This morning I considered not walking to work. It was minus twenty-eight degrees with the wind chill and it takes an hour and twenty minutes to walk to work. The combination just didn’t sound all that appealing. Besides, I do have that rare autoimmune disease that is triggered by getting too cold. And it’s not like I’ve taken some kind of vow to always walk to work. Today would have been a reasonable day to make an exception.
Except the alternative was the bus, and I just couldn’t face the #14 this morning.
This is what I wore today: short underwear, long underwear, thermal socks, t-shirt, thermal pullover, jeans, clapotis, voodoo wristwarmers (I knit these a couple of weeks ago, and I’m crazy about them.), Julia’s windproof mittens, toque, Julia’s homemade fleece neckwarmer (which is really a facewarmer – you just pull it up over your nose, and your breath creates a nice pocket of warmth around your face. It’s amazing how much warmer I am when I wear this.), parka, and Ecco boots (I LOVE these things. They’re sturdy and comfortable for walking, they’re gortex, they’re dry and warm, and they’re 100% maintenance-free.)
I was fairly warm all the way to work. I looked funny because my arms stuck out at right angles from my body because of all the layers, and my hair was white and frosty from my breath being trapped in the face warmer. (I saw a woman with bare legs walking to work. She had mid-calf length boots, and a mid-thigh length coat, and her legs were 100% naked from mid-thigh to mid-calf. I would have taken a picture for you, but my hand couldn’t get anywhere near my camera.)
Anyway, the office was awfully cold today. Once you get cold, it’s so hard to get warm again. Even though I was wearing long underwear and layers and had two heaters going full-tilt, I couldn’t get warm. (What is it about modern space heaters anyway? Is there some new safety rule that says they’re only allowed to generate room-temperature air?)
All the way home all I could think about was how much I was looking forward to soaking in a hot bath. Then I remembered it was a running day. You should have heard the whining that took place inside my head about how it was too cold to run and my disease would be triggered and stuff.
I’ve heard it all before, a hundred times. I think it’s just my nature to try to convince myself not to go running. The thing is, there’s ALWAYS a perfectly good excuse not to run if I’m looking for one, and I’m ALWAYS looking for one. Therefore, if I want to be a runner, I have to ignore the excuses.
So I made myself go running as soon as I got home, with the proviso that if I was still cold and miserable after ten minutes, I could turn around and come home.
As it turned out, it was an excellent run. I got nice and toasty warm, right down to my bones. It was the warmest and happiest I’d been all day.
(Speaking of which, Aggie’s last two posts are about how January 21 is statistically the saddest day of the year. It makes me really happy that the saddest day is in January. I like getting it out of the way right at the start of the year, because then we’ve got a whole year of happiness stretching out in front of us.)
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And I thougth it was cold today in San Diego. I think it got down to 59 AND it rained. I run too and everytime I have to psych myself up because it’s never easy. Tomorrows run will go a lot easier after reading your post. Thanks I needed that.
It was just as cold here yesterday and I sent Arrow to school by cab (it is a 40-60 minute walk depending on ice conditions on the sidewalks)
It may be the saddest day of the year, but internationally it is HUG DAY!!!! The worls is trying to make sure everyone gets a hug to combat the sadness.
And for your knitting in public pleasure…
http://www.in-public.com/store/image/file/1266/new09.jpg?1155047972
Look people still sit beside him, I guess crochetters look less intimidating.
I work in a lab (in Hematology). I understand your pain. We look at your refrigerated blood and can see it clumping. I cannot imagine how awful that feels inside your veins. Keep knitting things to keep yourself warm.
Congratulations for running anyway.
You’re my new hero. I only have a 25 minute walk to work and the top of my legs were completely numb about half way there. It completely freaked me out. Then I went out for a walk at lunch and freaked everyone else out. On the way home I was ever so happy that Monday was NOT my running day. I don’t think I would have gone. You’re very brave to be risking hemo-death for the sake of your cardio-health.
Holy cow, lady. You have some freaking’ strong moral fiber, to go running in this weather. I stand… er, sit, in awe.
Congratulations to the finalists……
Greater Ottawa didn’t make the second round of voting for best local blog in the Canadian Blog Awards…
I thought that the second round candidates weren’t being announced till tomorrow?
Forget that last comment…figured it out on my own
Fortunately it rarely gets that cold on this end of Lake Ontario… and now I have a car, which has made me a total wimp for walking in cold weather. I find the best way to warm up is with a hot bath.. which of course, always gets shared with the cat. Here’s to Wiarton Willy predicting an early spring.
Okay, first things first. Just to set the record straight, I DID NOT RUN in -28 degree weather. I walked in that. By the time I went running in the evening, it was only -14.
Dirtwitch – I think I missed my hug on Hug Day, unless cat hugs count.
Janet – you run in 59 degree weather??? OMG! I salute you. I hope you drink lots of water.
Sally – how cool is that? I never really imagined human beings watching my blood clump like that. I think I pictured my vials of blood going through a scanner and then an alarm sounded and technicians in full-body protective gear read some gauges and used a computer to submit the information to the hematologist. And the hematologist never even looked at it until the start of my next appointment, when he called it up on the computer and said “Hmmm.” (But I’m glad it’s a human being. I’m glad it’s you.)
Robin and XUP and Susan A: Shucks, it’s no big deal. Besides, the mysterious hematologist told me it’s okay to keep walking and running in the winter, as long as I dress warmly enough. As you can see from my list of garments, I do.
Valerie, me too, a nice hot bath is the fastest, nicest way of warming up. I wish they had one at work.
I think that Janet was referring to 59 F not C Zoom.
I don’t understand. Why not run to work?
tOM
Deb – 😉
tOM – I might, if we had showers at work.