Motivation in winter

Personally, I like to listen to a podcast with someone who has done something amazing physically (summited Everest, hiked across Antarctica unsupported, multiple ultramarathons)--it puts my relatively short and only mildly uncomfortable run in perspective. Rich Roll's podcast is great for finding interviews with incredible athletes pushing the boundaries of endurance (mental and physical).

I also used to keep a spreadsheet of each run - weather conditions, what I wore, how I felt before and after. It showed me that despite how I felt about a cold-weather run in the beginning (trepidatious), I ended up usually too warm by the end and pretty happy. Having a record of my own experiences was pretty convincing and helped me improve my clothes strategies for these runs (I tend to feel super cold at the beginning, then way overheated by the end, so I really need fewer layers than I think, and past me is the best authority on that). And while I was keeping it, gathering the data and experimenting with gear was motivation itself.

I always loved running with my GSD at 4am in the winter (as long as I didn’t have snow to shovel Once i figured out the clothing layers, which were less than I thought, the beauty of winter running kept me at it. Clear crisp skies make for awesome star gazing. Listening to the owls talking is music for my soul. Ice crystals glimmering, foot falls crunching, the stillness of the night, all became good reasons to pull on my insulated tights and lace up my trainers!