This morning I landed back home in Europe after being in DC for a couple days. In doing so, I increased my environmental temperature by approximately 50°F….to approximately 50°F. Just think, if I did that again it’d be like being in the Caribbean.
And then I remembered that everyone else stateside is left in the cold. The windy, snowy, icy…generally miserable cold. For you in Australia, you don’t get to complain at this juncture about your warm temps.
Thus, in order to make the situation a tiny bit better, I figured a giveaway was in order. It’s been a little while since the last one. Actually, sorta way longer than I realized. Not exactly sure how that happened, but we need to get that fixed pronto!
The prize is simple: A $400 credit to to Clever Training to buy anything from the site you’d like. You can use it on anything they offer, from a Garmin watch to a PowerBeam trainer. If the item is over $400US, you’ll simply pay the difference, shipping is free either way. The giveaway is open to all readers – including international folks.
To enter yourself in, simply leave a comment below with the following:
To Enter: Give me the lowdown on the coldest swim/ride/run you’ve had this winter – simple as that!
Got it?
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Entries will be accepted through Sunday night, 11:59PM Eastern time (February 2nd, 2014). I’ll be you giving one device worth up to $400US from Clever Training. Winner will be chosen at random and announced on roughly Tuesday (my Mom’s Birthday) or Wednesday (if I’m still celebrating the Seahawks win on Sunday at the Super Bowl). One entry per person. The winner can decide on which device after they win. Devices/gadgets/gizmos over $400, the winner can pay the difference.
This giveaway is sponsored by Clever Training, which I’ve got a great partnership with. As you probably remember, by picking up sports technology gadgets from Clever Training you support the site. And on top of that, all DC Rainmaker readers get an exclusive 10% off all products they sell (basically every sports tech company/gadget/device) using coupon code DCR10BTF. Even cold weather gear. And most of all, you support the site in a big way – so I appreciate it!
Note, if you’re US Active Duty Military – you can submit your entry via e-mail [entry period closed] instead. No bunny rabbits or chocolatiers allowed via this method. Mmmkay? Thanks all!
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Early December in NorCal, 30F. Shorts and a jacket. iPhone battery didn’t like the coldness and died while trying to take a pic of my water bottle on a patch of ice. Made for a nice silent run on the way back!
Ride in CO on my Borealis Fat Bike. 8 inches of snow on the ground, and more coming down.
We don´t have a winter in Germany this year :/
Last year in France. A trip in the Vosges mountains … The sky was very low, so humidity was added to the coldness but after running more than an hour into the fog, i ended over the clouds. It was so cold (-15°C) despite the sun but so beautiful.
First triathlon. Openwater swim. No wetsuit. Colder than being stood up on a date.
Jesus, almos 2k comments already?! People’s been missing these giveaways, Ray!
Well, it’s summer time here in Brazil so it’s been a while since the last cold run I managed to complete. On the other side, there’s been a lot of wet runs!
It was about 21h and I had just arrived at the track – a square with a +/-650m track on its surroundings – and it start raining pretty hard. I mean ‘ouch, my shoulder!’-hard.
I looked around and all the chubby folks were gathering under a building. I was walking towards it when I though ‘that’s a chubby spot and you’ll certainly earn your place there if you lay still like those guys’. So I kept on running…
I run hard and felt my jaw rattle for some time, but it was fun as hell! I just couldn’t wipe that stupid smile from my face, specially when passing in front of the chubby people
Air con was cold in the gym this morning in Sydney…
Ran in cool, crisp, 14c weather in Bangkok, Thailand. That was the coldest it got this year.
Morning Swim in about 4°C to 5°C, pool fortunately heated but it nevertheless meant you got a free T1 training, running to the showers after getting out of the water
Last year, February afternoon, -2 C, running on the beach in Italy. A girl screaming in the water because was in trouble. Just a little bath in a very cold water without wetsuit!!
23F was my coldest run, I’m in Tx so definitely not used to it. After 1st mile or so wasn’t too bad, I think just getting out of a warm bed is the hardest part.
1C, 120km bike ride this year in hilly Belgium.
It was a 6am run here in Bangladesh: 49F.
This winter my coldest ride
My coldest run was a field cross race of 3.6 km where it was 1° celcius, so just above freezing point.
This has been an abnormal warm winter here.
a long ride around the biggest lake in the Netherlands 150km+ at minus 7 degrees celcius.
Did an early morning 8km run this week in -5C (23F) with a 10m/s wind making the wind chill -17 C (1F)
Low Point was Last Year during a Run in January. -9 degrees w/o windchill.
