Tights and Tight Buns

This morning marked the beginning of the running pant season for me. While it's definitely possible to run through a Boston winter in shorts, I think it's better for the leg muscles and joints to keep them warm (and supple) while you are asking them to perform. So I throw on a pair of pants or running tights if the weather is cold enough that I would end my run with pink legs. This morning was one of those mornings.

I either wear a pair of running/wind pants with poly-pro boxer briefs underneath, or I wear running tights (here are the ones I own). This morning was a tights morning. About half the running population along the Charles agreed with me that some sort of extended leg covering was appropriate. The other half stubbornly clung to their shorts. Of that half wearing pants, about half wore running tights (or were they leggings? A category of clothing I didn't even knew existed until two weeks ago), although most of those wearing tights were women.

Anyway, fearlessly onward to the point of this entry--please, for the love of God, do not wear things under your tights. They are meant to be worn sans underwear. 1. No, your underwear/panty lines do not look sexy; 2. putting cotton(?) underwear under performance wicking fabric defeats the purpose of that fancy fabric you paid extra for; and 3. you are asking for chaffing issues and no, I will not have any sympathy for you. Furthermore, if you wear them without underwear, you have to wash them after each use and that means the manufacturer gets to sell more! Obviously, that's how the manufacturer meant them to be used.
Finally, in case you need more convincing, imagine that you are running along the Charles on a bright, crisp morning. Do you want to run up on this or this? For the sake of humanity, make it the latter and leave the underwear at home.

The same goes for biking. I never want to see underwear under bike shorts/bibs. You just paid anywhere from $50 to $400 dollars for special shorts that elimate chaffing and give you some padding. Why would you ruin that?

I also need some tips. On very cold mornings, I get dangerously cold--well, I guess I'll just be adult about this--my penis is freezing! Any recommendations? For all the above reasons, I'm not about to add underwear under my tights, and it also happens with the boxer brief/wind pant combo. This has created some real problems on long runs in the winter and I'd be forever appreciative if someone could tell me how to solve this. Yeah for winter running!