FRIGID!!

It's January. It's supposed to be cold. But it's COLD! Urbana school district actually canceled school yesterday because of the cold. The air temps have hovered in the single digits above and below 0 for the last few days. The wind chills have been as low as -25. It's

I haven't run since Monday. I'm hoping to go later this afternoon when the air temps should be up to 22 and the wind chill temp only 10 or so.

OK, so maybe running in this kind of weather is a little nutty. But at least I'm not one of these people:



I've discovered I really enjoy running in the winter. I wasn't sure, since I'd never done it before, but turns out I prefer it to running in the summer. Here's why:

It's much easier to regulate your body temp in the cold than in the heat. You can always take off a layer of clothes in the winter, but you can't run naked, and if you do, what are you going to take off after that???

You don't get that "soft" feeling in the summer.

Trailing billows of steam from your mouth and nose is MUCH preferred to gallons of sweat stinging your eyes.

Winter running reminds me of fun times growing up in Utah. Summer running doesn't.

The cold helps numb the pain in the leg muscles on long runs.

And most importantly, winter running is one of two things (the other is shoveling snow) that gets me out of the house and thus helps manage the SAD. I'm outside almost all the time in the summer.

So even though I feel like this:



I'm going to keep doing this: