The JogBlog guide to overheating in winter

I’ve obviously become a complete wuss since moving to Kent. In London, it’d have to be at least minus-something before I even slightly pondered wearing long sleeves. This morning, although it was 9 degrees, I put on long sleeves, my Hippsy, my touchscreen gloves and because the top I was wearing had a rather wide neck, my Buff.

buff

I’d worn my Buff a few days ago on my bike. It’s great on a bike if you don’t like strangling yourself by doing your jacket right up, they keep the draught out perfectly. And if you don’t mind looking a bit of a div, you can pull it up over your nose to keep the chill off your mouth. You can even wear it on your head. In fact, there are so many ways to wear a Buff, when you buy one, they’ll send you a booklet and a DVD demonstrating all the different ways.

Today’s run was a 2.5 miler to see how unfit I was. It was also to make me feel slightly less bad about the scales showing me in the dreaded double figures for the first time ever. I had been expecting it – I haven’t exercised properly for weeks and I’ve been eating and drinking loads, the weight didn’t come on by accident. Still, marathon training and Janathon should sort that out. Won’t it?

Stats:
Distance: 2.5 miles-ish
Time: 30 minutes-ish
Pace: Slow
Walking breaks: 0 (yay)
Long sleeve tops: 1
Hippsys: 1
Pairs of touchscreen gloves: 1
Buffs: 1
Too many pieces of clothing: 3
Digits on the scales: Double
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The JogBlog guide to keeping warm in winter

Obviously, the best way to keep warm is to stay in bed, but if you’re hardcore like me, and do venture out into the early morning frost, then you’re going to need something more than a skimpy pair of Speedos.

Today, I put on my new Canterbury base layer.

canterbury-running-top

It’s thick, warm and comfy as well as having that technical stuff that wicks the sweat away. It’s also skin-tight and therefore prone to riding up (as I found out when I sat down to put my socks on) but, hurrah for the Hippsy!

What’s a Hippsy? A Hippsy is an elasticated piece of cotton, similar to a boob-tube in appearance but you wear it round your waist to protect you from the cold when your top rides up, exposing bits you don’t want to expose. 

hippsy-red

It’s ideal if you need an extra layer of warmth but don’t want to bulk up with too many clothes.

hippsyMy Canterbury base layer, long tights, Hippsy and touchscreen gloves were all I needed in this morning’s minus-whatever weather to keep me warm. 

Where did you get that hat (and gloves)?

Of course, I had to go and Google for the lyrics to that song and found out that for nearly forty-three years, I’ve been singing the wrong words (not that I sing it often, honest). I always thought it went something like:

Where did you get that hat

Where did you get that hat?

Isn’t it a lovely one

I’d like one like that

only to find out that it’s actually:

Where did you get that hat

Where did you get that tile?

Isn’t it a nobby one

And just the proper style

Which, although having impeccable rhyme and metre, doesn’t make much sense – to me, at least. If someone called my hat ‘nobby’, I’d think they were either saying I looked a bit of a dick (which, admittedly, isn’t beyond the realms of feasibility) or that my hat was in need of a JML de-bobbler.

Anyway, back to my hat. My hat is an iHat and it has speakers in it and a cable to plug into your phone or MP3 player. I took it for a trial run on a run this morning.

ihat(Yes, I know I look like I’ve been caught on CCTV robbing the local offy.)

All was ok with my iHat at first. It was warm and comfy and I could hear the music over the noise of the traffic on the busy road I live on but it didn’t take long until the iHat started slipping down over my eyes and so I tried rolling the front up and that was okay for a bit but then it started slipping down again so I tried rolling it up again but it kept slipping down and so it’d be great for people who like wearing hats when they’re running (it did a great job at keeping my hair out of my eyes) but only if they haven’t got little pea-heads like mine.

The iHat is only £9.99 (at the time of writing) and has been updated since I received my one, as it now comes with handsfree capability with an integrated in-line microphone, volume control and selection button.

The iHat looks better on the girl in this video. Hard to believe, I know.

Onto my new gloves. I used to have some touchscreen gloves (I say ‘used to’ as the last time I saw them, they were languishing in a bin in a toilet in Plymouth two miles into the Great South Run. I was happy to dump them because they weren’t responsive and they weren’t warm enough when it got really cold. These new touchscreen gloves are incredibly responsive and they’re woolly and warm and also have the added bonus of looking like normal gloves.

touch-screen-gloves

These touchscreen gloves are only £3.99 at the moment and also come in pink (they didn’t have pink when I got mine, bah).

Paramount  Zone don’t only sell hats and gloves though, oh no. They have tons of funky stuff on there, including loads of ideas for Christmas presents.