Adjust to weather -- but run!

By Dink Taylor
www.FleetFeetHuntsville.com

While I love fair weather running just as much as anyone, we have to take what we get and run no matter what. There is always a window of opportunity sometime during the day.

I talk about the weather often. It sounds like a cliche but “How’s the weather” is a very common conversation with me. It dictates when I am going to do training a lot.

I check the weather every day online. I do listen to the weather men but they are usually about as right as I am. I have found that going to weather.com and putting in my zip code and then checking hour by hour gives me best results.

It is still not always right. I have heard it said that what kind of shape you are in is the biggest determining factor on race day, not the weather. I don’t always agree with that.

I have been in top shape before and then get to race day and under extreme weather conditions fail miserably. Weather plays such a big factor on race day, it is even a factor when it comes to training.

In 1999, I set my personal record in the marathon. I had been running marathons since 1981 and had not had a PR at that distance in 10 years.

There were a lot of factors that lead up to that race and many reasons things fell into place so smoothly that day. One of the key factors was the weather.

I have reviewed my training logs to see just what took place leading up to that day so I could try to recreate it. It seemed like every time I did a “key” training run, usually at least three per week leading up to the race that Fall, the weather was always perfect.

Sunny and cool. I keep a very detailed log, thus I know what the weather was. I spent the entire Fall having great workouts in great weather.
When race day rolled around, it was very cold and cloudy, not perfect but good marathon weather that helped lead me to a PR.

While we can’t control the weather, we can certainly payattention to it and adjust our training the best we can. Weather is going to have an effect on each run.

When you get ready to train tomorrow, pay attention to the weather, dress accordingly and get out and run -- no matter what.