25 km trail run, 2 ˙C, back in January. Yes, it was cold and cruel, but an awesome experience. Would do it again. Love winter tarining.
not much running this winter…
Running out in the cold and I couldn’t feel my toes!
I live in the Mediterranean. 15C doesn’t really qualify as cold.
Mornings in Kiev, Ukraine are so freezing this winter. -20C its ok for us winter runners. Yesterday was -20, short 6k run.
365 days of liquid sunshine aloha here in Hawaii. No cold for me!
I guess I must be lucky. We went for ‘winter’ to the Baltic states, but the lowest we had was -1 C. I had a nice long run at this nice dry temperature. Few weeks later -30 C.
I just started running this may and my coldest run was a month ago. It was -3C and inexperienced as I was (and still am) I was breathing too heavily and felt like I swallowed a sword halfway through. Still I learned something and I take it a bit easier on colder days, which I don’t mind (yea, I know, it wast that cold). Still waiting on my first snow run though.
This year’s winter is very hot, so still doing summer sports. Last time 25k mountain bike ride in 6 deg celsius, windy and rainy..
it’s not really been cold in the UK yet…apparently snow’s coming though
It wasn’t that cold in france this winter so aside of the chilly track shorts and t-shirt run by 2c it wasn’t that cold :(
Well looks like you enjoyed the normal Finnish training weather a couple of weeks back! -20 degrees xc skiing on January might be the coldest for this year so far
A torn medial meniscus (apparently I’m getting too old for football) has stopped me running at all this winter, which is a pain as it’s been really quite mild here by Peak District standards… although a record amount of rainfall this January, so perhaps a blessing in disguise! So my coldest bike was a spin in the local gym the other week, felt like about a hundred degrees by the end!! Man I can’t wait to start getting fit again.
My coldest ride was at -14 C. Never will do this again.
Running in the montains on snow -5c this year
Winter hasn’t really started in Holland yet, so coldest run must have been around 0c..
Night run after a long work day here in Chamonix, temps at -15c and fresh snow, beautiful!
While not quite swimming laps, I spent 2 hours scuba diving in 15C (59F) water in only a 3mm wetsuit. The water felt so cold that my face was burning when I entered the water.
Great couple of dives, but I was well and truly ready to warm up by the time I got out.
My coldest ride was 4 degrees Celsius, with a short sleeved jersey and light weight summer gloves. Safe to say that it was quite cold!
Sorry, but here in the south of Germany, we have no cold temperatures during this winter, though my coldest run was at -2°C, but in 2009 I had plenty runs at -17°C, what big fun :-)
Hoping for more winter to come….
Nordic ski in Russia -26C
20 mile trail run in 15 degree weather and 5 inches of snow with my triathlon team
Cycling in the morning with cold, around 10ºC, but a chilly wind and fog. My feet got so cold they really hurt when I hit them with warm shower water.
Guess it never gets really cold in the north of Portugal.
The winter is not arrived in France. So my coldest run this year was zero degree at 6 am. Not so hard in fact.
Polar bear plunge here in Newport, RI
here in Hungary the cold just arrived, so the coldest run was around +5C° on the eve on 31st december, we had a little drinking-running competition
Hasn’t been too cold this winter in Paris, so I guess my coldest run was at about 2 degrees (Celsius!) a couple of weeks ago.
Last year though I went swimming at the outdoor 50m (heated) pool in Puteaux while it was snowing… funny feeling.
I live in Iceland. Need I say more? :)
Well I live in Sierra Leone and coming from a 20km run under 27c and 85% followed by 5km under 35c (don’t ask) 2 days before running in 1c in London was MOST unpleasant, and as usual at this time of the year in my marathon training I picked up an injury…
+3C cycling on a mountain outside of Patras, Greece. Difficult to find low temperatures when you live in Greece, near the sea!
As you see, no real cold in Paris yet …
=> 4°C in the rain last week
Pretty weak here…or maybe just smart. Did a ride in 15 with 15-20mph winds.
Skiing i ve done -20 with wind of 10-15
15 degrees F…but with a 15-20 mph steady wind blowing from a nor’easter pushing through the Boston/ greater New England area. I was numb to the core…not entirely ‘fun’ but Nothing a hot chocolate couldn’t fix immediately afterwards
Dec 15, 2013 10 degrees feels like -4 in Rockford, IL, #3 most miserable places to live (link to forbes.com). I am fairly sure this drops the temperature -25 more =)
10.67 mile trail run that ended up with three sweat cicles and a tear cicle. That are all of outstanding size. The people I run with don’t understand. I can send you the pic.
