Winter has arrived

Click Here to Donate

So the past few days have been good and cold...meaning no more crappy ice and lots of gorgeous scenery around :)  I am a happy gal!!

I've been working for the past week and a bit, substituting a biology teacher, I clearly have gotten used to the whole 'no work schedule', so its been rather busy in my life again....however its just confirmed how much I love working with kids, and really its not subject related. just the joy of being with them, getting them to be enthusiastic about learning and well getting a good old Bales show off as often as I can into the lesson time  :).  So needless to say i've been exhausted, but a good exhausted....but now its finished, the weather has settled and I am back on schedule....I hope!

So tonight we got home, I got my little peeps settled and I began to get ready for the evening run. The temp was hovering around -5 most of the day, so I was thrilled, no wind, it was warmer than the weather channel had predicted (I am obsessed wit my mobile phones weather app), so happy me!! I don't mind running if its warmer than -10, but colder its torture!

Anyways, I started to get ready,....I put on my warm tights, leg warmers, stretched (as everywhere i've read says stretching is very important for ensuring you don't get injuries when running in the cold, and being the person who ALWAYS follows the directions I am stretching ;)......back to the clothes...woolen undergarment....fleece top....wind breaker...reflector stuff......got my very modern little MP3 player ready...then a bottle of water, set up my sweat rag and keys etc etc in all the various pockets....now onto the porno cheap nylon gloves from H&M (4 euros for 2 pairs!!), covered with my groovy 'winter' running gloves (which were made for the winter in the desert)...my 2 beanies ..I got out the door......

......then I have to set my watches to go (I have 2 watches, i'm not a big one on technical gadgets, but I have 2 fancy watches, both presents and I cant figure out which I like most....so I always use both watches, both give different kinds of information too... so this too takes a bit of time picking up the GPS positioning...always running the same route, does make me wonder sometimes WHY I bother!!)...So now i'm out the front door, in the parking lot, staring at my exposed freezing wrists, waiting for the 'you can go signals'.....all my warm up and warmed muscles seeping away as I stand waiting for the freaking watches to tell me they are ready.......Needless to say by the time I got to actually get running the temp had dropped drastically, my body was cold and the temp was -10 .. (I am clearly a faffer and its possibly due to the fact that i'm desperately trying to avoid getting out...DUH....I'm so aware of what i'm doing, but well....this is me...I faff and make silly jokes and take ages to get going, in the end my son is irritated and telling me to JUST GO MOMMY....and then due to the massive faffing I suffer more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  When will I learn????)

Anyways, running in that temperature is quite an experience....I decided I was only going to do 5K as well..its pretty bloody traumatic and i'm terrified I am going to end up half way out, having had a good start to my run like I did tonight, and then having as far to get back and loosing a limb due to frost bloody bite as I have had to slow down and cold set in!!!!! So I played it safe, I decided I would just enjoy myself and try go faster....(I am a slow runner, do not let me fool you!)

The thing is, going faster requires deeper more rapid breathing..and when its that cold, the air is dry and bloody cold...so you end up feeling like an asthmatic!! Anyways, I did it, I ran like a cheetah, or possibly Ussain Bolt (I would settle for the speed of either really). I did not slip and I am ignoring the fact that beneath the layer of snow is the sheet of ice  that stopped me running last week. Until I slip, i'm going to go forth pretending I am invincible....when nature proves otherwise, I will simply wear my cycling helmet.....I recon it will work??!

So yea, I got home....frozen eyelashes and wet frozen face.... frozen lungs....but I got home without loosing a limb.....No slipping....reflectors are working well as i've also not been hit by any vehicles ....yet.....You would swear I had just run a half marathon...and this was just 5 bloody kilometers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I did notice that my water bottle which was in my pocket had however frozen in the short space my run had taken.... How am I going to manage the longer runs if a piddly 5K is this much of a mission??!!   O well, part of the fun of giving it stick I suppose.

I got home and straight into the Sauna.....yes, we have a Sauna in out flat...we live in a tiny flat, its 70 square meters, the bathroom is tiny, but we have a sauna ;)  I have to say, its the winter when I am very very grateful for it .... rest of the year, I would rather have a bath!!!!! So now I sit in front of the tv, warm and toasty and very glad I got myself out... Tomorrow I will go again...The cold is set in for a few days, but midday should be the warmest part of the day, so I should be able to get out.....for now -10 will be my limit, but i'm hoping as my body/lungs adjust I will be able to train in the colder temps....

Here are some pics from my run last Friday along my favorite route....It was cold, but still a 'decent cold'...

No wind, so it was truly stunning!!