Ice Ice Baby

The only thing worse than too much snow is too much ice. We've had our fair share of it in Michigan this week and it's leading to a major case of cabin fever. The ground has been covered and the temperatures pretty brutal. But yesterday I could finally take no more and after hours and hours of considering it, I finally got layered up and braved the cold for a run. It was 14 degrees and felt like 7 according to weather.com. I felt relatively ok, but after about half a mile my butt and thighs went numb from the wind whipping through my tights. I had my compression sleeves over my tights so my calves were ok. Two pairs of socks kept my feet from turning to ice. Any exposed skin really took a beating. But it was so worth it. After days of being cooped up and dealing with my nagging ear issues it felt so good to be moving. I had to run right in the road and at some times, right along the yellow line to avoid huge patches of ice, but it was Christmas Day and the traffic was low. I've complained a lot about winter, but for that 25 minutes I truly loved it.

I went to bed looking forward to getting up for a swim since the aquatics center would finally be open. After sleeping in just enough, I went to get my coffee and noticed that the snow was particularly shiny. Then I realized all the cars were frozen. Great. There had been a big ice storm overnight and all the world was frozen. My parents live on a fairly steep hill so ice + hill = not going anywhere. My aunt and uncle were coming over to see my nephew and they ended up parking at the bottom and walking up, if you can call shuffling, slipping and sliding walking. My aunt actually fell at one point in this effort to make it to the house. No aquatics center for me.

Since the ground was a sheet of ice I couldn't run either. Between the inactivity and my horrible eating, I'm starting to feel like a lethargic blob. Since inactivity breeds inactivity, it's getting worse day by day. When will it end? I hear it will be 60 tomorrow. If that's even remotely true, I'm going for a longer run and hitting the aquatics center. If I eat salad and drink nothing but water I may feel semi-human again.

But who am I kidding. I may run and swim, but I'm sure I'll eat at least one piece of pie and at least one fatty, creamy holiday treat. 'Tis the season after all.

Running (12/25)
Distance - 3.11 miles
Time - 25:40