Does this hole in my forehead make me look hot?

Day 4 of my migraine has been less that enjoyable. I woke up feeling better but stayed in bed for a while just in case it was just pretending it was gone. When I thought I was safe I got up and started unpacking my suitcase from Friday and within a half hour felt like I was going to die again. After laying on the couch for a few hours trying to figure out the quickest and most efficient way to get to my exacto knife without bending over to search for it so that I could use it to cut a hole in my face to release the pressure I remembered that I needed to go to the pharmacy to refill a prescription TODAY. Crap. I made it to Rite Aid without dying because I shouldn't be driving, then made it through Target without dying and then made it through Wegmans without killing anyone (Sunday...grocery store...*shudder*...). I thought that maybe being outside in the fresh air would help me feel better so I went to TJMAxx and was ok until I looked at a striped shirt and almost threw up (no exaggeration). I came home and have been laying on the couch watching random stuff on tv that's killing my brain cells ever since (MTV...yeah...). If this isn't gone by tomorrow I'm going to my doctor because I can't handle it anymore. I've dealt with migraines off and on for years but this one is worse than I've had in a long time, maybe since college. I wish there was something I could do to make it go away faster but no medications come anywhere near touching them so I usually just have to deal with them until they magically go away. Sadly, the magic ain't happening here.

The point of all of this was just to whine. Thanks for reading.

Ok, really the other point is that I haven't been able to run for days because of my head being this way and there is no way I am ready for the 4 mile race I have on Saturday let alone the half marathon I have the week after that I am determined to get through if someone needs to drag me in a red wagon. Oh, you didn't know I have a half marathon in 2 weeks? Well let me tell you about it...I'm a stubborn ass. It's true, I can't sugar coat it. And last year I signed up for the Yuengling Shamrock Half Marathon in Virginia Beach but deferred my registration to this year due to my heart issues. This year I refused to defer it and even though there is NO WAY I can run anywhere close to half of it let alone the entire thing but I am going to do it anyway to prove to myself that I can. I am scared. Trust me when I say that. I have a lot of anxiety about it and have had some nightmares about it but I am doing it. You hear that, wussy self?? YOU'RE DOING IT.

If I die will they still give me a medal? Really, I just want the medal. Medals are awesome and then I can lie to everyone and pretend it didn't take me 4 hours to finish it, right? Because the only person who will know will be my best friend who is going will me to bring my broken body home for burial. She's a good friend. But Omg, I am nuts. Pray for me.

Today I am breaking up with my scale...for a month.

First, some shout outs going to:

-My best friend since high school who recently got engaged! I'm over the moon for her, she found the perfect guy for her and the best part is I used to babysit him back in the day so I saw him in his underwear first! Muahahahaha!

-My makeup discoveries for the last few weeks: Benefit They're Real! Mascara, Smashbox Halo Hydrating Perfecting Power (in the shade "Super translucent white red haired girl", aka fair which is KICKING my normal Bare Minerals' hiney), Nars lipgloss in Chihuahua and Essie nailpolish in "A Crewed Interest'. I'm not sure which I love the most, honestly. Probably the lipgloss, it's ridiculously expensive but actually beats my favorite lipgloss of all time, a shade by Philisophy that they don't even make anymore. (womp womp). Yes, I have a makeup obsession and no, I am not interested in apologizing for it.

-Chick Fil A. Omg, Chick Fil A! They have them in Northern Virginia, ya know. Where I was staying Tuesday and Wednesday. And therefore where I ate Tuesday and Wednesday and did not feel bad about it. Oh, and then I found out there is one in a mall in New Jersey so I went there last night before I drove home. I didn't get back until 11pm because of it but it was SO worth it. Thank God we don't have them in NY, that's all I'm gonna say.

Anti shout-outs to:

- My head for giving me a solid migraine for the last 3 days. It started on Thursday at 6am when I got to Dulles airport to fly home from DC and hasn't quit since. In it's wake it has given me the inability to have any patience whatsoever for two full days of work because all I wanted to do was lay in a dark room and die or at the very least try to dig a hole through my forehead in the hopes of relieving the pressure, neither of which I could do in public. It also ruined my ability to go on a hiking/snowshoeing trip to Vermont with friends today that I have been counting the days until for MONTHS because I can't drive. I hate migraines. And I hate that crying makes them worse. And I'm crying because I didn't want to miss this trip. And because I am a crier.

-A BIG thumbs down to Amazon who hasn't shipped the bun's new mansion yet. Usually there are on top of shipments but it's been a WEEK. And she needs her new house!

