Ask Gabe: Cold Weather Running, Run Versus Sleep, and Navigating Holiday Season

In this monthly article series, ultrarunner, race director, and coach Gabe Joyes answers reader questions about anything and everything running. Learn more about this ask-the-athlete column, and be sure to fill out the form below to submit your questions for a future article!

In this article, Gabe answers questions about cold-weather running, training through the holidays, sleep deprivation, and more.

Gabe’s Tip of the Month

Incidents of running-related gastrointestinal distress are dramatically lower during the winter months as our bodies are not struggling to stay cool while running. Occurrences of holiday cookies and festive treats are conversely on the increase during this same time period. That’s right, put these two facts together and stuff some gingerbread men, pizzelle cookies, and peanut butter balls into a Zip-loc bag and enjoy all of them on your next long run.

Gabe Joyes’s favorite winter running snack: the pizzelle cookie! All photos courtesy of Gabe Joyes, unless otherwise noted.

Cold Weather Running

How do you manage running in the cold, especially in Wyoming? — Josh

The first step to enjoying cold weather running is making sure you have the right attitude. Saying things to yourself like “this is going to be miserable” or “time to go out for another sufferfest” never helped anyone — embracing the cold as an opportunity for “character development” does help!

This might seem like obnoxious captain-obvious advice, but, dress warm! So many runners out there feel like it is a badge of courage to wear shorts or otherwise seasonally inappropriate clothes in the middle of winter. My friends, there is nothing cool about being cold. Boom, dad joke! The risk of dressing warm is of course getting rather sweaty, which can lead to being chilled later.

My solution for this is to always have one of the many ultralight windbreakers on the market in a pack, waistbelt, or pocket, to trap in the warmth you’ve built up and to keep the cold wind out. For longer winter runs, I’ll even use my car as an aid station and change almost all of my layers after a couple of hours out running. The downside of this strategy? An abundance of very wet and awful-smelling laundry.

There is nothing cool about being cold.

Vert or Flat Miles?

If time restrained, what’s a bigger bang for your buck — vertical or flat miles? Thinking about a workday and how to maximize 60 to 90 minutes. — Michael

Variety is going to be your best approach here, Michael! Flat miles and steep vert work the body and muscles in different ways, and many races out there have a variety of terrain. You could lean into one type of run more than others if your goal race has specific terrain you want to prepare for.

For example, if you are preparing for a steeper mountain ultra, perhaps in training you are doing two vert-oriented days in a row followed by a flatter recovery run in between. Either way, I am confident that healthy, happy, high-performance running involves all the paces and a variety of terrain.

Races like Run the Red Desert have a variety of terrain.

Training Through the Holidays

How do you recommend managing the holidays and training? -Anonymous

Running is a unique activity as it can and does cause stress, but it is also capable of relieving stress as well. During the holiday season, many of us are already trying to manage extra stress when we might be traveling, juggling family obligations, and perhaps eating and drinking differently than we normally would.

Attempting a new VO2 max uphill interval or double threshold training block during this time might leave you totally wiped out physically and mentally, plus there’s a good chance you would have a dreaded cold or illness that will linger for weeks. Your efforts at making training progress would all be in vain.

Of course, sitting around and skipping runs all December long doesn’t make anyone feel good either. Split the difference here — get out on daily (or almost daily) runs at a low to moderate effort and short-to-medium duration. Toss in some strides or do a little fartlek to maintain some speed, strength, and mobility without wearing yourself out. Better yet, get out with some friends and family for some low-key adventures that are fueled by high-energy Christmas treats — see my tip of the month above.

Use the holidays as a chance to get out on a running date.

Run or Sleep

More often than I wish, I face the decision of either skipping my run or cutting my sleep short. Is running on too little sleep worth it? On the other hand, skipping up to two runs per week isn’t good either. — Sami

This is a tough call, Sami! I think the best solution here is a bit of both. If you can manage your day so that you have relatively low levels of stress, have your nutrition dialed in, and generally good self-care — I’d get up early and make it happen. If you find yourself wiped out after the morning jam sessions, unable to be your best at work or at home, or constantly fighting a cold, then it just isn’t worth it to get up early for the run. I will say that like anything, it just does take some practice to adjust to a new schedule.

When my daughters were young and I commuted 25 minutes to teach high school, I felt like my only option was to run at 5 a.m., and I was categorically not a morning person at that point in my life. I started with one day a week of early morning running, and that felt awfully rough at first. Once I got used to that, I went with two mornings per week, and so on. I eventually found that I could do four mornings each week at 5 a.m. and still function at a reasonable level, but beyond that, it was diminishing returns for sure.

Best Running Headlamp - wearing the Petzl NAO RL

It can be tricky to choose between a good sleep and a pre-dawn run. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

Hardest Race

What is the hardest race? — Anonymous

The answer here of course depends on what variables you find most challenging — hot or cold temperatures, duration, terrain, elevation, course format, and more. Probably the most difficult (and one of the most fun) races I have done is The Dragon’s Back, because of the sheer length and diversity of terrain.

But seeing how lottery season is in full swing, and many folks are looking for race options outside of the Hardrock 100 and Western States 100, here are a few recommendations for some of my favorite races that I have been a part of in some capacity: