Drip Tips: Exercising in Summer Rain

From Fit­Sugar

Exer­cis­ing in the heat and humid­ity of Sum­mer can be unbear­able, not to men­tion, it can be a health risk. So when the clouds roll in and rain starts to sprin­kle from the sky, it can offer relief. If you’ve never con­sid­ered exer­cis­ing in the rain, it’s time to give it a try. You just need to arm your­self with these tips:

• Check the weather map. A lit­tle driz­zle is much eas­ier to run in than a full on down­pour. Be patient and wait for a bad storm to pass before head­ing outside.
• Just because it’s rain­ing, doesn’t mean you need to get wet. Wear a water and wind­proof light­weight rain­coat made of breath­able mate­r­ial that will keep you dry on the out­side and cool on the inside.
• Get a pair of shorts or pants made of water­proof mate­r­ial that will repel droplets from the sky and splashes from puddles.

For more essen­tial tips, read on →

Heat and Exercise: Keeping Cool in Hot Weather

May’s start­ing out HOT HOT HOT. Don’t for­get water!

From Mayo Clinic

Exer­cis­ing in hot weather puts extra stress on your body. If you don’t take care when exer­cis­ing in the heat, you risk seri­ous ill­ness. Both the exer­cise itself and the air tem­per­a­ture increase your core body tem­per­a­ture. To help cool itself, your body sends more blood to cir­cu­late through your skin. This leaves less blood for your mus­cles, which in turn increases your heart rate. If the humid­ity also is high, your body faces added stress because sweat doesn’t read­ily evap­o­rate from your skin. That pushes your body tem­per­a­ture even higher.

When you exer­cise in hot weather, keep these pre­cau­tions in mind:

Watch the tem­per­a­ture. Pay atten­tion to weather fore­casts and heat alerts. Know what the tem­per­a­ture is expected to be for the dura­tion of your planned out­door activity.

Get accli­mated. If you’re used to exer­cis­ing indoors or in cooler weather, take it easy at first when you exer­cise in the heat. As your body adapts to the heat over the course of one to two weeks, grad­u­ally increase the length and inten­sity of your workouts.

Know your fit­ness level. If you’re unfit or new to exer­cise, be extra cau­tious when work­ing out in the heat. Your body may have a lower tol­er­ance to the heat. Reduce your exer­cise inten­sity and take fre­quent breaks.

Drink plenty of flu­ids. Dehy­dra­tion is a key fac­tor in heat ill­ness. Help your body sweat and cool down by stay­ing well hydrated with water. Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink. If you plan to exer­cise intensely or for longer than one hour, con­sider a sports drink instead of water. Sports drinks can replace the sodium, chlo­ride and potas­sium you lose through sweat­ing. Avoid alco­holic drinks because they can actu­ally pro­mote fluid loss.

Dress appro­pri­ately. Light­weight, loos­e­fit­ting cloth­ing helps sweat evap­o­rate and keeps you cooler. Avoid dark col­ors, which can absorb heat. If pos­si­ble, wear a light-colored, wide-brimmed hat.

Avoid mid­day sun. Exer­cise in the morn­ing or evening, when it’s likely to be cooler out­doors. If pos­si­ble, exer­cise in shady areas — or do a water work­out in a pool.

Wear sun­screen. A sun­burn decreases your body’s abil­ity to cool itself.

Have a backup plan. If you’re con­cerned about the heat or humid­ity, stay indoors. Work out at the gym, walk laps inside the mall or climb stairs inside an air-conditioned building.

Under­stand your med­ical risks. Cer­tain med­ical con­di­tions or med­ica­tions can increase your risk of a heat-related ill­ness. If you plan to exer­cise in the heat, talk to your doc­tor about precautions.

Heat-related ill­nesses are largely pre­ventable. By tak­ing some basic pre­cau­tions, your exer­cise rou­tine doesn’t have to be side­lined when the heat is on.

6 More Weeks of Winter?!

By Jason Samenow, The Wash­ing­ton Post

At 7:25 a.m. this morn­ing, amidst mostly cloudy skies, and tem­per­a­tures in the low 30s, Ground­hog Phil saw his shadow in the lit­tle town of Punx­sutawney, Pa.

Accord­ing to folk­lore, Phil’s sight­ing of his own shadow means there will be 6 more weeks of win­ter. Had Phil not seen his shadow, it would have meant “there will be an early spring.”

If Phil’s fore­cast is right, it sig­nals a dra­matic rever­sal from the mild weather pat­tern affect­ing much of the coun­try. Many parts of the cen­tral and east­ern U.S. have seen tem­per­a­tures 20 to 30 degrees above nor­mal in recent days. On Feb­ru­ary 1, just 19% of the Lower 48 had snow cover com­pared to 52% at this time last year.

His­toric odds heav­ily favor a fore­cast for win­ter to last deep into March. Since the Groundhog’s first pre­dic­tion in 1887, Phil has seen his shadow 99 times and failed to spot it just 16 times. There are 9 miss­ing years in the record, but Phil has issued an fore­cast with­out exception.

But just how accu­rate is the prog­nos­ti­ca­tor of prognosticators?

It depends on the source.