-The bun for realizing within 30 seconds of being released from her cage today that I am not at 100% capacity and therefore using it to her advantage to play in Trixie's litter box for at least 10 minutes before I realized I had left the closet door open. Although it was pretty genius of her so I guess she gets props for that. However she is now back in her house frantically taking an extendo-bath because hello! Kitty boxes are stinky. Goober.

Now she is in the corner of her cage with her little head on her paws because she knows she was bad. That makes me even more sad which means she will receive a yogurt drop as soon as I am done with this and yes, I realize that that is rewarding her for bad behavior but she's a BUNNY and YOU try punishing her for more than 10 seconds. Impossible.

Also I can't leave this out, last night she received a fruit cup that I drove 3.5hours home from New Jersey with and she KILLED it the same way I would kill a Sprinkles cupcake. Kinda made me proud.

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I'm not Catholic but I am giving something up for Lent anyway. And by Lent I mean March. Because I'm not Catholic so it doesn't need to be accurate, right?

So what am I giving up for a month? My scale. And my tape measure. For close to 3 years I have weighed myself every single day that I am home. It helped a LOT with my weight loss because it really helped keep me in check because even if I knew that there was no way that I could gain 3lb in a day, if I saw that it would keep me in line for the day. I know that "they" say that you shouldn't weigh yourself daily but "they" also say that the odds of losing weight on your own are against you, that it's nearly impossible to lose 120lb in a year without starving yourself, that chances of gaining back all the weight you lost within the first 2 years are high, that running will permanently injure you. But I like to prove "them" wrong all the time.

Recently though I have found myself really frustrated that the scale isn't moving much. I am pretty recently back on the wagon so I'm nowhere near perfect and my body isn't going to respond the same way this time around. I need to get my metabolism back in order first and I know that logically but mentally it's hard. I am feeling better and my running is getting there (even though I am taking it really slow which is frustrating in its own right) and I need to focus on those things, not what the numbers on a scale say. Numbers are just that: they're numbers. I've never worried about my age so why am I beating myself up over what my scale says? Why does the fact that the needle stays on the same number every morning have the ability to put a dark cloud over my day that hasn't even started? These are illogical things that aren't helping me.

I am aware of the fact that once I am back to running 30-40 miles a week again my weight will have nowhere to go but down. I know that as I get myself more used to eating 6-7 times a day again my metabolism will flourish in the way it has in the past. I know that the more I get used to eating the things that help my body perform the way I ask it to the less I will crave the things that do nothing to help it. What I need to do is stop beating myself up over a number and focus on how I feel.

For the next month I am not weighing myself or taking any measurements of myself. I'm instead going to focus on the two races I have this month and eating to get my body ready for them. And I'm going to actively stop being so hard on myself. It's really easy to beat myself up over everything that I see as a negative but I'm getting rid of that for the month too.

In summary:
no scale
no tape measure
no self loathing
for all of March....and maybe even longer.

And maybe I'll stay out of Sephora, too.







Nah.

Pour some sugar on me

I gave up refined sugar today. My goal was to make it at least 4 weeks because my record is 3 weeks.

I made it 7 hours.

To be fair to myself I didn't mean to do it. I went to lunch with someone who was riding with me for work today and we went to my old faithful, Panera. As we were talking, I absent mindedly got a small cup, filled it a quarter full of half Sprite and half fruit punch and drank it as I do every time I'm at Panera (that inch of soda is the only soda I ever have). Then I realized what I'd done.

Crap.

To not be fair to myself my hotel tonight gave me a warm cookie at check in and I ate it. But back to giving myself credit (I'm liking this "I am awesome!!!" game) I went to Chick-Fil-A for the second time ever and ordered a grilled chicken salad. And an order of small waffle fries but they don't count because it was only the second time I had ever been there. Therefore the cookie was my reward for not getting chicken nuggets. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

(On a side note, I am convinced that no one gets as excited over stupid random stuff like I do and there is not much I love more than Chick-Fil-A. The fact that they say "My Pleasure" after every time you say "Thank you" is beyond amazing. It's magical. It makes me downright giddy.)

So why am I giving up sugar? It's because I am a sugaraholic and I will crave it like an addict craves crack. It will get so bad that if I have nothing else in the house I will eat a spoonful of straight sugar. I have never been an overeater in my whole life so it's not about that, it's more about craving sweet things until I eat something that is. When I cut out sugar for a few weeks it helps me stop "needing" it or thinking that I do.

