Originally Posted by
_ForceD_
Interesting...only because having been a runner since the mid-1970s I have never felt the need for thicker socks in winter. My feet just don’t get cold when I’m running...even if I’m running through snow in low 30s/high 20s°F temps. Just regular (relatively thin) socks and my shoes. But that’s just me. I know that every person has their own comfort levels. When it comes to wearing gloves...when the temps drop below 60°F I have to use at least a thin glove or my fingers get cold. Yet at colder temps...like in the 20s°F I’ll pass other runners who are bare-handed.
Dan
Cold adaptation is like heat adaptation. In Texas we rarely get enough consecutive cold days to develop cold adaptation. However we did this year. I'd say it took me about three days of regular exposure to cold weather to get comfortable enough to need fewer layers and thinner socks. When I was a kid in New York cold adaptation was easier because it was consistently colder, starting earlier and lasting longer. In Texas heat adaptation for summer activities is the challenge and can take longer.
While my toes get cold easily in cycling, they don't when running or walking briskly. So my usual socks are very thin, anklets about the thickness of t-shirt material. For me, thick socks are "normal" socks for most people.
Occasionally when the temperature is below freezing I'll wrap my toes in thin foil or just use the Mylar packet from a Clif bar or something similar. Depends on the shoe. With shoes like my adidas Solar Boost or EQT Gazelle, I don't really need extra warmth. But I recently got some Under Armour Hovr Sonic shoes with open weave knit upper and wanted to try them immediately when the temperature was in the 20s. So I added those Mylar packet wrappers from Clif bars around my toes for a 3 mile test run. No problems.
A couple of weeks ago Texas was hit with a rare Arctic blast and we had a couple of nights of single digit temperatures. For those walks (everything was iced over and snowed in so I walked rather than ran) of 3-5 miles I wore some very thick, fleecy thermal socks and was glad to have them. Warm enough with my EQT Gazelles and 1970s era Herman Survivor boots.
I have a bunch of removable insoles, mostly ProFoot Miracles cut to various shapes to suit my shoes and preferences. Sometimes I'll leave them full length, but that tends to crowd my toes in narrow running shoes, like some adidas and Under Armour shoes. So I have a couple of sets of ProFoot Miracle insoles trimmed back behind the toe area to leave some wiggle room in case I prefer thicker or layered socks.
Ditto, the hands thing. I have a bunch of gloves for various conditions. Sometimes I'll carry thin glove liners too in case the hardshell Thinsulate ski gloves aren't enough.