It's Cold Out There!!

Not sure what's been going on with the DC weather the past few weeks, but after getting dumped with 2 feet of snow the weekend before Christmas the temps have plummeted!  Sure, folks running in sub-zero parts of the country can laugh at me, but 25 degrees with 20-40mph wind virtually EVERY day for the past two weeks hasn't been much fun at all!

So how does one cope when faced with nasty cold this time of year?  First off, it helps to have a college team playing in a Bowl game. There's no better reason to gather in front of the nice warm glow of a big screen TV and root on your team. Here I am w/ my father in-law Paul (who you may recall from my arctic UltraCentric Super-Crew) cheering on the Cornhuskers to a 33-0 win over Arizona in the Holiday Bowl last week.

Lizzy's family has been nice enough to adopt me into the Nebraska clan, and I've loved rooting for them the past couple years.  For those of you NFL fans out there, you better hope your team is lucky enough to avoid having to face "Mr. Suh" on their schedule for the next decade or so. That dude is a force!

Also a force, but completely unrelated to football: This Margaritaville "frozen concoction maker" - Yet another way to keep warm this winter. Elizabeth approves!

Another way to keep warm is to curl up with a good book. One that helps you think about a run you're planning later in the year works wonders for helping you forget the fact that you know the freezing temperature of Perpetuem in a Camelbak. This new illustrated book about the Vermont Long Trail is full of amazingly beautiful photos dating all the way back to the founding years of the trail. The story of the soon-to-be 100 year old trail's history is also pretty interesting, but the photos are what make it worth the read. Observing the evolution of everyone's hiking equipment is pretty funny too...to think people used to hike the entire 272 miles with a peach basket strapped to their back containing all their canned food. Never again will I think I'm tough when out on a trail!

My final way to avoid the cold, unfortunately, leads me to the treadmill in the gym. I only use this as a last resort, but when I run out of tights and hats and really don't feel like doing the laundry, it's the only option. During our little December blizzard a couple weeks ago I was stuck on the ol' hampster wheel for a 30 miler (not recommended unless you have the margarita machine to come home to), and since then I've gone back a few times to knock out a daily run or two. Last night I actually figured out that running 6:30s feels better than running 8:30s on the stupid thing....but then again, maybe I only thought that because it meant I was able to get off the thing 20 minutes earlier.  Either way, I don't like Mr. 'Mill, but I am happy to have him around when Mother Nature acts up like this.

Anyone else have any cold weather diversions to recommend? ...and no, folks from Florida are not allowed to suggest "wearing a long sleeve shirt to dinner on the beach".   Here's what the beach is supposed to look like in the winter (view from my parent's house on Cape Cod):

Stay warm out there, people!!