Cabin Fever

I admit it, I have become a total wimp when it comes to running in cold weather.  And temperatures in Highlands have remained in the teens since that frigid New Year's Day, the last time I ran.  That makes a total of one-quarter mile so far this year (approximately - it was so cold Monday I forgot to turn on my watch) and my running log is filled with blank pages.

Today I went to the gym and worked out for nearly an hour, but for me no form of exercise provides the same benefits as running.  The best I have felt so far this year, in fact, was after bundling up yesterday morning, coat-collar up to my chin, gloved and tobogganed, and walking as fast as I could for two miles.  I did not bring my balaclava to protect me from what  Shakespeare calls "the churlish chiding of the winter's wind," so two miles was the prudent distance to go in light of the danger of frostbite.

It has been beautiful up in Town, though, and I saw part of that beauty yesterday:  icicles gleaming in the sun, hoarfrost in the trees, a thick layer of ice on all of the lakes.  I passed a young woman who looked as if she was in great pain running with two dogs who did not, and I called out, "You're a tougher runner than I am!"  But there was nobody else out, not even the usual dog-walkers. I spotted several of our usual runners in the gym today playing pickleball.

So we wait impatiently for the temperature to struggle out of the teens, to rise sluggishly into the twenties, to break forth into the tolerable 30s, and to soar into the 40s.

Cabin Fever:  "irritability, listlessness, and similar symptoms resulting from long confinement or isolation indoors during the winter."