Did a 11km commuter run last night in dark, rainy London. 11 degrees Celsius, so not as cold as the US right now. But it surely beat the suicide at the local train station that I had to be a witness of in the morning. Reminds me why cycling and running in London beats public transport any day
Cycling around Berkely Lake, near Atlanta. I thought I was adequately dressed for the cold. I wasn’t.
-30 Celsius and windy.So I decided to train indoor instead!
I ran on new year’s eve at -25 Celcius in Quebec city. No wind. It was pretty cool….
We had a big cold front come through North Carolina a couple of weeks ago and my husband and I thought it would be fun to set a new “cold run record” for ourselves. We warmed up for 1/2 a mile on treadmills at the Y and then headed out into -5*f with windchill to -21*f. I’ve never had to cover my face before but when we were in a windy spot I definitely needed it. It was great to be out there together!
New Years Eve, last run of the year, very cold and windy. Pulled my calf muscle and have not run since
This past Wednesday, 0c, 10km, 5:30am in the Taunus, just outside of Frankfurt, Germany.
-6 Celsius. I run for about 12km. (Cratia, this winter)
19 jan I went for a bike ride with -1’C. I almost fell on a frozen bridge… Besides that it was a nice ride!
It was this past Thanksgiving weekend in Washington Illinois. It was below freezing with a howling wind out of the north. The route I run is normally surrounded by houses & trees, but an F4 tornado ripped through town a few weeks before that and removed about 500 houses and lots of the landscape. It was like a war zone. That’s the coldest run I’ve had in a loooong time.
Half marathon in 3’C…. It’s been quite warm this winter!
I seem to be allergic to the cold. On my run today (1degree) my lips and finger nails turned blue, am I weird?
Coldest run was in London in December.3 degrees Celsius and coming from the Dubai Summer it was extremely colder than usual!!
Live in Portugal, coldest i have felt this year about 3 or 4°C.
It’s been the worst winter in years, but nothing like northern Europe.
Went for a 10 mile run on January 2nd in Minnesota. The high was 4 degrees and the low was -10 degrees. It was very cold!!!
It summer here in Australia… So a tricky one… Coldest ride maybe 26 deg ride up the coast of SE Queensland… Trying not to sound like a smug wanker…
Running on sea ice training for ice canoe races here in Quebec while I wait for the new season to begin. The best winter workout!
Been unseasonably cold winter in DC…coldest workout this year has been a run I went on two weeks ago, a beautiful windy morning, but I was severely underdressed, what was supposed to be 10 miles, ended at about 6 due to my inability to feel my legs….
Lasted 5min 43 seconds running with my training partner “Merlin the dog” along lake Michigan. Temp -3f wind chill -18f. Jan 28, 2014.
I Ran 132.6 miles this month in Cleveland, OH, which included two “polar vortex” weeks with lows well below zero. Am I the toughest runner? Definitely not, but I hit all my monthly goals and braved some adverse conditions. Bring on February!
We have had some very cold weather in Ottawa this winter and my wife has been out is crazy temperatures around -20C or colder (and not including the wind chill. However, the fun one was a family “1/2 marathon” we did 30 Dec. My wife made a deal when a generous runner from Cleveland offered to send her medal from Cleveland’s “A Christmas Story” race. As part of the deal we donated a bunch of toys to toy mountain and then did a family run – my wife did 10km, my 10 year old 5km and myself and my 8 year old did 3k each – total 21kms. Temperature was around -15C. Full story on her blog Blog for an average runner
Christmas Morning with temps right around zero. By the time I got home, I had snotcicles!
I live in Milwaukee and refuse to use a treadmill – all my runs are cold. Currently I’m on a month straight of no run being warmer than 15 degrees F.
-24 Celsius with relatively high level of humidity so it felt like -27 -28 celcius according to “feels like” yahoo scale in iOS app. welcome to Russia guys ;)
-10 Celsius running and it was pretty windy. Didnt wear enough clothes and got fever the next day
Since winter seems to have forgotten Belgium the coldest run I had until now was about 3°C (37,4°F).
I’m not complaining at all :-)
New Year’s Day, on Mt Snowdon, ‘running’ the Tour de Llyn Llydaw in driving rain. It was wading through the icy water on the off-path bits that was the most fun.
