Blog Archives

Running in Arizona in the Winter

1/23/2015

This is a guest blog from Mike Jacobson.

On Jan. 9th, Connie and I boarded a plane to Phoenix to spend a few days with my parents, who own a home in Sun City. We decided that we wanted to run and/or hike everyday spent in the Grand Canyon State. I thought I'd share some of our experience with you.

We ran in regional parks around Phoenix as well as "city park trails" we also spent a day in the Sedona area. Here are a couple of pics from our adventure.

View of Lake Pleasant from the end/top of the Yavapi trail. We ran in three trails in the Pleasant Lake park on Saturday and Sunday.

End of the Wilson Canyon Trail just North of Sedona.

start of the Camelback trail

It was really nice to run in shorts and a single shirt and the trails are spectacular. We had a lot of fun and will be back next year.

0 Comments

Cold Weather Running

1/23/2015

0 Comments

Some of you may know that I stage a semi-non-serious running event called the Fat Ass 50K. One of the non-serious aspects of a Fat Ass event is that there is no pre-race day signup. This means that I have no idea how many runners will show up. The weather forecast for race weekend was sub-zero cold. Several runners who expressed an interest suddenly made other plans. The best reason I heard for not showing up involved a sick cat. Well… whatever… I looked at the run as an opportunity to check out equipment for cold weather running. The most obvious concerns for me include my face, hands and feet. Even with a hat and neck gaiter, there is still some exposed skin on nose and cheeks. I’ve found that smearing on a layer of Vaseline works pretty well. It always reminds me that I heard (long ago) about runners in a late season cross country race wanting to wear shorts and singlet in well-below-freezing temperatures. They used olive oil. The word was it kept you fairly warm… if you didn’t mind smelling like an Italian restaurant. Too address any issues with my feet getting cold, I used an idea borrowed from my snowshoe running experience. I wear a thin crew sock (wool or some other non-cotton material) and pull on an over-sock made of neoprene (or similar). I wore shoes that have always felt slightly large on me. They fit perfectly with the two layer sock system and my feet stayed pretty warm during the run. The rails-to-trails section near Montana City was still fresh, deep snow, so it really helped ensure my feet stayed dry even if snow worked its way into the shoes. My hands have always been a concern as well. When your hands are too cold and stiff to work zippers or open gel packets, it can get pretty miserable. I used some medium weight gloves, with some heavy-duty over-mitts. I remember picking up the mitts from a bike store. I know some people ride their bikes all winter, and it’s amazing to me that they can keep their hands warm. These over-mitts are double-layer gore tex shell material. The nice thing about them is that they really extend the warmth of any weight glove. This system kept my hands toasty warm the whole way. I know, at this point, winter is almost over. The Snow Joke Half Marathon is just around the corner, and I’ve run it wearing shorts (but no olive oil or vaseline!), so how much winter could be left? But these suggestions may be worth considering for future winters. See you out there, Martin

0 Comments

Martin Miller

Martin been a runner for nearly 30 years. He moved up to the marathon and ultramarathon distances in 1990, and have since completed about 70 ultramarathons, including 8 100 mile finishes. In addition to running quite a bit, he keeps busy with his involvement in local running events like the Don't Fence Me In Trail Runs and the HURL Elkhorn Endurance Run. Martin is also the non-event disorganizer for the HURL Fat Ass 50 Km.

Running in Arizona in the Winter

Cold Weather Running

Martin Miller

Archives

Categories