Wintery weather has arrived in Michigan, and while I absolutely hate driving in the white stuff I love winter runs. Winter 5k’s are my favorite, and currently I am running in the Mizuno Wave Rider 21. This is a neutral shoe, which means it’s great for all level of runners. I personally feel as though this shoe is like running on clouds, and love it on and off trails. This shoe and I have already tried to outrun the snow, which did not happen since we just got slammed, but it did get me a nice 27 minutes 5k. Since I love running in the winter I thought I would share my top five winter running tips…..

1. Invest in the gear. Prepare yourself from head to toe with layers and accessories. I always dress in layers, wear a headband, gloves and usually try to cover my nose and mouth with a scarf to prevent wind and lung burn.

2. Have an accountability partner. It’s harder to run in the cooler months, but you can still make it fun. My accountability partner lives three hours away, however we sign up for races together which keeps us on track.

3. Warm up and stretch. Seriously so important, I used to skip this and ended up with an injury that took me out of running for over 7 months. Don’t skip the warm up and stretch.