Keep your schedule flexible Add strength and mobility work Guard against injury Investigate your barriers
While summer is all about sticking to your training calendar as you prep for fall racing, winter can – and should – be a bit more free form. While routine matters, it’s also important to stay safe and be smart about your training. Trying to do your hill intervals in the biggest blizzard of the year isn’t efficient or safe.
“I had an athlete in the Yukon last year who was dealing with snowstorms where snow would be a metre high in the road,” Spires says. “We would have to change interval days to wait for the roads to be plowed – so we had to add more f lex days where cross-training with skiing or the indoor bike trainer was an option. If you need to shuff le around so that you can do runs according to the weather, that’s absolutely fine.”
However, Spires notes that if you catch yourself constantly pushing workouts back and using the weather as an excuse to skip your hard or long runs, you may need to buckle down and just stick to your schedule, even if conditions aren’t ideal.
She notes that if you’re not training for a specific race, you may also consider decreasing your winter run volume, focusing on shorter goals (like a 10k PB, rather than ultramarathon prep). As the weather warms up, you can add volume back in, but in the worst winter run weather, shorter and harder runs might be easier than long, slow distance. But if you have the Boston Marathon on your schedule for April (assuming it goes back to the April schedule, post-pandemic), don’t despair: you can absolutely keep your volume up if you need to.
Between slush, snow and that it’s the off-season, why not lower your running mileage slightly and use some of that time to focus on strength and mobility? Bonus: the stronger and more supple you are, the less prone to slip-and-fall injury you’ll be. Having two strength sessions and a yoga class on your calendar every week also allows you to have that f lexibility in training, since snowy days can mean indoor strength training, while freshly plowed roads can mean it’s time to get out to run.
If you’ve ever run over a patch of black ice, this is obvious, but for those who are new to winter training: running on ice and snow heightens the risk of injury considerably. Whether you’re banana-peeling in a slip-and-fall, or doing a split as one leg moves forward and the other goes back, or post-holing in an unexpected patch of deep snow and pulling your hamstring, it can be dangerous. Spires adds that doing intervals in the cold weather can also increase injury risk if you don’t take enough time to properly warm up. That’s why she favours tempo efforts over short, hard sprints in cold weather.
Struggling to get out the door? ”Explore your personal barriers to running in the cold,” says Bell. “Your barrier may be easily controllable: for example, time is a really big barrier for some people. If that’s the case for you, make sure that you’re prepared ahead of time and you have all your winter running gear ready to go. Getting dressed for a winter run takes longer, so add that buffer.”
The same can apply to any other challenge: is your street always snow-covered? Get to know your neighbourhood’s plowing patterns, and try to base your run times around the times when the streets are clearest.
Find a crew
You may want to enlist a running buddy for strength and safety in numbers. “Finding a group, even if it’s an online community, can be really helpful for motivation as well as accountability,” says Bell.
In Collingwood, Ont., during the winter months, workers heading to their jobs at anywhere from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. may notice lights and ref lectors bobbing down the street. Get closer, and you’ll see that it’s two to 10 women out for a morning workout before their kids wake up. If they didn’t have each other – held accountable thanks to an “Early AF Run Club” WhatsApp group – they likely would sleep in more often. But when you know a friend is shivering on the corner waiting for you, you’re going to get out to meet her. And – bonus: running together means you’re more visible to cars, and if you do slide out on the ice, you have someone to help you up.
Consider increasing your carb intake
Carb lovers, rejoice: cold weather may increase your caloric needs on runs. “You have much higher potential energy demands when training in the cold, due to shivering, and you’re primarily burning carbs,” Cheung says.
Spires notes that in winter, she can’t do the earlymorning fasted runs that she loves in warmer weather. On an empty stomach, she says she simply can’t keep warm. A small packet of instant oats before heading out for her short morning run does the trick, giving her both carbohydrates and a warming sensation before heading out the door.
Hydration still matters
If you’re braving the cold for a long run, you may not need to drink as much as you normally would on a hot day, but you should still be sipping. “In winter, I can go for hours without touching my water, and then I realize that I’m super dehydrated,” Spires admits. “It’s so important to remember that even if you don’t feel as thirsty as you do in the summer, you still need that water.”
Some brands are now making insulated covers for the valve and hose of hydration packs, and many runners will tuck a bottle into an interior pocket or wear the hydration pack or vest under their top layer, closer to their body heat, to keep water from freezing.