How to run in windy conditions

One thing you can do is to look at the weather for the week and plan your runs, if possible, on less windy days, or at times with lower wind speeds to avoid the worst of the weather.

You could change the types of session you do that week, either opting to do treadmill sessions for 2-3 workouts, or have a week consisting of mostly low effort sessions. This would combat or eliminate the problem all together.

If, however, you’re in the final preparation weeks for your target race, you’ll likely not want to take it easy, and you may not have access to a treadmill. In this instance you can’t do much other than accept it for what it is and crack on. The only marginal improvement you may be able to make, is to check the direction of the wind, and perform any speed work with the wind behind you or run in a built up area where the wind won’t have much of an impact.

Although your times will likely rise quite sharply on windy days (my 10k PB for instance during a completely flat race with 24mph+ winds is only 3 seconds faster than my previous PB which was a still day with over 300ft more elevation gain), it doesn’t mean you can’t run well. As with most topics I write about in running, good technique can make the world of difference.

Our natural instinct when faced with a headwind is to lean into it to resist, bending at the waist and running as though we were performing in a mime show. What we should do, is focus even more on pushing forward with our hips. I’m not the fastest in the group I regularly run with, but when we hit a windy section a few weeks back, I would catch a few metres every time we hit the headwind at the start and end of the lap. I’m not suddenly fitter, I’m just putting more of my focus into technique.

Drive with the hips and you’ll be less bothered or slowed by the wind. Take it as an opportunity to work on perfecting your running form. The whole process is incredibly similar to resisted hip drive drills, just instead of a force pulling you from behind, the wind is pushing you from in front.