For the last 2 years I have cut out refined sugar (almost) completely off and on to reset myself. I have never noticed any weight loss from it but I know that people who lose a lot of weight from cutting out sugar will also cut out all bleached flour and fruit. I am ok without bleached flour because I rarely have it anyway but I can't give up fruit. I don't eat a lot of vegetables so I feel like fruit offsets that (in moderation). During strawberry season I eat literally 2lb a day, it's a problem. The bun would be pretty sad if I didn't eat fruit anymore too because we both have a serious apple addiction.

The things that I typically cut out are anything that I usually eat that are sweet (besides fruit): jam, chocolate *sob*, Luna bars, gum, you name it. The only thing besides fruit that I allow myself is yogurt because I just can not get used to Greek yogurt straight. I just can't. I don't eat it a lot though, usually just after my Sunday long runs when I am trying to get as much protein as I can in.

It turns out that my "cut it out" method works pretty well in regards to my sugar problems (and more recently to other areas of my life) and it helps me stop thinking about it. Eventually I am able to add it back in in small amounts and that things usually stay good for 6 or more months (until I eat a half a gallown of vanialla buttercream frosting and the whole things starts going downhill). If you're having a hard time moderating yourself with something just cut it out completely. It will be hard the first week or two but I swear that once you get used to it you will barely even think about it. Don't do it gradually, just get rid of it. I promise you will get a lot of clarity from it.

My favorite races: The Boilermaker

The Boilermaker is the country's largest 15k and takes place in Utica, NY at the Saranac Brewery which is pretty close to where I spent my formidable years living with my parents. Because of this a lot of people I know from growing up (and myself) view this as "the" goal race to run someday. In Oneida county your goal isn't to run a marathon, it's to eventually run the Boilermaker. Everyone knows about it if for no other reason than to avoid being anywhere near downtown Utica on that sultry day in July when 14,000 people brave the hot pavement to satisfy their personal goals. It's notorious for being extrememly hot as it's run on a lot of roadway with no shade and having some pretty awful hills (which I was pretty disappointed to find out didn't exist...at least not after training for the Mountain Goat in Syracuse which I'll talk about in another post). Two of the men who work at Fleet Feet in Syracuse have run every single Boilermaker since it's inception which makes them somewhat of a legend. I grew up not just knowing about it because it was relatively close to where my dad lived for quite a few years but because my uncle and cousin used to run it when I was in high school. I remember them talking about the race itself, talking about training, looking for their names in the special edition of the Observer Dispatch, the paper in Utica that publishes every runner's name and time, and being so proud of them. It was always a pipe dream of mine to run it but NEVER thought I would do it someday.

I know that some of the people who read this blog are people who went to high school with me and I know that it will probably come as somewhat of a shock to some of them that I used to run in high school. I had this weird dream of being on the cross country team but had no idea how to break out of my little nerdy music kid group into the world of the athletes so I used to run on my own at the high school track every night of every summer from my senior year of high school to my sophomore year of college. That's the year I got sick and stopped running but until then I was pretty diligent about it. I learned a lot about myself on those nights when I would run around the track in the pitch black trying to avoid stepping on the frogs that would be all over the track (they were gross when I couldn't miss them and that's all I'm going to say). I don't think I ever ran more than a mile but in my own head I was running and that was enough. It's probably when my running addiction started although I didn't know what it would eventually turn into.

Running has always been personal to me so the second thing that may come as a shock is that my normally attention seeking self has run most of my races on my own without anyone there. I like to just show up, run the race, and then go home. My best friend from high school is amazing and comes to my big races or if I run one that's close to her but for the most part it's all me and I kind of like it that way. I do like when Beth makes me signs, though :)

Look at my guns. No really, look at them. I miss them *sigh*

I ran the Boilermaker in 2010 but not in 2011 because I was in the midst of cardiologist appointments last year at the time of the race (I was registered and literally didn't decide until that morning that I couldn't run it and it was heartbreaking). I was ridiculously excited to run this race because I had been looking forward to it pretty much my entire life and it was a huge milestone for me. My running friend did it with me as well and she had never run 9 miles before so I spent most of the race getting her through it (something I rarely do, I'm a selfish runner :P). It wasn't that hot that day and it was a pretty easy run considering what I went through at the Mountain Goat. The only part that I hated was the Parkway because it was so straight and flat, I live for hills. At one point a guy yelled at me for passing people on the "hills" :P I saw SO many people that I knew and it was incredible. It's the only race I have ever run where I personally KNEW so many people around, usually it's just casual aquaintences from my running club (Syracuse Track Club, btw).

