So far, all my training has been done during the warmer months of the year. I don’t usually like being hot, so I’ve always thought that I was more of a cold weather runner. But as it turns out, I’m not! Now that we’re in the middle of winter, I find myself yearning for the warm summer weather, the long days of sunshine.

At the peak of my training, I was doing most of my runs in the late evening. This gave me lots of time to mentally prepare for what I had to do. And for the most part, I’d always feel ready to go. I rarely missed a run. Nowadays, I find it so hard to make myself get out there. With my runs being so long, I find myself waking up only to be faced with having to go out within the next few hours. It’s just not enough mental prep time for me.

I know you must be wondering… this has nothing to do with the weather. I’m getting to that =)

Not only are the days too short for me to mentally prepare for my long runs, I also don’t really enjoy being cold during my runs. I’m usually pretty warm and sweaty through the first half. As I start winding down, all that sweat starts to dry off and I get super, super cold. The cold weather makes it worse. I know part of my problem has been not having the proper winter training gear.

So, with this problem throwing a kink into my training and because I’m now facing having to run in extremely cold weather (in NYC), I decided to plunk down the money for some real winter gear. My Christmas gift to myself =)

I LOVE the jacket. It makes me feel FIERCE =D

The clothes feel rather thin so I wasn’t really sure if they would keep me warm. But when I took them out for a spin during my long run on Saturday, I found that they did help retain heat fairly well. In fact, for the temperatures that day (it was in the 50s), it kept me way too warm. I ended up having to change into shorts and a light UA shirt.

I hope these will be enough to keep me warm during a typical New York winter day. If not, I’ve also packed a pair of North Face winter tights and a Patagonia fleece half zip as well as a smattering of long sleeve tech Ts. Hopefully, all of these will be enough to keep me warm =)