I was surfing the web recently, having a look at the training advice offered to runners. Some of it is very good, some is dodgy to say the least, some is thought-provoking and some is amusing. One comment which caught my attention related to running in bad weather. The author, who is a respected coach, simply said: "Never train in adverse weather conditions. You will only waste time and energy."

I'm not sure how you might define "adverse weather conditions" but I have known very few situations when it has not been possible, and beneficial, to run in bad weather. Living in Britain, we have to get used to running in bad weather, otherwise running would be something done on a small number of dates, particularly during the winter months.

I was fortunate to compete in sunny California on a regular basis. But the first time I went there, for the Oakland marathon in February 1983, the weather on race day was awful (see pic above). Strong winds, low temperatures and driving rain made for tough running conditions. I went on to win the race in what was, at that stage in my career, a personal best time of 2hr 18min 18sec. My nearest challenger was almost three minutes behind.The bad weather gave me a distinct advantage. When warming up, I heard lots of my rivals bemoaning the poor conditions. Physchologically, they were beaten before they started because they couldn't handle the conditions. For me it was certainly no worse, and in some cases was much better, than many of the conditions I had handled in training during the weeks leading up to the race. I was secretly pleased that the weather was so bad because I knew I could handle it. Perhaps my rivals had a coach who advised them not to go out and train on such days!

I always got tremendous satisfaction from training in terrible conditions because I always knew that if I turned up at race when the weather was bad, then I'd not be perturbed by it. Also, I knew that some of my rivals may not be training on these days, so I was gaining an advantage over them. It's a bit like training on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. You do it, because others might not be doing it.And that gives you a lift.

Sometimes, however, weather conditions can be so bad that running of any description is difficult. One winter, in the fortnight leading up to an important race, the streets where I live were treacherous with frozen snow and ice. There was no safe place to run. So I had to improvise. I went into the city centre and found a multi-storey car park where I could train in calm, dry conditions. I used the long, looping ramps to the higher floors for hill reps. And I used the car parking levels for 100m sprints.
It wasn't ideal, but was far better than doing nothing. And it paid dividends because I won the race I was preparing for.

It can be difficult to find a sheltered place to run in bad weather and I'd certainly advise that there's little point in trying to do any quality speed sessions when you are being battered by the wind and rain. Although, I have on occasion used a following galeforce wind to get used to developing leg speed by letting it blow me along at a fast rate of knots.

Whatever, it's still worth getting out there and doing a steady run because of the mental toughness it gives you as much as for any physical benefit.

Comment on this article by contacting fraser@born2run.co.uk