Shock^2

Two days after returning from my trip down to Houston, I decided to run outside and test some new wind gear I got for Christmas. Over the previous weeks I had been running outside, but without a good upper body windbreaker, the winter cold was cutting through my clothes. I wore a thin but airtight headwind pant on my legs and three layers on my upper body with my windbreaker as the outer layer. The run was ok at first, but I quickly realized it was colder outside than I had expected. Usually I only run if it is 20 degrees or more outside, since below that my face starts to get red, and the cold begins to seep through the breathable weave of my running shoes. That day it was about 10 degrees with a wind chill around zero. While the windbreakers did thier job admirably, the fact that the wind itself was pushing the material of my wind pants up tight against my bare legs chilled them quickly. It was not a great idea to run without a lining or tights under the thin screen. By the time I was two miles in I could feel my skin going numb. Considering I had just run in 80+ degree weather a few days before, it was definitely a shock to the system back in the other direction. When I finally got home alive, I kept my warm gear on for at least anouther 30 minutes to allow my body to warm up.

A couple days later I tried the same run with tights underneath and an extra layer on top. It was a vast improvement.