As with everything I am not an expert - but over the years this is something I google almost every morning before I go for a run. The more comfortable you feel the more likely you are to stick with this! A few notes: I am Canadian through and through and do not do well in hot temperatures so I will stop running outdoors when the temperature is above 20°c/68°f - I will either run in the early morning before the sun (with a headlamp or very well lit, safe route that I know well) or (and I hate this) hop on a treadmill if I am in training. Or I will swap my cardio and cycle or swim or jump rope or do a workout class. I also have run at temperatures below -20°c/-4°f and I would not say it is particularly enjoyable but with the right layers it is, to me, better than running on a treadmill indoors.

My mother is a many-times Boston Marathon runner, her sister a world champion IronMan competitor and as for me… I like to put heavy things on my back and walk uphill. Moving fast has never come naturally to me. But about a decade ago, to distance myself from my “freshman 15” I decided that I, like my mother, would be a runner. She is three inches taller than me, her hips line up with my armpits and our running technique would be akin to watching a race between a gazelle and a pug (I am not the gazelle in this comparison in case that was not clear). I remember the day I decided to start running. It is 2.5 miles from my parents’ house to the highway (they live on a farm, in the country, on the top of a hill) and I ambitiously (read: naïvely) thought that 5 miles would be a good starting distance. I made it down the driveway, too

There is a day, every spring, when I lay out all of my backpacking gear for the year, pack in into my bag more meticulously than I ever will in real-life conditions and toss it on my back - just to see what it feels like. A metric ton of bricks - THAT is what my backpack feels like just before the ground melts and I spend as many days as humanly possible sleeping in a tent atop a mountain. I have to admit that the past few years I have had the opportunity to travel during the winter months, with a few December and March days closer to (or south of) the equator making that spring backpacking curve slightly less steep.