With winter running comes…extra laundry

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you probably know that, in the right conditions, I am a fan of winter running.  In the cold, you can always add another layer, as opposed to extreme heat where you can only peel off so much.

But that being said, adding all those extra layers does make it more complicated.  The smirk on my husband’s face as he leaned on the wall and sipped his coffee told me he found it quite comical watching my friend and I get ready for our long run on Saturday morning.  Even though I was dressed (2 layers on the bottom, wool socks, short sleeve on top) by the time she arrived, there was still so much to put on:  long sleeve (too soon and I’d overheat!); vest; neck warmer; jacket; watch (over my jacket sleeve so I could still see it); hat; shoes + cleats; water belt (with warm water to try to delay the freezing); and mitts.  It is such a production – by the time we were ready to go I think we’d both cracked a sweat.

Then there’s the laundry factor – in the summer I am always looking for other delicates to fill the load when I wash my gear, but in the winter, I can darned near fill a load in one run.

Still, as much as I love those first few warmer runs where it only takes 10 seconds to get ready, I am really not complaining.  Saturday was one of those perfect days where it was only a little bit windy, the sun was shining and the snow was sparkling rather than falling from a cloudless sky.  Once we were warmed up, we were really quite comfortable, which is more than I can say for some of our runs in August!