IT'S COLD BUT AT LEAST I'M NOT IN FLORIDA!

Congratulations to all who ran the Disney races this past weekend with the horribly frigid weather. I'm sure that's not what you were planning when you signed on for this. I'm sure you were thinking what a nice break it would be, getting away from the snow, cold, and ice of most of us deal with in the winter months. At least you didn't have (much) the snow and ice. Hopefully you had a good time otherwise!

It was another cold, cold weekend here also. I was tempted to stay inside to run, but instead I thought of my post the day before, about getting outside more often, even if just for a short run. That was motivation enough. That and the brightness of the sun and the almost perfectly blue skies, a true rarity here on the west side of Michigan. Our weather is mainly affected or maybe controlled is a better word, by Lake Michigan. Whatever doesn't break up coming through Minnesota or Wisconsin only seems to pick up with intensity once it hits our west coast and moves inland. So, while the best of the Great Lakes is a blessing, it can also be a bane, leaving us with cloud cover and/or grey skies a lot of the year.

I honestly don't even know where my sunglasses went, its been so long since I've needed them. So I had to head out without them. The sun was almost painfully bright as it reflected off the whiteness of the freshly fallen snow, and I almost wished I had thought of wearing sunscreen. But then again, I was going to enjoy it for once and hoped it would replenish some of my Vitamin D stores of which recently I had read those of us in West Michigan particularly deficient.

I put on my Yak Trax again, which are pretty much becoming a regular part of my winter running gear, and headed out from the park. The park was pretty much empty now from the dozens of runners who show up regularly and faithfully every Saturday and Sunday to run, starting out in the dark even a lot of the time. I wanted to run without a schedule and without having to set my alarm to get up. It was Saturday. It was cold. No need to get out of bed in the dark to go run at this time of the year. And had I done that, while I would have been done earlier and not had to rush to get my other tasks done for the day, I would have missed out on the brilliant winter sun.

The temperature was about 18 degrees, but with that sun out, I didn't even start to feel the cold until just before the end of my run. Even my hands did not feel the least cold, despite the fact I only had gloves on because my mittens were dirty.

Saturday's run was 2 days in a row outside, so I am keeping my promise so far and making progress.