Weather Wimp Resurfaced

I’ve been rather proud of myself lately, considering the harsh conditions I’ve run in. I shivered, I shook, I wore spikes on my feet and a face cover on my… face. And for all that, I still have a bit of weather wimp in my personality. Case in point: this morning.

First of all, you should remember how tough it can be to get out of bed in the early, early morning. It’s a routine that needs to be established, and you have to keep it going like some kind of robot until it becomes an unconscious reflex. I’ve had this good habit before, and I will again, but I’m having a little trouble setting things up in the winter.

I’ve never been terribly good about the winter, even when I lived down south. And this morning I made a terrible mistake. I checked my Weather Channel app from the bed. The screenshot below is from later, when I was walking the dog, but the numbers are the same ones I woke up to at 5:30am.

I was expecting about 12 degrees more than that, and the wind chill certainly wasn’t attractive. Holy crap. Of course, this shouldn’t matter to me. I’ve run in worse than this, and not even very long ago. But I find that I’m quickly spoiled by a run of warmer weather. I’ve been running in 35° F for a while, and this drop was a harsh surprise. But why? Why would I be so shocked by this? And why do I seem to forget that it’s only uncomfortable before I go out? Once I’m dressed and outside, I’m happy out there. Why can’t I see that from the bed? Why didn’t I get out there this morning?

I can think of several answers right off the top of my head. First, when I looked at this I was under warm covers with a woman next to me and a dog next to my legs. He was under the covers, so it was like having a little fur-covered space heater at my feet. When I compare that to the outside, well…

The second reason is that I haven’t formed the good habit after all. I have a baseline running mode that keeps me in the game, and I have a sense of adventure that sends me out into the snow. But plain old cold is a cloud with no silver lining. This is a barrier I need to work through.

So I’ll try to be aware of this as Winter winds down. I have some longer events planned in the summer, so hopefully training up for a half-marathon (and maybe a full) will give me enough habitual momentum to carry me through next Winter. With a little luck and a lot of work, I’ll end up like some kind of robot.