I woke up this morning at 7:00 after setting my alarm last night to meet my MRTT Mama’s for a cold winter run.   Normally, I do not meet them on the weekend.  Often they meet too early for me and I do enjoy sleeping in on the weekend.   I really had no excuse not to go seeing as they were not meeting till 8:00 and I did need the miles.   On top of that I really did need to get out there and run in the cold and it was cold.   The car thermometer registered 17 degrees when I got in.  I will admit that running in the cold is not at the top of my list of things to do, but seeing as I have a Half Marathon coming up on the 25th I need to suck it up!

Besides I needed to try out my new running jacket that I got just for cold weather running.   If you recall in my previous post The Most Expensive FREE Sport Ever, I have been searching for the perfect coat to run in.   So far nothing that I got seemed to work, but I do think that I have a winner!!

Ding. Ding. Ding.

The Athleta Full Speed Jacket

My only problem that I had today is that I thought this was like a normal jacket and ran with one too many layers.

Layer One – Under Armour Long Sleeve Shirt

Layer Two – Under Armour Short Sleeved Heat Gear Shirt

Layer Three – Athleta Long Sleeved Extra Long Chi Top

Outer Layer – New Full Speed Jacket& Reflective Power Lift Tights

And off my BA MRTT Mama’s and me went.

 I will also admit that even though the whole point of the jacket is to reflect my body heat back to me to keep me warm that I had my doubts.  No more.   By mid run, I had my gloves off and my jacket fully unzipped as I was warm.   So next time, I will try just the short sleeved Heat Gear over the Chi Top as that one promises to be unstinkable and was so soft! I do know though that I will have to suck it up at the beginning and realize that I will be toasty warm in no time.  I got the large for comfort with added layers which did make the sleeves a little long but to me that is a plus for running in the cold.

Overall I would highly recommend this jacket.   I wish that I could have waited for a sale,

but as Violet from Charlie in the Chocolate said,

So I paid full price.

It was not cheap.

But it was so worth it.

Like the Reflective Running Tights.

Now I wish I could say that Athleta was sponsoring this post or giving me a freebie for saying these things, but they aren’t.   This way though you know I speak the truth as I always do.

So Athleta feel free to sponsor me for some honest feedback:)

What is your favorite winter running item?