The offi­cial web­site of Punx­sutawney Phil, per­haps not impar­tial, claims the Ground­hog has issued a cor­rect fore­cast 100% of the time.

AccuWeather’s grade for the groundhog’s accu­racy is slightly lower, but still quite respectable.

“Because the year’s cold­est quar­ter, also known as mete­o­ro­log­i­cal win­ter, runs from Dec. 5 to March 5, Phil’s accu­racy in pre­dict­ing a longer win­ter is about 80 per­cent,” AccuWeather wrote.

But Storm​Fax​.com says Phil has got­ten it right just 39% of the time.

NOAA’s National Cli­matic Data Cen­ter issued the harsh­est assess­ment of the accu­racy of the “seer of seers” find­ing “no pre­dic­tive skill for the ground­hog dur­ing the most recent years” in its analy­sis. It con­cluded: It really isn’t a “bright” idea to take a mea­sure such as a groundhog’s shadow and use it as a pre­dic­tive mete­o­ro­log­i­cal tool for the entire United States.

Not­ing long-range pre­dic­tion is hard, at least one scientifically-minded mete­o­rol­o­gist expressed resent­ment over the attention-grabbing rodent.

“…Punx­sutawney Phil is a punk when it comes to weather fore­cast­ing,” blogged Tim McGill, a mete­o­rol­o­gist for WGN in Chicago.

Best Winter Running Socks

From About​.com, Run­ning and Jogging

Wear­ing the right run­ning socks when run­ning in the cold weather is not just a mat­ter of com­fort, it’s also a safety issue. If your feet get too cold and wet, you could be at risk for frost­bite. Try some of these run­ning socks for max­i­mum com­fort and protection.

Smart­Wool Adren­a­line Socks
These socks are actu­ally designed to keep your feet warm in the win­ter and cool in the sum­mer. The Smart­Wool Merino wool allows for supe­rior tem­per­a­ture reg­u­la­tion and mois­ture man­age­ment, and the socks’ Smart­Fit Sys­tem puts tech­nol­ogy to work by adding cush­ion and sup­port where it’s needed, with­out extra weight.

Thorlo Thick Cush­ion Run­ning Sock
Many run­ners swear by Thorlo socks for their cush­ion­ing, com­fort and blis­ter pro­tec­tion. These socks fea­ture max­i­mum fit­ness den­sity padding for bet­ter dura­bil­ity, as well as pro­tec­tion against shock and impact. The light­weight padding in the arch pro­vides arch sup­port and a bet­ter fit.

Fee­tures Bam­boo and Wool Run­ning Socks
The wool in these run­ning socks insu­lates your feet, keep­ing them at a com­fort­able tem­per­a­ture, while bam­boo makes the sock soft, and antimi­cro­bial to pre­vent foot odor. And it’s eco-friendly, too! Both fibers wick away mois­ture, so feet stay dry.

Dry­max Cold Weather Run­ning Socks
Dry­max Cold Weather Run­ning Socks have a spe­cial Dual Layer Mois­ture Removal Sys­tem, which instantly moves mois­ture from the skin, through the inner Dry­max layer to the outer absorbent layer, keep­ing feet dry. A third layer of Dry­max fiber insu­la­tion was added along the front of the sock, since that area gets cold­est due to wind chill. The socks also fea­ture dense padding (rather than thick padding), as it pro­tects feet with­out adversely affect­ing the fit of the shoes. These socks are designed for use in cold to cool con­di­tions, keep­ing feet dry, com­fort­able and odor-free.

Second Annual BC4C Holiday Challenge!

Dare your­self to join the Hol­i­day Chal­lenge and see what you can accom­plish in 3 months!

Why should I chal­lenge myself over the hol­i­days? To beat the old adage, “The hol­i­days are the one time a year when I can really let myself go.”

Every­one knows that the hol­i­days are one of the busiest times of the year. Par­ties, food, the approach­ing win­ter, vaca­tions, cold weather… all of these force us out of our com­fort zones and our reg­u­lar habits. Every­one assumes that you can either get in bet­ter shape or enjoy the hol­i­days and eat every­thing in sight. Either deprive your­self of all the great hol­i­day foods or gain weight. Either/or. Either/or. Sound famil­iar? It is our default behav­ior to set the “goal” of gain­ing weight and get­ting in worse shape over the hol­i­days. It is sub­con­scious because it is expected. It is the default behav­ior, so why change it?

Because you have been work­ing hard over the last few months and we don’t want to see you lose it over the win­ter! Why not set a goal to get in bet­ter shape over the hol­i­days? What if you decided it wasn’t an either/or propo­si­tion and you could enjoy the hol­i­days while get­ting in bet­ter shape?

Life is not an either/or choice – it is a bal­ance. As of this week, you still have to make it through 3 major hol­i­days until the end of the year. Get a jump start on your New Year’s Res­o­lu­tions and start work­ing on them now. You will be amazed at what you can accom­plish in 3 months with a ded­i­cated sup­port team encour­ag­ing (and some­times just remind­ing you) of what you dared your­self to do.

Learn more about the Hol­i­day Chal­lenge and sign up by Fri­day! Down­load the offi­cial rules and sign-up sheet »