Brr, It’s Cold in Here (or, Things I’ve Learned About Streaking)

The streak is strong! This is really my first year experiencing a full season of outdoor winter running. Since it’s nearly the halfway point of my streak, I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned.

What I have tolerance for (dare I say enjoy?):

• Running outdoors in cold weather (hooray!)
• Finding the time to run at least a mile every day
• Walking (properly bundled) in the cold

What I have little/no tolerance for:

• Not-so-well-organized races
• Standing around in the cold for no reason
• Cold apartments and window drafts

Today was the Miss Santa 5k. I didn’t go. Why? Well, every day this week I’ve been stalking my email and the race website to see when bib pickup will be. I’ve never been a race morning pick-upper (uh, did I just make that word up?), and like having my things organized and ready to go the night before a race. I also never bother with bag checks.

By Friday morning, I was starting to get annoyed. Then I saw an update on their race site that pickup would be race morning, 9-10:30. The race was scheduled for 11:30. I’m sure it goes without saying, but it’s cold outside. And although I’ve discovered I like running in the cold (I ended up doing 5 miles today in 15 degree weather!), I have zero tolerance for going to a race early, picking up my number, and hanging around for an hour just to wait to run 3 miles.

Did I mention the race start is basically on an island on the Charles?

Not to mention that I would have to get up/get ready earlier than planned, walk about 14 minutes to the T and take the T over (the past two 5Ks were in walking distance).

I was starting to feel guilty – if I bailed, that would be two races I paid for and didn’t go to. Then my husband reminded me that it was for charity, so I should just consider it a donation. Convinced! I’m sure the race itself is wonderful, but if it’s really cold outside, I have zero interest in participating if there’s no pre-race pickup. Yeah yeah, I could have come with a coat and warmer clothes, but race bag checks are a pain and I’d rather not deal with that and run on my own comfortable terms. I’m starting to sound like a spoiled brat, aren’t I?

If I hadn’t done so well on my first 5k, I probably would have convinced myself to go. But, I was lucky, and I got to stay home in my nice warm apartment igloo. Wait, I’m pretty sure an igloo is warm.

So, I woke up this morning with a whole other problem. My apartment has been cold. Very, very cold. A few weeks ago, we put up some thermal curtains, and it helped a bit. But we live on the ground floor (pretty much in the ground, actually – our windows give us a nice view of the ground above us), and with the winter becoming more wintery, it’s become miserable. I can deal with the cold outside, but apartment interiors are supposed to be warm, darn it! Our heat is working, but not too well. We think it’s either a problem with the thermostat reading the temperature correctly, and/or the actual heaters not working too well.

We didn’t want to bother with calling the landlord and having people putzing around in our apartment*, so we went to Bed Bath & Beyond this morning to get a space heater.

Bye bye, mother-in-law’s Christmas gift money that she said was for “something fun, not something we need.” We are poor students/teachers. Plus, heat is fun! Much more fun than the “guess how blue/cracked/bloody my hands can get when exposed in the apartment” game.

When we plugged the heater in, we knew it was cold in here, but we didn’t know just how cold. The heater registered 50 degrees. Fifty. Degrees. We aren’t crazy. We aren’t babies. It’s just freaking cold!

And now, the blessed thing is cranking away. It’s reading a piping hot 67 now… if it could get up to 70 it would be a Christmas miracle!

*We will call the landlord to mention the problem at some point. It’s just annoying to have them in here fixing things when the apartment is decorated and the mister is trying to study for his exams. There’s already a laundry list of things they say they need to fix in here and we’ve told them to wait until finals are over. Plus we may or may not have an illegal feline residing here… Shhh.

But back to running. Here’s a rundown of my past week:

Sunday: 1 mile outside
Monday: 4 miles outside
Tuesday: 3 miles on treadmill, strength training
Wednesday: 1 mile outside
Thursday: 2 miles on treadmill, strength training
Friday: 1 mile outside
Saturday: 5 miles outside

Also, hopefully we will get the snow they are predicting! Walking to a friend’s Christmas party in snow sounds wonderful, and I would REALLY like to run in some snow tomorrow.