The Boilermaker is like a big party and to date I still have never run a race with so much support. There were bands or DJ's at every mile and people sometimes 5 or 6 deep cheering us on. There were bells and whistles and signs and ecouragement and good natured heckling and just straight up 9.3 miles of awesomesauce. Seriously, it is I race that I think you could run on pure crowd spirit alone. Well, until you get to the back hills of the golf course where you're in no man's land and just want to get to the party that the end that all the signs keep promising.

I think I cried more in that race than I had cried in an entire year. I cried because I had always wanted to run it and never thought I'd be able to. I cried when I ran past my mom outside the hospital because she was working that day and dragged all her employees outside with signs to cheer me on (ok, so maybe I told her she'd better have signs). I cried when I went by my childhood babysitter (aka my second mom) and her husband (he's a paramedic so he volunteers) and she started screaming my name and jumping around when she saw me and ran in the middle of all the runners to hug me. And I cried when I crossed the finish line because I was just so happy with how far I had come and to see my best friend there with a sign for me.

And that....is when the magic ended. I went over to the brewery to meet with my best friend and wait for my running friend (I had to abandon her with 2 miles to go because I mentally switched into my normal auto-pilot). When she came through the chute we started walking to the after party and I immediately felt like I was going to pass out. I vaguely remember sitting right on the side of the road to pull off my shoes and put my head between my legs. I remember a guy asking if I was ok and my best friend telling him I was. I remember her forcing me to eat a popsicle and drink some water until I felt better enough to go to the after party but I didn't feel great at all so I drove an hour home to lay on my couch for the rest of the day.

I was extremely restless the rest of the day and felt really off but was finally able to fall asleep. At 3am I woke up because my heart was beating so hard that I couldn't catch my breath. I was extrememly dizzy and lightheated and had awful vertigo. It was so bad I thought about going to the emergency room but I had to be on a plane at 8am to go to a sales meeting in Boston for work and I didn't want to be stuck there (I don't always make the wisest decisions...ok, I rarely do when it comes to my physical health). I managed to fall asleep but felt awful the next day, so much so that when my flight was delayed for 4 hours I called around trying to get a dr's appointment in between but no one could see me. I contemplated going to the hospital when I got to Boston but sucked it up instead and did the best I could and finally felt better around the time I left my sales meeting. Of course.

In hind sight I am 99.9% sure I was suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration. I had felt so great during the race and was so focused on helping my friend through it that I literally only drank one small cup of water in 9 miles. I definitely learned my lesson during that race that no matter how great you feel you need to make sure you're taking in fluids, especially if it's hot and you're sweating (which I wasn't because I had no fluids in me, I can't drink anything before a race because of stomach problems so I have to rely on what I had the night before and what I drink during the race).

Overall the Boilermaker was by far one of my most memorable races and I can not WAIT to run it this year. I have heard of so many people I know running it for the first time and I can't wait to see them! If you're reading this you are all going to do GREAT! It's such a fun hometown race and it's such a great memory. AND you get a collectable beer glass and awesome food after the race, how awesome is that??

BTW, if you are thinking of signing up for the Boilermaker I would do so fast. For the first time ever they capped the race at 14,000 people last year and even though it's still quite a few months away it's already at over 9,000 people. So what are you waiting for? SIGN UP and I'll see you there!

Cooking fail and Bunday...Saturday?

I tried to cook today. Tried being the operative word. Cooking isn't really my think. Baking...baking is my thing. Do you know what I got for Christmas? This:

My mom gave it to me (I think it's because she felt bad for orphaning me for my first Christmas ever so she could go to North Dakota with my stepdad) and I cried when I opened it. Like a baby. That's how much I love baking. (Btw it's blue. Ice blue. And I haven't used it yet but I don't really want to talk about why. Someday I'll be able to but for now it just sits on my counter looking beautiful.)

I'm awesome at baking and always have been. I heard once that baking is a science and cooking is an art and I have been a scientist since the womb, since I dragged home my very first fossil at the age of two that I still have in my posession. But an artist I am not so cooking is not my thing. I have been wanting to get into cooking more recently because of wanting to eat more "clean" (as in limiting the amount of processed food I eat). It's how I eat more or less anyway but I want to stop eating frozen pre-packaged meals completely because of the sodium levels (I have absolutely no plans of going crazy about this and doing something rash like giving up Skinny Cow Dreamy Clusters unless I'm on one of my no-refined-sugar kicks. No way, no how). I travel so much that it's difficult to keep fresh meat and vegetables and fruit around so I figured if I make things in bulk and freeze them then I can have fresh-ish food available at all times.

