Train the Mind to Run Right Through Winter

“‘Why do people work out more in San Diego than in Michigan?’ asked James Pivarnik, an exercise physiologist at the Michigan State University. His study of Michigan residents found that people expended 15 to 20 percent more calories a week exercising in the spring and summer than they did in the fall and winter. Something similar seems to happen in Columbus, Ohio, said Janet Buckworth, an exercise physiologist at Ohio State University. She found that college students lost cardiovascular fitness in winter but maintained their strength, indicating that while some of them did not want to go outside and run, at least they may have been going to the gym. ‘Columbus is incredibly dreary in the winter,’ Dr. Buckworth said. ‘It is wet and cold, and we get snow.’ Dr. Buckworth said that, in her experience, it was the people who were new to exercise who gave up in bad weather. ‘If you are beyond the point that you are learning how to exercise, you can’t imagine not running in bad weather,’ she said

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/health/nutrition/12best.html?_r=1&sudsredirect=true