The Weather Isn’t Going to Wait for a Good Day
What you practice in is what you’ll race in
Last weekend we had the local Long Beach marathon. Anyone who ran it got rained on, even before the start. Not a drizzle - steady rain through most of the race. Wet roads, wet shoes, wet everything. This was a big shift from the heat wave of the last several weeks.
Some runners were prepared for it. Most weren’t.
The ones who weren’t prepared weren’t necessarily less fit. They wore cotton and too many layers. They hadn’t applied anti-chafe. They started too fast because the cool air made the effort feel easier than it was. By mile ten, some of them were in trouble that had nothing to do with their training and everything to do with conditions they’d never practiced running in.
The most direct coaching guidance on this: to prepare for bad weather, both physically and mentally, you have to train in it.
Race day conditions don’t negotiate - and they don’t care if you haven’t practiced for them.
And we’re just getting started. Fall and winter runners can’t wait for a better day. This is what the next several months look like for most of them.
Skipping Bad Weather Training Is Skipping Race Preparation
Most runners treat bad weather as a valid reason to move training inside or skip it entirely. Rain, cold, wind - these get filed under “not ideal,” and the workout gets rescheduled for a better day.
The problem is that bad weather is the norm during winter, and bad weather on a winter race day doesn’t get rescheduled. The Long Beach marathon ran in the rain, whether anyone was ready for it or not. Runners who trained through wet conditions knew how their gear performed, how to manage their effort when conditions made pacing harder to read, and what to expect from their bodies. The runners who hadn’t were solving those problems for the first time at mile five.
I’ve coached runners who trained perfectly for months and then had a rough race because conditions were different than expected. Cold that made their lungs burn. Rain that chafed through gear they’d never worn wet. Wind that blew up their first-half pace targets. None of those outcomes were fitness failures.
They were preparation failures. The fitness was ready, but the conditions weren’t familiar.
Unprepared Runners Are Racing Two Problems at Once
Bad weather becomes a compounding problem on race day when you haven’t practiced in it.
A runner who’s never run in cold doesn’t know their layering system. They show up overdressed or underdressed and spend the first few miles managing a problem they’ve never solved before - while also trying to execute a race plan. A runner who’s never run in rain doesn’t know where they chafe, hasn’t tested their gear wet, and may not recognize the early signs of a bigger problem developing. A runner who’s never run in wind doesn’t know how to adjust their effort, fights the conditions instead of adapting to them, and blows up in the second half.
Bad weather on race day punishes runners who haven’t developed the tools to handle it. The base fitness is there, but the full preparation isn’t. And on race day, there’s no time to develop those tools from scratch.
This applies even if you’re not racing. A runner who trains across different conditions develops better body awareness, stronger pacing instincts, and a wider range of experience to draw on. Running only in ideal conditions produces a runner who’s only comfortable in ideal conditions - which is a narrower version of the athlete you could be.
The runners who had a good day at Long Beach didn’t have better lungs or stronger legs. They had previous experience in the rain and wind.
Bad Weather Has Specific, Learnable Responses for Every Condition
Bad weather feels overwhelming because most runners treat it as one undifferentiated problem: bad.
But cold, rain, wind, and snow each affect your body and performance in distinct ways, and each has specific, learnable responses.
Cold requires specific layering and pacing adjustments that warm-weather training never teaches you. Rain introduces chafing and hypothermia risks that aren’t present when it’s dry. Wind affects your aerobic cost invisibly - you’re working harder than your pace suggests without any obvious feedback that something is different. Snow and ice change the mechanics of every stride in ways neither gear nor toughness can compensate for without adjusting your technique.
But not all of those effects work against you. Cold air keeps your core temperature lower, so your cardiovascular system works less hard to cool you down, your heart rate stays lower at the same pace, and you sweat significantly less, which reduces fluid loss and extends how long you can sustain effort before dehydration becomes a factor. Rain provides the same cooling effect. Wind at your back reduces aerobic cost and can push you faster than your effort alone would allow. Bad weather has tradeoffs, not just penalties.
Understanding those tradeoffs, what each condition takes from you and what it gives back, turns bad weather from something to survive into something to manage. That knowledge only comes from running in it.
The Physiology Behind Why Each Condition Hits Differently
Each weather condition requires a different response because it affects your body through a different mechanism. Understanding the mechanism explains why the response makes sense.
Cold triggers your body’s core temperature preservation response. Blood gets pulled away from the extremities - hands, feet, ears - toward the core organs. Muscle contractions increase heat production two to four times, which is how shivering works. Once you’re moving and generating body heat, this response works in your favor. The problem is the transition - the gap between standing at a cold start line and being three miles in with your temperature regulated. That gap is where layering decisions matter most.
The cold adaptation you develop from training in it is real but limited. Your body learns to shiver less and vasoconstrict more precisely - you become habituated to cold. But cold doesn’t produce the performance adaptations that heat or altitude training does. You get used to tolerating it, but it doesn’t physiologically enhance you.
Rain’s primary danger isn’t the wet. It’s the heat loss that wet clothing accelerates. A 55°F rainy marathon is a meaningful hypothermia risk. A 55°F dry run is not. Wet clothing conducts heat away from your body much faster than dry clothing, and wet fabric, wind, and sustained effort over hours can drop your core temperature even when you feel like you’re working hard. Hypothermia begins when core temperature drops to 95°F or below. Early signs are shivering, confusion, and poor coordination. Most runners don’t think of a mild-temperature rainy race as a hypothermia risk. The physiology says otherwise.
