Friday Five: Cold Weather Running Essentials

Good morning! I hope you are staying warm wherever you are!  Florida has felt awfully cold for a couple weeks now....then the roof of my mom's porch caved in from the weight of the snow and the northeast is under blizzard watch...so I am starting to feel a lot warmer and luckier!

That said, I wanted to share five things I think are essential to running in the colder months. And I am linking up with Friday Five hosted by Mar on the Run, You Signed Up for What?, and Eat Pray Run DC.  If you haven't checked out this weekly link up I highly recommend doing so!

I know just a second ago I was talking about how the "cold" down here isn't really all that cold in the big picture, but I am going to go ahead and tell you I am a big weenie when it comes to not being warm/hot so I am totally qualified to tell you what to wear on a wintery run ;) Oh and I grew up in central Washington State...so there is that haha

SO: My five winter running essentials:

1) Warm pants. 

I am currently loving the 2XU Thermal Hyoptik tights.  They are fabulously insulated without being bulky.  Obviously running in bulky heavy things is not fun...but neither is having your booty feel frozen the whole time (a HUGE peeve of mine) so these are a great balance of both. (Spoiler alert I have a full review of the pants coming soon.) I have also heard about down shorts that can be layered over your running tights and I am on a mission to find some of those!

2) Warm ears.

Cold ears might be worse than a cold booty, just saying.  I live in the Buff Thermal Hoodie because it is easy to flip down if you get too warm, but you can also add a headband underneath if you need two layers of warm.  I have not had to do that yet and I hope to never again live somewhere that such a thing would be necessary!!

3) Warm fingers. I have been slacking on this this winter and really regretting it. Have I mentioned I hate being cold?  With milder winters I prefer to just get those cheapo stretch gloves that tend to go on clearance for 50 cents or so after Christmas...mostly because I am not a responsible adult and lose one of the gloves within the first few days. Or the very first day.  In worse winter weather I like to either wear good quality gloves or mittens.  I have some wool mittens I made years ago that are fantastic! Mittens actually keep your fingers warmer because they can hang out and share their heat with each other.  I am all about that.

4) Warm sorta dry toes. While we don't get the snow like the rest of you, there is some cold rain and resultant cold puddles which can lead to all sorts of foot discomfort including really bad blisters.  I suppose that is the case when you fun with wet feet any time of the year, but cold wet feet just feel worse.  I am a SmartWool sock lover.  They regulate your body heat well and they don't chafe even when you get them really really soggy.

5) Warm thoughts.

By that I mean start the pot of coffee before you go out for your run so you can think about how delicious and warm it is going to be by the time you get back! It works for me ;)

Did I miss anything?  What can you not run in the cold without?
Thanks for stopping by!!