How the heck does Hansons-Brooks train in the winter

It's not cold, you just aren't wearing the right cloths.

Also, don't even give me that -40F in central park junk. It was MAYBE -10 with wind chill

obviously dawg I'm not saying it was -40 in central park. But it was definitely that in Minnesota this week.

ScottEvil,

You do realize they are from Michigan not Minnesota right? They just north of Detroit. It's still cold, but I think Minnesota may be colder at the moment.

Oh I did not realize that. I thought they were in Minneapolis for some reason. I guess that's Team USA minnesota.

Ok, maybe it's not as cold there in Michigan. Still I imagine it adversely impacts their winter training and motivation to some extent. I was just wondering if anyone knew first hand how the Northern states groups deal.

I trained in Michigan myself. It's all about wearing the right layers and trying to avoid the windy parts of the day. The cold sucks, but it the wind chill that makes it really tough. A blowing blizzard with the wind at your back is manageable, but if you have to run into it, not much fun.

Not all H-B training is being done outside. Luke Humphrey did a 20-miler on a treadmill yesterday (he says on Twitter).

@hansonsrun 16h

"With the extreme cold temps, I recommend driving into the wind and then running home with the wind at your back. It negates the wind chill."

@LucusHumphrey 7 Jan

"Sometimes u just shut ur brain off and just go to work. 20 miles on TM in 1:59:00. First 10 miles in 1:02:20. Florida in 2 days."

teammates/coaches help. everyone works together to get the work done.

Oh boy. This certainly does not make the life of a professional runner seem glamorous. How much better to be somewhere like Bear Mountain or even Boulder.

Winter doesn't adversely affect training. Many would say it's a benefit. Which half of the country produces better high school runners, north or south?

I would think the footing would be a bigger issue than the cold.

Skooled wrote:

I would think the footing would be a bigger issue than the cold.

absolutely. for me, this is always the bigger issue.

A combination of treadmills, indoor track stuff, and getting road workouts in when possible. A lot of the elite northern runners at HB and also Team USA-MN travel south for several weeks over the winter to get better training.

Hardloper wrote:

Winter doesn't adversely affect training. Many would say it's a benefit. Which half of the country produces better high school runners, north or south?

This is ludicrous. Running on packed snow with extra layers hampers your ability to train as effectively as you would in ideal conditions. Trust me, I'm in MN, so I'd love to believe otherwise. But if running in snow and on ice was a benefit, you'd see all the east Africans training in Norway.

Hardloper wrote:

Winter doesn't adversely affect training. Many would say it's a benefit. Which half of the country produces better high school runners, north or south?

That has to do with population along with cultural factors. CA produces the best runners. The fact is right now, it'd be much better to train in Florida or Texas than Minnesota or Illinois. The south certainly allows better training than the north/midwest. Cold weather is brutal, you end up wearing so many layers it restricts your movement. In the south it can get real hot in the summer, but by running around dawn and dusk or at night, its manageable. If you wouldn't rather run in 90 degrees than -20, you're an idiot.

I find it very difficult to believe that 90 degrees equates to -20 on the other end of the spectrum. If I had to choose between 0 and 90 I would choose 0 almost every time. Especially if it was humid like it is in the northeast.

I live 30 minutes away from where they train. We have about 14" of snow right now, and yesterday's high temp was -1. Windchill is pretty brutal too.

The Hansons crew does a lot of its training at local parks with paved hike/bike trails. These turn into ice slicks after a snowstorm, if they are even plowed in the first place.

Personally, i have not had access to "run-able" roads in over a week. Idk how HB manages to find a decent route this time of year...

michiganxcrunner wrote:

I live 30 minutes away from where they train. We have about 14" of snow right now, and yesterday's high temp was -1. Windchill is pretty brutal too.

The Hansons crew does a lot of its training at local parks with paved hike/bike trails. These turn into ice slicks after a snowstorm, if they are even plowed in the first place.

Personally, i have not had access to "run-able" roads in over a week. Idk how HB manages to find a decent route this time of year...

I live about 10 minutes from where they usually train. The running has not been that bad, just a little cold. They plow a lot of the areas that they run. They also go to Florida every few weeks on cycles so they aren't here in Michigan freezing every single day. They get a nice break from the monotony.

michiganxcrunner wrote:

I live 30 minutes away from where they train. We have about 14" of snow right now, and yesterday's high temp was -1. Windchill is pretty brutal too.

The Hansons crew does a lot of its training at local parks with paved hike/bike trails. These turn into ice slicks after a snowstorm, if they are even plowed in the first place.

Personally, i have not had access to "run-able" roads in over a week. Idk how HB manages to find a decent route this time of year...

You're not Kip Litton, right?

Djskns wrote:

[quote]michiganxcrunner wrote:

You're not Kip Litton, right?

I can neither confirm nor deny this.