Wind’s effect is invisible, which makes it the most underestimated condition. A headwind increases the aerobic cost of running at any given pace - your heart rate will reflect the extra work before your legs do. You’re working harder than your pace suggests, and the feedback is delayed. Runners who push into a headwind in the early miles of a race feel in control as the effort accumulates, then hit an inexplicable wall in the second half.
Snow and ice don’t change your physiology, but they change the mechanics of every stride. On a slick surface, a foot strike that lands ahead of your center of mass creates lateral force that causes slipping. Shorter, slower strides that land more directly under your body reduce that risk. This isn’t a technique preference, it’s the mechanical reality of reduced traction, and better gear alone can’t compensate.
Bad Conditions Teach What Good Conditions Never Will
My first race in genuinely bad conditions was a Spartan Beast in Montana. Around 40 degrees, with light snow falling and obstacles that left you soaked and muddy within the first mile. There was no way to stay dry or warm once you were in it - you just had to keep moving and let the effort regulate your temperature. I was still new to racing and didn’t know what I was doing then. I figured it out in real time during that race, and that experience stayed with me.
Years later, when I started racing triathlons with open water temperatures in the low 60s or colder, I wasn’t starting from zero. I knew I could handle discomfort, manage my effort in cold conditions, and keep my head when things were harder than ideal. That Montana race taught me something no training run in perfect weather ever could.
I see the same thing play out with the runners I coach. Last winter I had a runner preparing for a spring marathon whose weekend long runs kept landing on windy days - sustained headwind on the back half of almost every long effort, right when fatigue was already building. There weren’t a lot of options to reschedule or change the route. So we leaned into it. Wind on tired legs is harder than wind on fresh legs, and that’s exactly the kind of discomfort that builds resilience. By race day she had run more miles into a headwind than most of her competitors. Conditions that would have rattled other runners were just familiar now.
The runners who had a good day at Long Beach knew why cold rain is different from cold and dry, and knew what headwind was doing to their effort even when their legs felt fine. They were making informed decisions in real time. The runners who didn’t were reacting to problems they had no framework for.
The Practical Response to Each Condition
Cold
Dress so you feel slightly cold at the start. If you’re comfortable standing at the start line, you’ll be overheating by mile three. A moisture-wicking base layer pulls sweat away from skin - a windproof outer layer blocks cold air. Overdress and shed rather than underdress and suffer - this also applies to training runs where you can tie a layer around your waist.
Racing is different. Race clothing should be lighter than training clothing at the same temperature. Racing effort generates significantly more body heat than training effort. A runner who trained comfortably in three layers at 40°F likely needs only one or two to race at that temperature.
Avoid cotton entirely. Sweaty, wet clothing dramatically accelerates heat loss in cold conditions.
Cold injury risks on long efforts: frostnip and frostbite on the extremities, trench foot from prolonged cold and wet exposure. Loose layers insulate better than tight compression - loft creates warm air pockets. Mittens over gloves for cold-prone runners.
One thing most runners skip: hydration. You don’t feel thirsty in cold weather, but fluid and electrolyte needs don’t go away. Under-hydrating in cold is a consistent problem worth actively managing.
Rain
Anti-chafe balm on the thighs, underarms, nipples, and anywhere a seam runs is non-negotiable before a wet run. Wet skin plus fabric plus movement creates friction damage in places that were fine on a dry day. Check gear seams before race day - a seam that’s fine in dry training can destroy skin over a long wet race.
For gear: wool and synthetic fabrics maintain warmth when wet. A light, water-resistant layer over a wicking base beats a heavy waterproof jacket that traps heat. Moisture-wicking socks reduce blister and trench-foot risk on long efforts.
Footing changes in wet conditions - surfaces that grip when dry can become slick. Adjust pace on turns and descents, especially early when you haven’t yet calibrated to the conditions.
Wind
In headwind sections of a race, run by effort rather than pace. Accept that splits will be slower and don’t chase the pace number. Draft behind other runners where possible - even a modest draft reduces wind resistance meaningfully. Save the push for tailwind or neutral sections.
In training, windy days force you off pace-based effort and onto perceived effort. A headwind training run that feels harder than the data suggests is doing exactly what it should. Start your run into the headwind when you’re fresh. You’ll work harder on the way out, but you’ll have the tailwind at your back when fatigue sets in on the return. Running into a headwind at the end of a long effort, when you’re already depleted, drains morale and performance and is easy to avoid with a little route planning.
Snow and Ice
Shorter, slower strides with your foot landing more directly under your center of mass. Yaktrax and similar traction devices are legitimate tools for packed snow and ice - they help, but they work best alongside adjusted mechanics, not instead of them.
Know when to move inside. Black ice, freezing rain, or heavily uneven packed snow are conditions where the fall risk outweighs the training benefit. A treadmill session is not ideal, but an injury three weeks before a goal race is worse.
Dress for snow as you would for equivalent cold temperatures. Snow reflects UV radiation - eye protection matters on bright snowy days.
The Long Beach runners who had a good day last weekend weren’t necessarily fitter than those who struggled. They were just more prepared. They’d run in the rain before, and they knew how wet conditions would affect their pacing and bodies because they’d practiced.
What does your training look like when the weather gets bad - and what would race day look like if conditions showed up the way they did in Long Beach?