My coldest workout of the year has been a 19F run in while visiting my wife’s grandparents. It was cold, but somehow felt better than the 85 degree house.
My OWS location is also one of the premier dive parks on the eastern united states and it opened on NYE for one day for a dive and I thought I’d get a short swim in. Air temp: 34 degrees F. Water temp: 42 degrees F with surface pockets of ice. ( They had gone around in kayaks the day before breaking up the large chucks of ice)
Put on my QR full body wetsuit with 3 layers underneath, wool socks and my booties, two layers of gloves, my full cold weather cap and two swim caps and in I went.
Total distance: 1000 yards. Ouch! My face burnt like the dickens and I was shaking violently when I got out, but I got the swim in. :o) And then immediately slept the rest of the day. Probably mild hyperthermia.
My coldest run this year was last week jog to and back and participation in parkrun Gdynia event. -17C or 1F. But with windchill from the sea it was abiut -28C and -16F. Nice and chilly :-)
link to endomondo.com
Ran 5 miles in 19°f weather with 25-30 mph wind last week before work. Of course when I headed out the next day it was sunny and 65°, but then again I live in Texas.
During the first “polar vortex” at the beginning of January in Pennsylvania. 6F darkness with my headlamp and a ton of layers!
Earlier this week I ran 6 miles in -2F (-20F with windchill). That’s about as cold as I’m willing to put up with.
Pesava 130kg e estava começando minha jornada de emagrecimento, para isso tive que achar tempo para atividade física. Por isso que acordei às 4:50 da manha para uma sessão de 6km de corrida + 1,8 km de natação num frio de 16 graus celsius (no Rio de Janeiroisso é muito frio!)!
Last Saturday the temperature was below freezing, probably -2 or -3 celsius plus the wind chill of 15 m/s. Stayed in the woods for two and a half hours with my fully suspensioned bike and kept warm thanks to all the hills!
Are you kidding? My coldest run was warm enough to dive for a swim afterwards!
12*F running with my Bernese Mountain Dog. For her, the colder the better.
A couple weeks ago, first really cold run (aprox 20F). Wore compressoin shorts, running tights, running shorts, and sweat pants with hunters socks in my running shoes, with a dry fit base layer on top followed by thermal top then tshirt, then sweatshirt. Topped it off with a beanie. Was comfy the first mile, but had to start stripping down after that. Lesson learned…it wasn’t really that cold.
Been out running in -15C (5F I think) a couple of times during the last weeks (8-12km). -15C is ok, its when its starting to go below -20C (-4F) you really have to convince yourself to get out…
6F in mid December at a 15K. Standing in the corral pre-race was the coldest I’ve ever felt and it was impossible to move to warm up as everyone packed in for the start.
Moved from Houston to Sarnia (ON, Canada), first winter here and not yet used to these cold conditions!
Worst I have done up to now is leaving the house at just below freezing not realizing what the wind chill does to you and without looking at the forecast. Midway my 6k run I got a blowing snow shower straight in my face as I obviously made another strategic mistake to take wind in the back first………
When I came back home I ordered a wahoo kickr on internet!
I was running along the Isar river Munich on an icey day. Everything was fine until I slipped on the ice, slipped down the embankment and landed in the water. Luckily only my legs and feet got wet but it was a cold run back home.
Run in Munich in -2*C
10km run at 5.30 am at -10 at Hoenggerberg Zuerich
In November I headed out for a quick 4 miles in the afternoon. It was about 30 degrees and lightly drizzling so I threw on a long-sleeved tech shirt and a vest thinking NBD. Ten minutes in the temp had dropped to around 25 and freezing rain was pelting my face sideways – the wind was insane! By the time I got home – soaked through – the temp was almost down to 20 with a full-on sideways downpour. I think it took two days to get warmth back to my core again! :)
Nothing exciting – Greater Toronto Area, King City, -5 c but felt much much worse!
A few weeks ago in sunny Upstate New York, I was out for an afternoon tromp near the erie canal. It was about 15 degrees. I took a break to take a walk on the ice on the river, and SURPRISE it was not thick enough to hold me yet. Luckily only my right leg broke through the ice, and I promptly ran home. My shoe, sock and pant leg were frozen solid when I returned home. Amateur mistake, but a good story and a fun run and impromptu swim.
Hi. I’m living in the middle of germany and my coldest run this warm winter was a 13km run last sunday at -7 degrees celsius. It was cold enough, at least, to freeze the drops of sweat on my glasses frame. ;-)