Happy holidays!

Now go for a run before you hit the eggnog and cookies!    Just kidding!  Enjoy whatever holiday you’re celebrating this season.  For us, it’s our one-week wedding anniversary!

New Year’s best,

Aprilontherun

The post-run shower: it’s sooooo good.

When the alarm on my phone went off this morning the weather on the display said it was 24 degrees.  Twenty-four.  Fahrenheit.  I pulled myself out of the soft, warm bed and stumbled around the bedroom grabbing at the layers of running clothes I laid out last night.  I headed out the door shortly after I drank my cup of warm water, heading to meet one of my morning run buddies, Divo.  After a brisk loop of the park I headed home with one thought in mind:  shower.

The post-run shower is one of my favorite (possibly only, but just go with it) perks of winter running.  There is just something about coming in from a run all red-faced and and bundled up, then stripping down and stepping into warm shower.  There is that moment when the water first hits the still-cold skin that sends a shiver down my neck, tingling all the way to my feet and giving me a rush of instant warmth.  Oh, reader, it’s goooooood.

This morning after I had shampooed, conditioned, lathered, and rinsed, I lingered in the shower.  Lingering is a regular part of my winter shower, not just because the water feels good but also because I know as soon as I pull back the shower curtain I will be assaulted with a blast of arctic air that temporarily negates the warm comfort of the post-run shower.  I must have lingered longer than usual because S actually came in and asked if I was ok in there (I’m guessing he just wanted to take his own post-run shower and was faking concern to get me to hurry up.  Fair play, S.).  I told him I was, but that I had decided to spend the rest of the morning in the shower.  He laughed disbelievingly until I started singing my shower song.  The shower song is a something I wrote to capture my feelings about the post-run shower and my seriousness when I say I might not get out:

“I don’t want to get out of the showwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeerrrrrrr,

I don’t want to get out of the shower todayyyyyyy.

I don’t want to get out of the showwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeerrrrrrrr,

So don’t make me get out todayyyyyyyyyyy.”

(You really have to imagine this being “sung” in a key that is unidentifiable to any other member of the human race and at the top of my lungs.  It’s really more yelling than singing.)  Yes, I really sing that.  Out loud.  In front of another person.  And he still likes me. 

I managed to work up the nerve to step out into the chilled bathroom a few minutes later so S could hop in.  He didn’t seem to appreciate the post-run shower the way I did, as I couldn’t get him to sing the shower song.  Or maybe it was still early and there isn’t enough caffeine in Brooklyn to get him singing before 9am.  Either way, I’m already looking forward to tomorrow’s run!

Time flies; it’s cold again.

So, wow, it’s been a while!  Since my last brief post on marathon Sunday, things have been hectic.  Has it already been almost two weeks since Thanksgiving?  Where, oh where, does the time go?

The past week and a half has seen the shift in NYC weather from almost unseasonably warm to FRIGID.  Two weeks ago I was running in the park and had to strip down to my base layer, take off the gloves, and tuck the hat into my capris.  This past weekend I was wishing I had put on one more layer under my running tights (which, btw, are supposedly thermal yet don’t seem to keep me very warm), and an extra pair of gloves over my wind-breaking running gloves.  I’m also going out later this week to invest in a sack of smartwool socks, since my regular running socks seem to be too thin to keep my toes warm.

Ah, winter.

One thing I discovered at the end of last winter was that if I get myself fully dressed for a run, then jump or dance around (I prefer the Hammer dance) for a couple minutes until I’m good and warm, almost too warm, while I’m still inside.  THEN I go out and immediately start running.  No walking to the park or chatting with the our building super, but taking off right away from the front door.  For some reason this seems to keep the warmth I built up from shakin’ it inside from escaping, while continuing to generate new heat from running.  The whole process probably looks a little bizarre to anyone watching.  Especially when I pretend that I’m about to jump into a cold pool or lake.  I count down 3-2-1, take a deep breath, open the door and jump into my run.  Hey, it seems to be working.

The other thing that seems to be helping is drinking almost-hot water before and after.  This might be personal preference (I usually prefer my water room temperature, not iced, even in the summer), or maybe even just a psychosomatic trick, but the warm water seems to warm me up from the inside.

Who else has a trick for staying warm in the frosty weather?