Inquisitive.me

Every year around this time, runners start proving something — mostly to themselves. That they’re tough. That they don’t quit. That weather doesn’t control them.

Last year, I was one of them. Headlamp on, snowstorm in my face, sliding over frozen ground like a confused mountain goat — calling it “mental strength.”

This year, I call it unnecessary risk.

My marathon prep started again in mid-January. I live in Austria. It’s cold, it’s dark, and after-work runs are not exactly romantic when you can barely see the ground and every step feels like a gamble on slippery, uneven terrain.

Don’t get me wrong — I love winter. I love snow. I love being outside in the cold. Just not while running. Because when visibility is poor and the ground is icy and bumpy, your ankles, knees, and hips are doing overtime just to keep you upright.

By now, mid-February, things are slowly improving — but the weather still flips moods overnight. One day you’re running on dry pavement in shorts, two days later you’re back in full winter gear wondering what happened.

Last year, I pushed through everything. Minus 10 degrees? Let’s go. Ice-covered roads? Adds character. Strong wind? Resistance training. Fog? Atmosphere. Snowstorm? I’ll just run blind — no big deal.

This year, I’m doing it differently.

I bought an indoor bike. And if I didn’t have that, I’d use the treadmill or the gym bike without hesitation. No ice rink roads. No wind tunnel conditions. No 30-centimeter visibility. No heroic snowstorm sessions with a headlamp and questionable judgment.

Because honestly — some days even my dog doesn’t want to go outside, and he’s tougher than most people I know.

Running in a snowstorm with a headlamp is a special kind of absurd. The light reflects off the snow like an old flickering tube TV screen. You see chaos. Nothing else. Depth perception disappears. Everything moves. It’s disorienting, dizzying, and far from good training.

Last year I told myself this would make me tougher. After all, race day happens no matter the weather, right?

True. But I’ve changed my mind about what “tough” needs to look like.

Just like I don’t need cold showers to prove discipline, I don’t need miserable training conditions to prove grit. Life is already demanding enough. Preparing for 42 kilometers is already hard. There’s no bonus medal for unnecessary suffering.

And the truth is — those brutal weather runs didn’t make my training better. Quite the opposite. I couldn’t hold my planned pace. I had to cancel sessions because conditions were genuinely unsafe. My joints took more load from constant micro-adjustments and instability — exactly the kind of stress that can quietly turn into overuse injuries later.

So here’s the shift: instead of trying to outrun the weather, I accept it.

Not as defeat — but as strategy.

Adjusting your plan to conditions you can’t change isn’t weakness. It’s intelligent training. Sometimes you let the weather win. You move the session indoors. You cross-train on the bike or in the pool. You shorten the run, reduce the stride length, lower the tempo, or change the goal of the workout entirely.

You’re not quitting. You’re adapting.

You can’t out-stubborn physics. And you don’t get extra endurance points for fighting ice and darkness.

Also — you won’t lose your endurance through smart cross-training. Quite the opposite. Over the past six months, I ran less and focused more on cycling and jump training. My endurance didn’t drop. My VO₂max actually improved.

Consistency beats heroics. Adaptation beats ego. And staying healthy beats proving a point to the weather.

🧪 Let’s Experiment

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Adaptation is a training skill.

Instead of pushing through bad conditions, try training like someone who plans to still be healthy at the start line.

🎯 Try This:

Before every workout, check conditions — weather, sleep, stress, and how your body feels. Then choose the version of training that protects consistency: outdoor run, treadmill, bike, or another endurance option. Keep the effort goal — change the method if needed. Track how often you adapt instead of canceling, ad how your body responds.

And this doesn’t only apply to running. If you usually go for a walk after work and the weather is terrible, don’t skip it with the first convenient excuse. Do something else that gets your body working. Rope skipping, squats, lunges, short jump sessions, treadmill walking, or an easy bike ride — it all counts. Move — and outsmart the weather instead of letting it shut you down.

🧠 Final Thought:

You don’t build fitness by fighting reality — you build it by adapting to it. Smart adjustments don’t weaken your training. They protect it.

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Keep it simple, stay curious, and keep learning—you’ve got this.

Take care,

Carina 🦊