The other night, Sam, myself, and Aidan were hanging out with some of our running friends in downtown Los Altos. It was the night of the Downtown Wine Stroll, a local event in which several wine bars and vendors offer wine tasting in the downtown area. We only caught the tail end of it, but it seemed to be something along the lines of a bar crawl, only with wine. Our friend Sam (a guy named Sam) was playing saxophone with a jazz band outside of one of the venues as part of the event's entertainment. None of us were really into the wine part of the evening, but we gathered to support our friend, hear some jazz, and catch up with each other. It was a nice ambiance. The weather was crisp, cool, and refreshing, the band was good, there were lots of decorative lights, and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. It felt like a nice Autumn night. As we stood in a circle chatting, I held our little dude up against my chest so he could join in on the action. He seems to really like people, human interaction, and being out and about. When someone commented on the chilly weather I said "What's your favorite temperature to run in? Let's go around the circle". There were six of us and just about everyone said they preferred high fifties, low sixties. When we got to me, my response was "thirty-eight degrees". Not only was it very specific, but it was considerably lower than the temperatures my friends preferred.
Over the last few years I've started a new "tradition" during my training for the Canyons 100K. I drive to Tahoe on a weekend night, arrive at around 1:00 AM, run fifty kilometers by myself through the night on highway 89 along the lake, finish around 7:30 - 8:00 AM, have a delicious breakfast, then drive back home. There's usually a short nap involved somewhere in there. The goal is to not only train my body to run long distances, but to do so on very little rest during odd times of the day. It's a good endurance exercise. It's also a lot of fun! I get hot easily and I sweat a lot when I run. Therefore, I've always preferred running in cooler weather, but it was during this solo, through the night, Tahoe run in 2021 when I discovered my ideal running temperature. I stepped out of my car into the dark night. When I switched on my flashlight and headlamp and began running down the road, my phone indicated that it was thirty-eight degrees. This was at 1:30 AM on an early April night in Tahoe, so this temperature was actually a little warmer than average. At this time of year the temps typically drop into the high twenties or low thirties overnight, however, a storm was on it's way in, and it was an unusually cloudy night with overcast skies. I wore a long sleeve dri-fit running shirt with a short sleeve one over it, along with shorts and Vibram five finger running shoes. Throughout the entire seven-hour journey, I didn't need to alter my running attire one bit. I never needed to de-layer, layer up, or even roll up my sleeves. I didn't feel too warm or too cold. I felt just right. When I returned to my car I realized that I only drank about half of the fluids I had on me and I hardly broke a sweat. I felt very dry and comfortable. When I looked at my phone, the temperature still read thirty-eight degrees. The clouds had somewhat dispersed and there were some cracks of sunshine once the sun had risen, but the overcast skies throughout the night had held in some of the residual mild temperatures from the daytime, and as I browsed the hourly weather report from the night before, I realized that the temperature stayed at thirty-eight degrees throughout the entire time I was running. And that was that. Thirty-eight degrees was now my favorite temperature for running. Standing still in thirty-eight degree weather was a different story though. Once my blood flow began to slow down I soon felt chilly and promptly retreated to Rosie's Cafe for a hot cup of coffee and a celebratory post run breakfast.
It's now late October and I particularly love early morning runs at this time of year and throughout the winter time. This morning I went for a six-mile run along the Stevens Creek and Bay Trails in Mountain View. When I started, the temperature was forty-six degrees, the sky was clear, and the sun was barely starting to rise. Early morning sunlight was firing up into the sky behind the Diablo Range on the other side of San Francisco Bay in front of me. All I needed was a short sleeve dri-fit running shirt to stay comfortable. When I returned home I felt energized. I love morning runs and they always leave me feeling energized, but it's the mornings when the temperature is cool, crisp, and refreshing and when the sun rises later in the morning that particularly leave me feeling inspired and ready to go. For me, the colder it is outside, the more comfortable I am while running. When I ran the thirty-eight mile St. Croix Winter Ultra in January 2020, I rallied through a sub-zero, bitterly cold, Minnesota night without feeling too cold. On the other hand, I hardly broke a sweat. Maybe this is a good indicator that I would kick ass in winter ultras. Who knows. St. Croix is the only winter ultra I've done so far, but I'm for sure going to do more at some point.
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