Winter (non) running and my new Garmin Forerunner 220

Winter has made its strong presence in the new city I'm living in. In fact, I've NEVER experienced a winter where snow and negative temperatures are the norm. I confidently ignorantly stated in my post I would run 4 out of 7 days of the week in order to reach my goal for my upcoming half marathon, but the frigid temperatures accompanied with snowy sidewalks altered my so-called running schedule.

Running in a Winter Wonderland is not my cup of tea

I managed to log some miles on the treadmill, but I can only run so far before my mind starts going berserk. Maybe if I were a Jedi I'd be able to sustain longer periods of time on the treadmill, but my powers that be are closer to Jabba the Hutt. So aside from living in a completely new city and not having strong ties to the running community, my lack of running experience in frigid temperatures has thrown a curve ball to my training schedule.


So what to do when the weather outside is not lovely? Pray you're on the nice list and hope you get a sweet GPS watch you've mentioned wanting over a hundred nagging times as an enticement to savor the outdoors.

I was on the Nice List

Maybe it's artificial motivation, but when I opened the Christmas gift my husband gave me and saw the Garmin Forerunner 220 (with Heart Rate Monitor), I immediately wanted to go for a run in spite of the frigid temperatures and 20MPH winds. I've never owned a GPS watch or a heart rate monitor before, so I was beyond stoke to give a try. I opted to enjoy Christmas Day with my family and chose to run the day after Christmas instead.

I used the heart rate monitor and attempted to do a run on Heart Rate Zone 2, but had to walk at times to stay in Zone2. Needless to say my run did not feel like a run at all.

Because the watch comes with a built-in accelerometer, I decided to give it a try on the treadmill (it was also gray and windy & served as a good excuse to run indoors). I'm not sure if it was user error or not, but the distance and pace was off between the treadmill and the watch. The inaccuracy is a bummer and I'm hoping it's only this one time occurrence.

Ran 5.07 miles @9:09 pace on the treadmill, but my watch recorded 4.37 @10:21 pace.

There is supposed to be another cold front heading our way next weekend, and I'm making every attempt to run outside versus the treadmill as much as I can. I'll have to admit even though I like running, and believe running is one of those activities that can be performed under any conditions, I have my personal limits and preferences. I much prefer running in warmer temperatures and enjoy a sweaty run over a shivering run. Running in cold weather is physically painful for me. I'm hoping the novelty of my new watch will continue to be an incentive to withstand the chilly wind and weather conditions. Maybe Garmin will invent a GPS watch that will create warm virtual settings found in the Islands of Hawaii.

One of the many perks of outside running - beautiful scenery.

How do you motivate yourself to run during frigid temperatures? Does Winter hinder your training schedule? Would a new GPS watch motivate you to run under less than undesirable weather?