Winter Weather Adjustments

As you have obviously noticed, there has been a strong cold front (yes, I understand that terminology does not adequately describe the past week or so) that has brought with it frigid cold, strong winds, and precipitation.  Even down here in New Orleans some of the local suburbs have seen temperatures reach the teens.  This is a setback for many runners across the country as this may push back track workouts, disallow running outside, and in some cases cancel school for snow days.  Weather is a factor that should be often considered for training, and while some scheduled workouts may be cancelled, there are other possible ways to still get your running in.

First, I want to refer back to the rainy day workout post I made last year which just gave some simple examples of things you can do to when weather is adverse.  For this post I am going to give you several specific examples of training that can be done when the weather is bad.

- I have a friend who coaches in Michigan (his team has run New Balance recently) who described to me about his training that he does when the weather is bad.  The hallways of his school make a rectangle shape and is roughly 200m long.  In the mornings he will get his team to run the hallways before school to make sure they have gotten their running in for the day.  Of course this is not optimal, but remember we are talking about when training outside, for the most part, is not optional.

- Last year before the state track meet we had some really wacky weather that is very atypical for May in Louisiana (temps in the 40s/50s).  With the cold front came a lot of rain and made doing a workout at the track simply impossible (unless I wanted my runners to be sick).  Thinking on our feet, the coaches found a gym that had two treadmills we could use and I did a tempo workout with the kids, at least giving them the opportunity to run a quicker effort a few days before the state championship.

- At my old high school, coach Micah Simoneaux and I would be given workouts on rainy days that involved starting a run at the lobby of the gym and then run up the flights of stairs to the basketball court, around the gym, and then back down the stairs.  If the weather was not too terrible, we would add in some running around the outdoor covered walkways.  Each run was a rep at around tempo pace and we would do several of them, the distance runners doing a bit more than the sprinters.

- Lastly, coach Preston Curtis, the head track coach at John Curtis, has brought his runners to an indoor football facility to get some quality work in.  This option actually cost a bit of money, but for some coaches it may be the only choice.

So on a day like today where the majority of the country will be in the 20s-40s, and the northermost states will be even further below that, it may be good to brainstorm a little bit and instead of cancelling practice, you may be able to figure out a way to at least get some training in rather than nothing.