North Brooklyn Runners: A Community Running Group Serving Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, and Beyond!

I am from Texas. I went to college in Florida. I trained in high school in 80-95 degree weather (except for our 1 month of winter, when it was more like 60-70 degrees). I now live in New York. I don’t like winter.

Don’t get me wrong, there are things about it I like (not that many), but I don’t like being cold, and the lack of sufficient sunshine gets me all s.a.d. and until this past summer, I was pretty sure I’d rather run in the heat than the cold. But, for those of you who trained and raced all summer, you know how brutal it was– I couldn’t hang! Running even four miles often put me in the dangerous pre-black-out zone and at the Tomato Trot in August, I was seeing spots by the end of the 5K. What gives?

2010 was a pretty crummy training and racing year for me. Admittedly, my heart wasn’t in it and coupled with a intense work schedule, I did the bare minimum. But now in 2011 I have kind of a lot of free time (more than I would financially like), and my main goal is not to squander it. I’d like to pick my training back up, build a good comfortable base, and have fun with running. Finally outfitted in proper winter gear, I’ve been hitting the alternatingly dry/icy/snowy/slushy streets (mostly Kent Ave. and the Williamsburg Bridge) during morning or midday on lucky days when the sun is shining.

So this is the secret I have discovered… good winter gear + sunshine = fun running times! I can still have fun when the sun isn’t shining, but I think the Vitamin D gives me a lot more happy feelings than just running in the cold alone.

My “good winter gear” consists of: the lovely Sugoi Mid-Zero Tights, a Brooks jacket kind of like this, some sort of technical long or short sleeve (or both depending on the temperature), and either my awesome Sacouny Ulti-Mitts or these Asics Marathon gloves, and my ear-warmer-headband-thing. I have considered getting warmer socks but haven’t done so yet– I just deal with the “rock in my shoe” feeling for a few miles until the rock (my toe) thaws out.

Every time I go for a run in the cold and have a good time, I’m kind of surprised, even though I’ve logged quite a few miles this month. And the other day, even more to my surprise, I found myself thinking, “I’m going to miss this when it’s summer”.

Next step… speedwork. I’ve been to one work out this month, and I really need to go more often. So now that I’ve told you all that, you have full permission to harass, guilt, and creatively persuade me to get to speedwork each week.

-Aja