Brrrrr....baby it's cold outside!

So I wasn't going to run yesterday. It was like 30ish degrees and I felt like that was too cold. Then I went out on an errand and saw this, probably, 60 year old woman running and I felt like a wimp. So I went and ran. I felt sluggish and slow the whole time. Maybe it was the sweats that I had on, because I am not used to running in sweats, but I just felt slow. Turns out I ran the second best time of the last two weeks! Come to think of it, the day that I ran my best time was also cold.

So I started reading online today about cold weather running, and found some stuff that I thought I would share. First off, it's not true that cold air is harder to breath or even bad for you, it just feels like it. Apparently, the air stings a little coming in because your nose and mouth are cold, but by the time the air reaches your lungs it is body temperature and safe for consumption. It seems that some doctors are willing to diagnose "cold air asthma" but I found conflicting reports as to whether or not this was a factual ailment; it's possible it's just doctors diagnose and prescribing meds when not necessary.

Secondly, as long as you stretch properly, you are under no more danger than usual of a pulled or strained muscle. Some people say that they feel "tighter" when it is cold outside, and to that I would say, "Stretch better!".

Finally, I found that cold weather is no longer an excuse that I can use to not run. Many times it's easier to "plan to do it tomorrow", but who knows that tomorrow holds? There may be a hurricane and I'm definitely not running in one of those (although I'm sure I could find a blog or article somewhere detailing the benefits of running in the midst of a large tropical depression). So I would encourage each of you and myself to continue to set goals for our health and overcome the reasons that we create to neglect the steps that it will take to reach those goals.

Thanks for reading! If anybody has any good running or exercise stories, please share them. I would love some encouragement from my brothers and sisters in the field.