5th Annual Winter Challenge

Coldest barefoot run, and longest on snow so far...
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First run on snow more than a mile. But I quickly found my limit today, came back inside after 1.4mi to grab another layer, thicker gloves, and my Soft Stars! Any longer and I would probably have had to take the frostbite penalty... :coldfeet:

Was 19F/-7C and 7F/-14C with wind chill. And no warm pavement advantage due to the sun being out, everything was white here!

Looking at the forecast it'll actually be colder this week yet, so I'm probably out for barefooting for a few runs at least.
 
when you're used to running barefoot and throw on a pair of socks it's like, "whoa! why is it so hot out here?"

LOL! Exactly!
Several weeks ago, my MIL laughed when we walked outside from Cabela's into the cold and I said "Ah, feels so good out here...my feet were sweating in there!" Note that I wore my 4mm Connect Xero Shoes and no socks. But I am so used to being barefoot, that even thin huaraches cause my feet to get noticeably warm.
 
Argh. Went two miles this morning in 16°F temps (6°F with windchill) and my feet, which normally warm up by 1.5 miles, were still very cold with numb toes. I put my shoes on and my feet gradually warmed back up as I finished the remaining 4 miles of the route. When I got home, I saw that a couple of my toes on each foot were a bit swollen and that a big white blister covered the underside of one of them. I'm guessing this is what mild frostbite looks like, so I'm tagging myself for the -30 mile penalty in the spreadsheet. Should have pulled the trigger on going shod 5 minutes earlier and I might have gotten out of this with no damage at all. Last time I ran at these temperatures, I had the benefit of running at night after the road surface had been warmed (a bit) by the sun during the day. This morning's run was at dawn after a couple days of continuous sub-freezing temperatures. Ah well, lesson learned. Going to stay away from this particular edge of the envelope for a while now that I've found my limit.
 

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Argh. Went two miles this morning in 16°F temps (6°F with windchill)
How are the toes doing Swoggis? As I recall from mild frostbit a couple years ago those 'white spots' on the end of my toes were quite painful when touched for a few days. Yours appear worse in your pic than mine ever got, so hope yours are ok.

Now that the real cold has hit a lot of us, this is a good reminder we all have limits! Unfortunately sometimes its too easy to hit those limits without realizing until its too late though. I guess the best course of action is to pay attention to both air temps and wind chill, and never run in temps that are significantly below what you know you can run. Test new lows only a few degrees at a time, and check the toes a few times during the run to make sure they haven't gone white and started to get hard. And of course, carry some backup footwear.

But realize the sun on asphalt makes a big difference too. For example my run today was nearly as cold as my run in post#201 where I almost got mild frostbite. Air temp 18ºF, 'feels like' 12º, but the road surface temp was 33ºF! Even with the same air temp, had the sun not been shining on the road all day I could very well have been close to frostbite conditions but instead I was quite fine!

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It was only 18ºF at the time!
 
How are the toes doing Swoggis? As I recall from mild frostbit a couple years ago those 'white spots' on the end of my toes were quite painful when touched for a few days. Yours appear worse in your pic than mine ever got, so hope yours are ok.


As of this morning, all but one of my toes are back to normal. The 'index' toe of my right foot (in the pic) seems to have gotten the worst of it and is still a bit puffy and tender. Fortunately, nothing turned funny colors or fell off. I think another 2 to 3 days should see everything reset. I expect I'll go play in the warmer end of the winter challenge temperature spectrum for the next few runs.

You're spot on regarding the road temperatures. I thought it was the windchill and surface dampness I had to look out for, but when I checked my notes on my uneventful 7°F run last winter, I see that it was on the same roads, but in March, when I would have had the benefit of a 6:30AM sunrise to pre-heat the asphalt before the start of the run at 7AM. This time around, we were running just at the break of dawn (started at 7AM and sunrise not until 7:20AM) so I was feeling the full brunt of the overnight temperatures at the surface. I'll try to bring my IR thermometer next time and log the actual road temperature vs. air temp.
 
While running barefoot tonight, 29 degrees F, I hear a car coming up behind me and slowing down. As the car is next to me, an older guy rolls down his window and says "Seriously?" pause " You're going to freeze your feet off" I just laughed and told him my feet were warm.
Actually, the road had just been sprayed with a salt solution this afternoon and it was burning a little.
 
Update Jan 18th

We have 4766 miles recorded and Yvonne in the lead, but Christian is right behind her. The 500 mile club looks to gaining another member soon. Only Bare Lee and Yvonne have reached that plateau. Swoggis has been added to our frostbite hall of fame, joining myself and rickwhitelaw.

It is road salt season in Eastern North America. Take care to avoid salt burn.

We are into the heart of winter. I hope that everyone is healthy and selective of their running conditions.
 
Just thought I'd post a pic of yesterdays run. Again I've pushed out my snow record, now to 5 miles in a run. Though it wasn't a continous 5 miles, the trail kept alternating back and forth from melted stretches to snow/ice/slush a few tenths of a mile at a time. It was unseasonably warm yesterday into the low to mid 40's, which is why half of it was melted (though the whole thing was wet, even the snow and ice). Even with the warmer temps running on wet snow and ice was a bit challenging but fun. A few tenths of a mile at a time made it doable, alternating back and forth, but I ended up finaly getting into a stretch that went deeper in the woods and was all snow/ice (probably for several miles). After about 3/4 mile steady of snow and ice I had to find a dry spot on the side to let the feet warm up a bit and then turn back. The wetness just made it too cold to handle without the bare spots inbetween.

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I must say I'm not too much fired up for running on snow, because last time I did this, it took me a month until I could feel my toes again :oops:.
Today, I luckily managed to run 9 km at slightly subfreezing temperature, but still on dry roads. And this was great. Upon coming home, the first snowflakes started drifting in the air, and now the whole landscape is white.
Next week may be difficult for barefoot running in my place, as lots of snow-rain mixture have been forecasted...

All the best,
Martin
 
I wish you all the best!

Today, fresh snow for me here in Aachen, two runs of 5km and 6km already, great feeling on the second run since not so much wind as on the first one.

I really hope we all have cold, but runnable weather the next months, without too much slush and salt!
I was just joking. I have no chance whatsoever, but it's great to feel the ground again. This year's temps haven't been nearly as bad as last year, but I've been laid up with self-inflicted lifting injuries, so my running has been minimal, let alone my barefoot running. I hope the moderate temps continue into February as I begin to reboot the debooted running.

Got some nice looks yesterday as I walked around a lake with my shoes in my hands, 38F/33F windchill. I was glad to see my tolerances hadn't diminished much, although some of the wet patches felt pretty cold just walking. This morning got another walk in.
 

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