Running in the Cold

I went out for a 14 km run yesterday. It was the first cold day this winter, at -13 C. While that may sound insanely cold for some it really isn't that bad as long as it isn't windy. And quite frankly, when it's that cold it seldom is.

A bit of trivia for those from warmer climates: it seldom snows when it's colder than -10 C, and it's very seldom windy when it's colder than -15 C. Snow and ice also have different characteristics at different temperatures. At around -2 or warmer snow is sticky and you can make snowballs and snowmen. Ice is very slippery at that point. But when you're down at -5 snow stops sticking together. It becomes porous and powdery. Ice is also firmer, which makes it a little less slippery. At -10 ice becomes a little sticky somehow. My experience when running in that temperature is that I don't have to parry or risk slipping at all, more or less. My feet land firmly and follow through the step and only slip slightly if my feet are still connected to the ground when my center of gravity is too far ahead. It may be because it's often covered in a layer of frost.

Anyways, back to yesterday's run. I wore ankle socks, tights, a t-shirt and a thin jacket, a thin beanie, thin gloves, and a runner's backpack with my phone in it. And airpods. Strange as it may sound the airpods actually help a lot, because they block cold air from entering the ear cavity. The ear is connected to the throat and when I get cold air through it both my ears and throat get sore.

Running shoes are not insulated; quite the opposite. It took about 3 km before I was warm enough that my toes were no longer affected at all by the cold. Before that it helps to wiggle them a bit now and then.

Breathing can be an issue at this temperature. I tend to breathe through my mouth and take rather big breaths. That is really not good for your lungs when it's cold. You can get something that's called cold asthma, which is basically that your bronchi and alveolars get frostbite. After you once get frostbite somewhere that body part will always be more sensitive to it. Ask my right big toe. There are many solutions to the risks of breathing in the cold. I've seen quite a few run with masks, for example, or a scarf wrapped around their face. This works very well for most. My issue with it is that the cheap masks are too small for me, and a mask in general creates more dead space where exhaled air becomes stuck, forcing you to take even deeper breaths. A scarf is better then, but I rarely use one unless it's something like -17.

What I've found works for me is to keep my mouth only slightly open and inhale through both mouth and nose. The nose is actually quite good at warming a certain amount of air, and the mouth can handle a little bit of it.

The sun set as I had about 5 km left. While that may just lower the temperature by a couple of degrees that really made a difference for my fingers. It actually became hard to keep my hands warm that last bit. I sped up a little bit to get home faster.

In the end I finished with an average pace of 4:33 per km. I stretched for almost 15 minutes and then took a long warm shower. My muscles were warm of course, but my skin was a bit chilled.

Here's a picture of me when I'd come back home, frost in beard and all.

-- CC0 ew0k, 2021-11-27