Cold & Mostly Prepared

Portland's high temp today was below freezing.  Yup, the high.  And I don't care about all the Midwesterners and East Coasters out there.  For this California girl, that's fucking cold.  Luckily, I enjoy running in cold weather as long as I genuinely believe I'm geared up enough to handle it.  Today's run . . .

Two shirts?  Check.

Jacket?  Check.

Long pants?  Check.

Knee-high socks?  Check.

Gloves?  Check.

Headband and hat?  Check.  Check.

It was satisfactory--particularly since cold weather running generally makes me go a tad faster than usual.  So, I suppose it was minimally above satisfactory.  However, with three months of winter still on the horizon, it's time I gear up with something more heavy duty.  

That means that tomorrow becomes one of my favorite kind of days.  No work, payday, running gear shopping Friday!  On my to-buy list are heavier gloves, knee-high socks, and earmuffs of some sort.

The glove situation is a must-have for several reasons.  As you may have noticed from the checklist, I already have gloves.  The problem is that, a) they're really thin; and b) while it's been an amazingly dry fall so far, the rain is a-comin', which means my moisture-absorbing gloves are gonna do me in any day now; and on a more first-world problem level, c) I want my gloves to have touchscreen-compatible fingertips so I can use my iPod/iPhone without having to take them off.

As for the socks, I wore some--albeit totally rad--U of O football fan socks that I've worn to several a Ducks game and celebratory event (yes, I married a duck, waddya gonna do?), but they're not made for running, so it's just a brief matter of time before they give me blisters.  I've been looking into compression socks for some time, but I've been torn on whether I really need them for the run or only for recovery afterward.  As it turns out, compression socks have been pretty much the only really long socks I've come across for running, so I'll give them a shot.  They're expensive too, but I'll experiment with a first pair and go from there.

And the earmuffs, well, that's pretty self-explanatory.  My ears get cold.  Duh.  I've got headbands that I wear over my ears, but they aren't doing the job during this cold snap.

So I'll see what I can do tomorrow.  It almost feels like Christmas is coming early.  And just in time, because Saturday's run promises to be a 23-degree chiller.