I found a recipe that looked pretty easy in Self magazine for turkey meatballs and whole wheat spaghetti a few days ago and decided that today would be the day that I try to make it. Seems easy, right? Wrong. I thought the whole "awesomeness" of cooking vs baking was that you could change things around and they would still taste good but that is so, so wrong. I changed ONE thing and my meatballs ended up tasting like a mouthful of mushy wheat bread (I subbed breadcrumbs for the italian bread soaked in milk that it called for). The good news is that the sauce I made was pretty darn good so I will take the 50/50. Also, for the record I consulted my mom AND my friend to see what to do about the breadcrumbs and they both agreed on the amount to put in so I didn't go in blind.  Another good thing is that it turns out I really like whole wheat spaghetti. Maybe I'll try the meatballs again tomorrow now that I've googled some other recipes. Or maybe I'll just play it safe and eat a salad.

My mom just called to ask how it went and I told her the sauce was good but a little salty so she told me to put a raw potato in to draw out some of the salt. I have so damn far to go in this cooking thing but I'm determined.

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In other news (I can't wait for Bunday Monday to talk about this) I finally ordered Archie's new bunny mansion today! We (and I do mean we because apparently I was unable to do this without Trixie and Archie's help) made up some mock templates to see which size would work best (because "we" are nerds) and I went with the larger cage. I wanted the smaller one so it wouldn't consume a whole corner of my living room but in true owner-of-spoiled-pets fashion I went with the larger cage because it would be better for her as I am gone so often. And the small one wouldn't fit her new couch that I got her the other day from Build A Bear (after my evil coworkers sent me a picture of it forcing me to go to the mall immediately to procure one).

On a side not, contrary to popular belief I am NOT Hello Kitty obsessed and never have been however somehow in the last few months I've been given a TON of Hello Kitty things. I've liked HK since I was small but only would get select items that I thought were amazing like this bunny sized couch. In all honesty it was more about the size because she loves digging in the cushions of my couch and chair so I thought she would appreciate one of her own size. And the pink and HK don't hurt ;)

Anywho, I think the bun approves...of the larger cage AND the couch. Here's hoping she helps me put it together when it arrives. Oh! And here's the one we chose:

I also ordered this mat to go under it because she like to dig and I don't want her to scratch the floor:

Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to put it together for a week or two after it arrives but I'm pretty excited and I'm sure the bun will be happy to have a lot more room to run around and fling her toys and dig her boxes and hide yogurt drops and chew on her couch. I mean, I'd be excited if I were a bun.

Winter running at it's finest.

This morning I was all set to go run 4 miles to prep for my race in 2 weeks. Usually we run early, around 8:15, but we were running at a different place *cough* bar *cough* from downtown Syracuse so I didn't need to be there until 9:15. When I talked to my friend at 8:15 to decide if we should go or not due to weather we barely had gotten an inch of snow overnight and it was very lightly snowing at the point. By the time I left my house at 9:00 we were in a complete white out with wet lake effect and it was accumulating fast. This is typical for Syracuse but I've been lulled into a false sense of security because we have had almost no snow fall this year. For an example of how fast we can get hit, here is a picture of my house on a Tuesday afternoon in November of 2010 when on Monday morning we had full grass and absolutely no snow:

Lake effect snow is no joke 'round these parts.

By the time I was on the road this morning I realized that this run was going to be a rough one if for no other reason than the visibility (or lack thereof).

I arrived at our meeting point on time but due to some miscommunication we didn't start running until a half hour later and by then the rest of the group (all four people that braved the elements)  had already taken off. We had plans to run the canal trail but that didn't happen because we couldn't even see the signs to direct us to the path. I couldn't see much of anything, actually, because by then we had about 4 inches of fresh, wet snow on the ground with more slamming me in the face as we were running into the wind. As soon as it would hit my face it would melt sending sheets of water running in my eyes and making it impossible to see. My friend fared better because she had a hat but I was unhappy. SO unhappy. We ambled around downtown Syracuse for around 2 miles until we ran by a building that huge chunks of slush were falling off of. Because I was closest to the building I first got nailed by a huge wet chunk falling from the roof on my back, then my legs and finally directly on top of my head. At that point I called uncle because I was soaking wet, couldn't see a darn thing and was miserable. The bottom of my pants and shoes also weighed about 5lb more because of the amount of slush that they had accumulated.

