1. Wear light colored clothing, driver’s can’t see you as well at night or low light situations.

    2. Wear a reflective vest or flashers.

    3. Although a harder surface, run on sidewalks where practical. Be aware of broken concrete and driveways.

    4. Women should not run alone. Be aware of your surroundings.

    Even though the temperature is cooler you still need to be aware of dehydration. With low humidity you lose

    moisture with each breath and your sweat evaporates more readily.

    During cold weather your body is burning calories just to stay warm. Calories=Energy. You might need

    to take in a gel or some electrolyte fluid in runs as short as 10K.

    1. You can lose 40% of your body heat through your head. A baseball style cap or knit cap will stop this loss.

    2. You need to dress as if the temperature is 20 degrees warmer than the thermometer shows because you will

        warm quickly after you start running. If you are cozy warm at the start, you are overdressed.

    3. You should dress in light layers, then you can remove a layer if you get too warm, but you can’t add a layer

         if you left it in the car.

    4. Have dry clothes to change into after your run. Wearing wet clothes on the drive home is not only

uncomfortable, but can cause a chill and a restriction of blood flow into the hands and feet resulting

in toxins being trapped in the muscle fibers.

Not Enough Rest Is The Same As Overtraining

The main principle of training is to push beyond your current limits, then allow your body to "Overcompensate". If you give your body enough rest it will develop muscle and stamina beyond your current level of fitness. However, if you don't allow your body enough time to repair, it has the same effect as overtraining and can lead to excessive fatigue and injury. It is better to take a day or two off from training than several weeks or months due to illness or injury. What are the signs of inadequate rest/overtraining?

* Fatigue during training

* Sense of increased effort

* Delay in recovery from training

* Unusual increased and prolonged muscle soreness

* Performance plateau or decline

* Unusual thoughts of quitting or skipping training

Keep A Training Log

The best way to know where you're going with your training is to see where you've been. Keeping a personal journal of your runs helps you track your progress, avoid past pitfalls and even inspire you to new accomplishments. Your journal can be as simple as a few dashed notes of the distance and time you ran each day, or more detailed with lengthier entries. The more information you record about the route, the weather, the way you felt, the more valuable this information will be in the future when you review it.