Winter Running

To open, I will provide some background.  In Junior High, I briefly ran on the track team, but didn't have the commitment necessary to be a successful runner in that setting.  The team coach pushed us to run relentlessly for 4-5 miles three days a week, with no developmental training to "get us there".  On the other 2 days, he pushed us with 50-yard and 100-yard dashes, hurdles, and track meet training.  Given the way it was all presented, I was more than glad when the season was over.
My interest in running continued in private, however, and through high school. Summers were spent in Rockville, Maryland, where the trails and paved paths through parks and neighborhoods invited the runner in me to continue.  I would run at a more enjoyable and leisurely pace, and reveled my time on the road a great deal.
Over the following 20 or so years, I let my running take a back seat to some bigger things like pregnancies, work, children, school, and life.  I wasn't yet aware of how or my real desire to recognize running as a necessary and permanent component of my life. It seemed more "extracurricular" to me.  For this reason, I vascillated in sporatic periods of running, periods of "power walking" and periods of other forms of cardiovascular exercise.  Admittedly, there were also long periods where I let all forms of running/cardio lapse.
After my fourth child and the early onset of menopause, my metabolism and general physical shape began to change...not for the better!  I began to gradually gain some weight, and in addition, store weight in places I never had before.  I had low energy levels, seemed to need an increasing amount of sleep which I rarely got, and had to regulate my moods a great deal.
I consulted physicians who confirmed that my thyroid was "within normal range" but also explained the vast range that entailed "normal", explaining that the tests were limited, and that my thyroid gland could indeed be in need of help in effectively metabolizing calories, but that it didn't test within the range that merited medication.  All research that I conducted on my own confirmed that the real answer, after getting a clean bill of health from my physician, was to incorporate a permanent and healthy lifestyle, which had to include regular cardio activity, which is something I always found very satisfying both physically and mentally.
10 months ago, I joined a local gym and hired a personal trainer, who helped me to lose about 15 lbs doing strength training using cables, free weights, planks, pushups, lunges, and cardio workouts.  After two months of working out with her, I began to take my cardio workouts outdoors, realizing that I had no real love of the treadmill or eliptical trainer.  I much preferred to run outdoors.  I began at my own pace and level, which was admittedly quite slow, and at first I couldn't run a full 1.75 mile lap around the marked course in the park near my home.  After a month of training, I entered my first 5K Race.  It was on the beach, on wet sand, in the springtime in Florida, and my time was an unappealing 39.42 minutes. But it was also the beginning of a love affair between running and me!
In the past 8 months since, I have completed 18 races, 15 of which were 5K's, one 5-miler, one 10-miler and a half marathon!  I have opted not to join a group or try to measure my performance against others', but rather focus on improving my own running efficiency and time.
It has definitely become a very integral and important part of my life, and I cannot imagine NOt running! 
Recently, however, I have begun to experience the "winter blues".  Although during the summer, I craved cooler temperatures and lower humidity, I never imagined how much HARDER it would be to get out there and run in the 20, 30, 40 and even 50 degree temps.
In summer, the adjustment is somewhat easy...run after sundown, like 7 or 8 pm.  In the winter, however, I have found it to be very hard, as you can't really run with alot of excess clothing, adding weight and difficulty to the run!
This has, for at least 2 workouts a week, forced me back inside the gym and onto the treadmill.  I am most grateful, though, for my Runners' World subscription, chock full of motivational and helpful articles and plans for running indoors.  I have learned how to at least make the treadmill runs more challenging and interesting, but my real LOVE is to run outside.

I am pleased to share that in only 8 months, I have shaved over 8 minutes off my 5K time, setting a recent PR of 31 minutes! (One more minute will qualify me for seeding in the very popular Gate River Run in Spring.)

I also just completed my first Half Marathon, and although my sciatic nerve quit at mile 11, causing my finishing time to suffer by at least 15 minutes, I finished successfully, and ran straight through the first 10 miles!  I am now training for the Breast Cancer Half Marathon in February, and the Gate River Run in March.

I welcome all pointers, comments and advice for winter running options.

I should also mention that through running, I dropped an additional 20 lbs from my frame, and increased my lean muscle mass exponentially.  I have now kind of reached a "weight loss plateau" over the past 3 months, and am interested in all nutritional suggestions for dropping the last 25 lbs I need to lose, in order to be leaner, fitter and a much more efficient runner!

~Thanks for reading....and for sharing...a love of running, and your thoughts!