In my last post, I detailed my winter running gear, extolling the pleasures of running in the cold – as long as you’re well prepared. Since then, we’ve spent the past 2 weeks hovering in the -10 – -15° range, with little reprieve. Those are the kind of temperatures that keep me inside, which has meant quite a few runs on the treadmill lately. Not only is that just some dang cold weather to run in, the preparation that goes into a run like that is quite the production. When it takes me 20-30 minutes to get ready for a run, it hardly feels worth it to go out for anything less than an hour, and I really only have that kind of time on the weekend.
I did manage to get out for an 11 miler last Sunday when it briefly warmed up to 12° before dipping back down into the sub-zero range. Unfortunately, I was overly optimistic about the relatively warm temperature and dressed too lightly. Then, just as I was at the point in the run where I was furthest from my house, the wind and snow really kicked it up a notch into a mild blizzard. I was really starting to get cold at this point. I’m sure that I negative-split this run in my attempt to get home as quickly as possible. I missed getting a photo of it, but I literally had a 3″ icicle hanging off the side of my hat when I got home.
Needless to say, I’m getting pretty sick and tired of the cold at this point. In my previous life as an overweight couch potato, the cold didn’t bother me nearly as much. I just didn’t go outside. But now that I’ve become healthy and running is such an important part of my life, this kind of prolonged cold really puts a cramp in my style. I love Alaska, I really do. The wildlife, the rugged beauty, it’s an amazing place to call home. But these weeks-long cold snaps are getting to be a bit much.
January and February are usually our coldest months, and it seems like it’s always around this time of the year that we start talking about moving some place warm. I doubt it will ever happen – we both grew up here and both our families still live here – but it’s nice to dream, right?
I talk about moving somewhere warm from September until March. And then I think, “how could I possibly? And really, whats one more winter, if it means one more glorious summer?”