In other words, I should have won a darn trophy for being out in that weather today.

But of course I am happier that I went out vs staying at home. Mind you I am currently on the couch with 8 layers of clothes and a down comforter (and a cat) on me and am STILL freezing but it was worth it. It always is. I just never want to do it again. I hate running in the rain because I hate being wet if not swimming or bathing and I feel like the snow cheated me today. Usually we're friends but today it's on my not-so-good list.

Also, to the people of Fleet Feet who saw me directly after the run when I drove over to get a hat (that I needed anyway) to cover my hair while we went to Panera, I'm sorry. But I know you understand because you would do it too.

Worst picture of me ever. Ever ever.

And Urban Decay? Your 24/7 Waterproof liquid eyeliner ain't as hearty as you claim. Just sayin.

Anatomy of winter running wear

To start off, it's amazing I can move my fingers enough to type this because my Zumba instructor tried to kill me.  I might have to sleep on my couch because my bed is really high and I'm not sure my 5'2" self can make it in.

Moving on, I've been wanting to write about what to wear for winter running for a while. To be fair we haven't even had a winter here in Syracuse. For being the snow capitol of the country we've had maybe 35 inches when we should have had at least 200 by now. Today it was almost 50 degrees. 50 degrees! In February! If I had run today I would have been in shorts, no doubt. If it's anything warmer than 40 I prefer shorts, just a weird quirk I guess.

The number one rule to running clothes is that cotton is your enemy especially in the winter. It soaks up sweat but doesn't release it which just makes you damp and then cold which can lead to hypothermia. Rule number 2 is that you should always go into a run a little bit cold. If you can stand outside comfortably before you've even started running then you have too many clothes on. As soon as you start running you will warm up and then overheat so you should be a little uncomfortable at first. Rule number 3 is...really, that's it. Just know that these recommendations are what work for me but can be changed for what work for you.

Also, these next pictures were taken about 2 years ago on my way out to run in below zero weather. In the spring/fall I usually just wear lighter pants, a short sleeved tech shirt and a long sleeved tech shirt.

On to the winter wear!

As far as my base, base layer I like to start out with a good (non-cotton) sports bra made for high impact sports and wool socks usually of the Smartwool nature. I don't like them too thick but they do need to wick moisture away if my feet get too wet.

My next layer, the real base layer, is my Under Armor Cold Gear pants and a short sleeved wickable shirt. I am in hardcore love with my pants. When I bought them it caused my physical pain to fork over $60 for them but they're amazing. they feel like sweatpants on the inside but I am never, ever sweaty in them and they have kept me warm in every temperature down to negative 5 (the coldest I've run in and I probably never will again, 10 is my cut off). My shirt is a Marmot skiing shirt, I think. I usually get my shirts at TJMaxx, I don't care that much about them other than being wickable.

The next layer, my mid layer, is a long sleeved shirt over that. This one is by Cloudveil and I miss it as I don't have it anymore. It had thumb holes and little mitten type things that folded over my hands when it was really cold *sigh*

Next up is my outer layer, usually a thicker coat-type covering (but not really a coat?). This is by Nike, I think.

My facial expressions are getting better and better, aren't there?

The final layer is a lightweight windbreaker if I plan on being anywhere windy. This one is also by Cloudveil and I still have it (thank goodness).

Last, to get myself to the car I usually wear a vest of my winter jacket because although it seems like I'm wearing a lot they are all pretty thin layers. I don't wear this running.

To top it all off you can add a hat or ear covering headband but I can't stand anything on my head. I do wear my running gloves when it's cold though or my mitten liners and covers if it's really cold (all gotten at Fleet Feet, mittens keep your hands warmer because they don't separate your fingers and allow the heat to all hang out together).

Again, this is if it's extremely cold or you're running somewhere windy like near a lake like I do. You can remove layers as needed. Because of the mild winter I have been wearing thinner pants (because I don't fit in my Under Armor ones right now or I would wear them, they never make me too hot), a short sleeved tech shirt, a long sleeved tech shirt and a jacket over that.

And there you have it. Good gear isn't cheap but if you scour the racks at TJMaxx and Marshalls or go to Target to begin with and then slowly add in higher quality pieces you'll be good to go. Or you could be one of those people who wears sweatpants and a sweatshirt and are perfectly happy. If that works for you, rock on. Either way get out there and enjoy some fresh air!