December 4, 2010

Cool Running and Dad Update

First an update on my dad. The surgery went well on Thursday. It was a very long day but we were all so relieved it was a success and he was in good spirits considering what he had been through. He had to stay two nights in the hospital and was sent home tonight. He still has a lot of recovering to do, but it's great to see him here and out of the hospital gown. Such a relief.

The weather has been crazy in Wisconsin. It was getting colder in New York, but not too cold to keep all my East Coast friends off their bikes today. Here, however, it's dipping into the single digits at night and warming up to a balmy mid-20s during the day. After a more than 2-week stint of zero physical activity I was starting to feel pretty dreadful and decided I would get up and go running yesterday. I went to weather.com to see the temperature: it was 12 degrees. Yes, just 12. I waited for an hour and it was 13. I despise running in temps that cold but I'd consumed a large number of cheese curds, fried fish, burgers, beer and chocolate since my arrival (and after the copious amounts of cheese, salami and pasta in Italy) and felt it was suck it up time.

So suck it up I did, and somehow managed to convince my sister to suck it up with me. We put on every piece of athletic clothing we packed and headed out. I could say "it wasn't so bad," but I'm not going to lie to you. It was horrible. The wind was biting and ripped through my layers of thermal Sugoi faster than I could say "damn, it's cold!" Warm-up schwarm-up, we had to start running immediately upon exiting the building. I kept waiting for my body temp to rise and nada. My skin was burning and my fingers went numb. Actually my toes went numb, too. I noticed my legs were heavy... was it from not running for weeks or was it from the hideous, sub-zero temps? Funny enough though I managed to enjoy being out and moving. I definitely have a drive to be active and I'm not myself when circumstances force me to take it easy.

We endured 30 minutes and retreated to the warmth of the condo. A 30-minute scorching shower helped thaw me out and about 2 hours later I was finally back to normal. Perhaps life in the Northeast has softened me up or perhaps I was never cut out for the cold Midwest temps. All I know is 30 degrees is my threshold of comfort. We awoke this morning to inches of fluffy snow that I have to admit looked very charming. I ventured out to meet friends for breakfast and decided today was as good a day as any to get back into the pool. Hopefully this will be the beginning of getting back to my normal self.

3 comments:

  1. Welcome to the Midwest! Isn't it fun??? :)

    Way to get out there and fight the cold!

    Glad to hear that your dad is doing well. Hopefully he recovers quickly!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It really wasn't that bad! ;) It was cold, but you warmed up after you got going. Okay.... it was really cold, but we felt better after we were done!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I cannot believe you went out in a run in 13 degree weather! BRRRR!!

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...