Saturday, December 12, 2009

What Should I Wear?

"What should I wear?" That question is asked by thousands of runners all over the world each morning before heading out on their daily run. I've even been late for a group run trying to figure out what to wear. Are we that clothes conscious? Nah, the problem is the WEATHER! How to dress for the WEATHER! Mother nature can be rather fickle and you never know if she's going to treat you to rain, wind, snow, sleet, ice, a heat wave or a monsoon!

There are several different online weather services that provide all kinds of great info on the current and predicted weather—The Weather Channel, AccuWeather, and WeatherUnderground. I have WeatherBug on my laptop that displays the current temperature on the desktop as well as the weather forecast and it also pops up weather alerts. But dang it, none of these services/programs tell me what to wear!

I've often thought how great it would be if I had a program that would pop up on my screen each morning with exactly what I'm supposed to wear for running that day. Well, I haven't found that, but I did discover the next best thing—The Runner's World What Should I Wear? tool. This handy tool allows you to enter the temp, wind, conditions, as well as how you like to feel (temp-wise) when you run. Once you've done that, it pops up the garments and gear you need for the day's run.

What an awesome service! Be sure to bookmark this site and check it on those mornings when you're in doubt of what to wear. Now all I need is a program that will wake me up, dress me, and feed me. Don't laugh! I can dream. We didn't even have PCs 30 years ago!

12 comments:

runrgrl2007 said...

This is going to be great for me.... I am ALWAYS overdressed! On the weekend if you see clothes thrown along the way, you can probably bet they are mine ! The girls always laugh at me! Thanks once again runnerdude! Your my lifesaver!

RunnerDude said...

Hi runrgrl2007! If you ran this morning, those extra clothes probably came in handy! BRRRRRR!LOL!

ShutUpandRun said...

That runner's world tool is great. It has helped me to not overdress, which I am always tempted to do!! Especially when it's 10 degrees outside. Thanks for the good advice

Jordan said...

i use it religiously - love that it adjusts for whether you like to feel warm, cold, or inbetween.

I blogged about it the other day, it was so cold i was hoping it'd say, "dont go out there" :)

Molly said...

great idea! Now if only there was a site to tell me where the black ice is on my running route, could have used that info on my last outdoor run!

Susan D. said...

Thanks for sharing ... what a great tool. We were all talking about our clothing choices this morning (in 25 degrees) and hoping we had made good decision!

RunnerDude said...

Hi Shutupandrun and Jordan! Glad you've used the site and found it helpful! That would be a riot if it said, "Stay in Bed!" LOL!!

RunnerDude said...

Hi Molly! I feel for ya. I've had a sore bum a time or two from being the victim of black ice. I think I'm going to get me some YakTrax for those icier days! http://www.yaktrax.com/

RunnerDude said...

Hi Susan! I always think it's a bad decision at the beginning of those 25 degrees and below runs, but somehow I'm always glad I've run afterward.Plus knowing there's coffee and bagels at the end helps! LOL!!

Regina said...

Thank you, thank you! I have such trouble deciding how many layers and of what to put on, this will hopefully solve that problem.

Anonymous said...

I love this tool- I used to under dress almost every time out...this has helped immensely!!!

The Navy Christian said...

I've played with this a couple of times, but the fact is that I live in San Diego, so how cold can it be? Anyway, I think it will help me a lot more once I move.