Map Your Route. It’s easy.

Many experienced runners can judge their pace as they’re running in order to judge their distance.  I’m getting better at that but I still like to confirm the distance of my training runs.  In the past that meant driving the car to retrace the run and checking the odometer.  Now there are great online mapping tools that make measuring your route easy. 

Last Saturday I wanted to do a 9 mile run.  I have a 9 mile route that I’ve run before I felt like running a different direction.  So I quickly logged onto runnersworld.com and went to my training log.  RW has a great online log.  I’ve been using it since the first of this year to track my workouts.  It’s super easy to use and let’s you view your progress in charts or graphs.  It also has a  mapping tool similar to a Google Maps feature, but even easier.  I selected the road map of my city then with a few clicks I had a 9 mile route laid out.  Plus I knew where the mile markers were so during my run I could check my pace.  A few minutes later I was heading out the door in a new direction.

Technology. Gotta love it.

  

Songbirds make a difference

Running in mid-April should mean shorts and t-shirts, or long-sleeve t’s at the most.  But this morning when it was 32 degrees and dark outside it was hard to tell April from February.  And then, about a mile into my run, I started to realize something was different.  Sure, the roads were dry which was rare in February, but that wasn’t it.  Was there a hint of daylight starting to creep into the horizon?  Maybe just a hint, but that wasn’t the difference either.  It was the birds! A steady stream of songbirds were active at 6:15AM.  I have no idea what type of birds they were but it sounded like quite a variety.  All I know is I sure don’t recall hearing them in a long time, like months!  Maybe there were birds singing all winter and I just didn’t notice but it doesn’t matter.  To me the birds singing changed this morning’s run from a cold late-winter run into a cool, early-spring run.  And that made all the difference.

 

How warm to dress in Spring?

Deciding what to wear when running this time of year can be tricky.  The early morning hours are still very cool but the temperature can change 10 degrees or more during your run.  At 7:45AM today the temperature read 32 degrees as I was getting ready to run so I dressed for 42.  (I learned a few years ago to dress like it’s 10 degrees warmer than it really is.  Your body temp will make up the difference.)  Warm up pants, long sleeve Under Armor Heat Gear under a t-shirt, knit cap and gloves seemed right.  After about 3 miles I took off my gloves and stuffed them in my pockets.  After about 6 miles, as the sun was now above the tree line, I was feeling pretty good about my choice of dress.  When I got back home after finishing my 8 miles, the temperature read 41 degrees, the sky was nice and bright and I had worked up a good sweat but didn’t feel over heated. 

Trial and error is the best way to learn what works but here are some tips:

Dress like it’s 10 degrees warmer – Have pockets in your pants to hold gloves or hat if you don’t need them – On cool days warm up inside before you head out so your body doesn’t have to warm up in the cold air – Invest in the proper gear, Under Armor and similar technology really does wick moisture away.  I used to be “old school” in sweats that held heat and sweat but now I love the new gear.