Thursday, January 19, 2012

Cold, windy, and snowy

Winter has arrived.  Last few runs have been in sub-30's (that's degrees Fahrenheit), bit of rain and snow making the roads and paths slippery.  I notice that my gait is different to offset potential slippage on ice.  Today's run was in the mid 20's (closer to 20 actually), with a 10-15mph wind (making it colder), and snow.  At times the snow looked like it was coming down sideways.  I seemed dressed ok including a neck/head hoodie thing that allowed me to cover my mouth.  But with the wind the snow would accumulate around the edges of my hoodie thing against my cheeks, eventually icing up and being very uncomfortable (ice against my cheeks).

At times I noticed drivers looking at me as I beat my way against the wind and snow, and I'm sure that they all thought that I was nuts.  Oddly enough, as ugly as the weather was, it didn't seem that bad.  I guess I had the mindframe that I was out there to battle against the elements and it was going to be ok.

I have to admit that the first mile was the toughest (seems like it always is) and I kept wondering if I should make it very short run.  But once I got into it I kept saying "further, further"...  After about 3 miles or so the snow/ice build up on my hoodie thing against my cheek was uncomfortable enough for me to want to turn around and head back.  On the way back, with the wind on the other side of me, now my other cheek started to freeze up - so we sort of balanced out the discomfort.

One thing that I find interesting is that I wore four layers to cover my torso, but only one for my legs.  How is it that my legs don't get cold?

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