As some of you may know, I am a jogger. For a large portion of my life, I regularly run outside in no particular direction until I’m tired. Last summer I ran every single week, even when temperatures were well into the 90s.

That’s why I feel inclined to tell you that you can do the same when the pendulum swings the other way. These days, the outdoors punishes many with increasingly chilly weather, and I’m still jogging. I’m not the only one too. Look outside, and you’ll see people jogging in the early hours of the morning, typically clad in underarmor and airpods.

Some of you may be asking, why? Why run around outside in the freezing cold instead of on a treadmill in the great indoors? What is wrong with you?

Well first of all, I’m cheap. I don’t like paying for a gym membership. If I pay for a gym membership, I feel like I wasted my money when I wind up not going to the gym. I’d rather go outside.

Speaking of which, running outside in the cold isn’t that bad at all. After a couple minutes of running, you sweat and ache just like any other day. Simply put, running outside makes me feel better. I like the feeling of actually being outside, otherwise I get depressed.

However, there’s a few things that you should keep in mind before going for a run outside. I’ve seen people layer up like any other winter excursion before a jog, and I cannot stress how bad of an idea this is.

Remember every single other time you go jogging, where your body would start to heat up and you’d burn alive? That still happens in the winter, the only difference is that it’s going to be three times as worse with all those layers on.

When I go for a jog lately, I typically wear shorts, a sweatshirt, and if it’s too cold, a t-shirt underneath. This way, I let the exercise do the work to keep me warm. It’s also just enough layers that when I walk for a little cool down, I don’t freeze. 

When it starts to snow and the temperatures fall lower and lower, I wear an old winter jacket and a t-shirt. Sometimes I’ll even wear thick socks. The trick here is you don’t want to let yourself get too cold or too hot. Try and find a level where you can comfortably jog.

Back to why you should jog outside, this might be a pretty hot take, but being outside kind of just feels good. My therapist once told me I should try to get outside for about 30 minutes each day, even if it’s cloudy out. Crazy thing is, he’s right. I work two jobs where I hunch over a computer, one of which in a windowless room that I stay in for hours at a time, and feel pretty bad when I don’t go outside at some point during the day.

The lesson here kids is that I am not normal. I am a yooper. I couldn’t care less about the “cold” or whatever this year’s batch of Chicago natives has to say about our weather. I’m not gonna stop jogging just because I can see my breath, and neither should you.