’t really cool, but I had to do what I had to do.
- Find friends as stubborn as you. I can’t remember the temperature (somewhere between -35 and feels like -45) but on our regular Thursday Dirtbags workout night, we still had a good ~15 people show up and it was AWESOME! Andy swapped out the workout for a social jog through the trails (and strategically, out of the wind) but I don’t think a single person regretted being out there.
- Enjoy the views – when it’s as cold as it’s been in the rockies this week, I personally believe we are rewarded with some of the most spectacular views of the year. Blue bird skies, crisp, snow-covered peaks. Town is quiet, everyone is hibernating. Its magical. I sure am glad it only lasted a few days this time, though.
Last week’s training:
Totals: 70km, 999m elevation gain, ~6 hr 45mins running
Monday – 12km XC ski (outdoors)
Tuesday – 8 x 800m @ 3:38/km, 2min jog recovery @1% on the treadmill
Wednesday – Dawn Patrol (~8km easy trail, outdoors)
Thursday – Dirtbags (~8km easy trail, outdoors)
Friday – 3-part Long run: 3.4km run to/from the gym (outdoors) then a treadmill workout: 10km@4:45/km (85% GMP) then straight into 4 x 1km@ GMP, 1km easy
Saturday ~7km easy trail (outdoors)
Sunday ~ 11km easy trail (outdoors)
This one time I went running 