My fingers had gone completely numb. They had been that way since around mile three. By mile five I had forgotten about my fingers and was more concerned with my vision. It seems the 22 below zero wind chill had caused ice crystals to form on my eyelashes; my eyes being the only part of me that was not covered with at least two thermal and wicking layers on that early-February pre-dawn run. As the frigid air burned my throat with every breath, a question took hold of me: "Do I need better gear, or is it just plain silly to run outside in the dead of a Chicago winter?"

I would venture most people, even most runners, would side with the latter. I've always considered the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon the climax and close of the city's racing season; everything after serves as a cool down ushering in a winter hibernation. This is not to say all runners stop training in the winter. There are those training for Boston, other winter or early spring races, and those who just never stop training, refusing to give up that base fitness level. But I would guess most Chicago runners use the winter lull as a time of recovery and recuperation. Winter is a time to savor those Saturday mornings when we don't have to wake up for a long run, and the weekdays days we don't have to lug three bags of running gear to work for track practice later that evening.

But we can't get too accustomed to this pedestrian way of life. Before we know it, March is here and the LaSalle Bank Shamrock Shuffle is upon us. So how can we possibly get in peak shape to kick off the start of the Chicago racing season when we've given up on the treadmill due to incessant boredom and it's still physically dangerous to run outside?

The short answer is, we can't. Unless you've spent the winter braving the cold or diligently pounding out the miles on the treadmill, your best race of the season will probably not come in March or April. In fact, a good race in April will probably equate to an average or slightly below average race in July.

Last year around this time, I was ruminating over how I could possibly run decent splits at the Shamrock Shuffle when a friend of mine reminded me about the cycle of running fitness. "There are valleys and there are peaks," he said "and the peaks only last so long." For most of us, there are one or at most a couple races around which we gear our summer workouts, our long runs, and even aspects of our personal lives. We need to look at the big picture of our training and make sure our goal race(s) correlates with our "peak" of running fitness.

So how do we approach the start of the Chicago racing season? With patience.

Jill Lohman, physical trainer and Director of Operations at Accelerated Rehab, comments on the high number of patients she sees whose injuries result from runners starting their seasons too quickly and aggressively. Jill recommends sticking to a 10 percent increase in distance each week as a safe guideline. Even those who do train during the winter must be careful. Jill explains: "Most winter running is done on the treadmill and when runners first go outside they expect to be able to maintain the same distance and pace as they did on the treadmill. Running mechanics are different when on the treadmill (surface moving underneath you) versus outside (you propelling yourself forward over the surface)." Jill recommends decreasing either pace or distance for the first few runs.

All runners have experienced the late winter panic that sets in around February when you realize spring is here, you haven't done a tempo run since September, and there is no way your running shorts will fit. Our instinct is to force a 20-miler and blaze through mile repeats like those we were pumping out last July. But giving into those temptations will only get us hurt. Taking it slowly now is the only way we will be faster later.

Kathryn Harb is the co-Captain of Chicago's Fleet Feet club racing team. E-mail her at kathryn.harb@gmail.com.