I've just had a bit of a spell off running, for medical reasons. Turns out I'm fine, just had to be checked. While I've been loafing around and getting fat, the seasons have changed and once again North Yorkshire is a world of gales and constant rain. Great.
From November through to about March, at least half my training takes place at night. I tend to run a longish one mid week - 25 to 30km in the evening, on top of 10km in the morning (to work the short way, then home by a roundabout route). In the winter months, that means leaving work at 5.30pm, getting home any time up to about 9pm. It's dark, cold, and frequently very, very wet.
Sometimes it takes me a while to work out the bleeding obvious, and this is one of those occasions. I've been doing this for years, and it's never struck me that "night time wet weather running" is different to "running equipped for the dark and the rain". It's a difference of intention: going out for a daytime run that might run over into dark is very different from setting out with the intention of running 30km in the dark and rain. In the first case, the rain shell and warm mid layer are there in the rucksack, and if you really need them it's just towards the end when the shortcomings aren't obvious.
Setting out to run in the winter dark is a different thing. On dozens of long hard training runs on winter evenings I've got to about 15km and started to feel cold, damp and miserable. The combination of tiredness, mild hypoglycaemia (running morning and evening with work in between burns through the calories more than you'd think), and the cold clamminess of condensation inside a waterproof is depressing and foul, and that's a bad thing halfway through a run. It's really easy to underestimate how much the temperature drops when the sun goes down. So as part of replacing various bits of kit this year I decided to address the shortcomings of my winter training kit.
1) Coat
During the bulk of the year I'll run in a base layer, with maybe a softshell over the top, and maybe a wind shirt in the rain or up on the tops. That's ok in winter too during the day, for short runs at least. In really heavy weather a rain shell is needed, otherwise the speed of water exchange will make you cold very quickly. At night the problem is the same but *much* worse - it's much colder, and possibly still wet. After much consideration I've gone for a lightweight paramo for this. I probably wouldn't wear it in a daytime race, unless it was really very cold, but for training it makes the winter much less horrible. The big kangaroo pocket is fantastic for fleece hat, mittens and buff*.
2) Gloves
Thin gloves tend to be ok during the day, but at night when it's cold and windy and rainy, soaking wet gloves means cold hands. I've gone for Buffalo mittens now and they're extraordinary things - lightweight, compact and very very warm. A bit too warm, most of the time. They dry out reasonably quick if you turn them inside out, but they tend to stay a bit damp longer than fleece gloves (but they're warm when damp). Like the paramo, too warm for all but the coldest daytime runs, but fantastic at night.
3) Socks
Most of the year I won't bother with socks under running shoes (I run in barefoot shoes anyway). Ankle deep water on the moors in winter makes for painfully cold feet though, and that slightly numb feeling that makes foot placement chancy. Waterproof socks solves that one, and even though they can't really stand up to the rigours of fell running and spring a leak fairly quickly, they slow down the transfer of water enough to keep your feet good and warm. I have an old pair of sealskins I've run in for years. They're not waterproof, but they're near enough.
4) Leg cover
This isn't so crucial, although I tend to go into lycra over the winter, and for the longer runs I've just got some 3/4 length running tights. The Ron Hills sometimes come out when it's *really* cold, but actually they're a bit of a nuisance in wet weather so I'm trying to avoid them.
5) Torch
A good head torch is vital for off road running in the dark. I have a Petzl myo xp that I've had for years. It's stood up to regular hard use for a long time, and is comfortably bright. I can't run full speed with it, but it's adequate. There are better alternatives around these days.
* good for maps too, but I don't recce away from habitual routes at night in the winter.
