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There is a song, I think it's by the Beatles called, "I get by with a little help from my friends". That sums up today pretty well for me. We have a Thursday morning walking group and it was just what I needed this morning. It has turned off chilly here and so most training has been on the treadmill followed by weights. This morning was 4 miles in the fresh chilly air and just wonderful. We laughed a lot and talked and the miles went by so fast. It's like the way a weekend day goes by so much faster than a work day.

This is a good time since winter is approaching to talk about dressing for the elements. It is a very personal thing requires some experimenting since we all have different tolerances to cold temperatures. I need gloves below 50 and below 40 I dress in everything I own.

Basically you handle cold temperatures by layering your garments. Against your skin you need a wicking "Tech" layer. That's a material designed to wick the moisture from your sweat away from your body into the second layer. A long sleeve cotton race shirt works well for me as a second layer. Then a wind breaker over that to keep the wind chill out. This is good for me down to about the upper 20s, below that I add another long sleeve heavy cotton shirt over the top of the first two shirts. One layer of running pants are usually enough but low 20s or with wind chill I wear a pair of running tights under the pants.

I like a jacket that has zipper pockets to keep from catching my hands in the pockets when I'm race walking. The proper arm swing for walking brings your hands into position to go into your pockets. I like a zipper front also so I can unzip it a bit when I start warming up and get some ventilation.

This was my first walk in the chilly weather and turned out to be very pleasant. Friends help a lot.

Thanks for reading.

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