The Outdoors to Myself

The temperature plunged from a high of almost 70 on Saturday when shorts and a T-shirt were suitable running wear to yesterday when the high temperature reached 0 degrees as you can see from the screen shot. I waited until the "warm" part of the afternoon before starting my run. The school districts around here called an "inclement weather" day for yesterday and today; there were concerns about students waiting for buses and walking in the cold. City buses that many kids take to school tend to have significant delays with any kind of weather issue. Also, since winter weather here can often be handled with not much more than a hoodie for such tasks as waiting for a bus, many kids don't seem to even have adequate cold weather gear.

I've noticed comments on other blogs of runners coming from warm climates in which they ask what to wear to keep warm. Typically it's not all that cold here in the winter but zero is probably considered cold for most anybody. Yesterday I wore a fleece hat, windbreaker, fleece top over a thermal top, with thermal tights. Hands and feet don't seem to be much of an issue to keep warm. I wore a cheap pair of cotton gloves and wool running socks although I'm sure I would have been fine with regular synthetic socks. Traction was quite good with an inch of squeaky underfoot.


I ran roughly southwest from the house on terrain that around here is called Open Space. Open Space is land that has been purchased by the county or city to maintain undeveloped. It may be leased back to farmers or ranchers for livestock to graze. There were no cows out yesterday. I did see what I suspect were coyote tracks in the snow because dogs are not usually out in that area without human company. The run was rather pleasant until I turned around after about 4 miles and discovered I the wind had been at my back the entire time and that a snow squall had been following me and finally caught up. My face felt the effects of wind chill on the return with the snow wanting to freeze my eyelashes together.

I ended the run with 8 miles in about an hour and 20 minutes. I also reached 100 miles for the year. I wanted to do that by January 31st, not February 1st but I'm OK with that; I missed running 19 days in January because of work, a cold, and other obligations that stole priority.