Coping with the Cold...over coffee

Did you hear?

There was a major dose of  freezing cold weather this week, courtesy of Momma N. It's been called many things (#arcticblast2019 and #polarvortex2019, to name a couple) and it brought record-breaking, sub-ZERO temps throughout much of the Midwest. Fun, frigid times, right?

Anyways, as much as I long for the heat (and humidity) of summer, this crazy and extreme winter has been bearable. Yes, even this summer-loving runner chick has been coping with the less-than-desirable outdoor temps.  Honestly, what good would it do to cower under a thick blanket and wish it away?


So, shall we call winter's bluff, and face it head-on? At the very least, we can gather for a warm beverage and chat about how cold it's been. And, we could share our various coping strategies. Maybe have a laugh or two (after all, a sense of humor can make even the ugliest circumstances not appear so dark or forbidding).

Here's what I'd share with you....if we were having coffee.

First of all, I'd suggest you let the cold weather empower you.  My hubby recently, after 30+ years in the field of life insurance/investing, chose to make a career change. In doing so, his new position has him out of town a couple evenings each week. In layman's terms, I'm on my own while he's gone. We had a substantial snow storm recently, dumping upwards of 12 inches of the white stuff on our large driveway and adjacent circular drive. Do you know how fulfilling it was to clear the majority of said snow away, all on my own, via a shovel? I had to do it in stages, and I may have slipped and fallen twice, but scoop-by-scoop, I got most of it done.

Three lanes of parking space, as well as the circular drive...

I'd encourage you to celebrate your sense of humor. We all know that I detest the treadmill, especially for running. It's just not my thing....but, in the past two weeks, I have done SIX consecutive runs on it. A couple of the runs were in the daylight (both on back-to-back Saturday mornings), and the rest were in the wee dark hours of early morning, before work. Every run had me leaving "perspiration droplets," everywhere, and said droplets were quite obvious on the dusty surface of the treadmill that had not seen much action since the previous winter (I know, I know...ewwwww). I had to laugh, though, at the sheer irony of it all. There I was, on six different occasions, showing Milly so much attention (in a relatively short span of time) after neglecting her for so long.

Plenty of sweat equity in the bank, courtesy of Milly

Another coping trick is to acknowledge that the extreme cold is a (relatively) short-term gig. Granted, it will still be cold, just not polar vortex frigid 24/7 until summer. In fact, our temps are supposed to be in the 40F's on Saturday and in the 50F's by Sunday! After one of my Milly runs, I stepped outside, and struck a victory stance amidst the still-falling snow. What I didn't anticipate was the picture looking like I was socking it to Old Man Winter, Jack Frost and Momma N...all with a simple flex of my right wrist.

Lastly, I'm all about looking ahead to other things. At my place of work, we have a stair-climbing challenge that goes from February 2nd - March 3rd. Our company encompasses the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado; a tall building was picked from each of the satellite locations, and the grand total of the flights of stairs (from all of the buildings) came to 562. Well, as you can imagine, I am totally embracing this challenge. We have four weeks to try to climb that many flights of stairs. With all the stair-training I do, I'm going to shoot for 1,000 total flights of stairs....go big or go home!

So, those are a few cold weather coping strategies that have worked wonders for me. Care to give any of them a try? Do you have any tricks or techniques to help you through the winter season, or an extended cold spell? Did the recent polar vortex pay you a visit?

Since it's the first weekend of the month, I'm linking this with Deborah and Coco for the Ultimate Coffee Date.

I'm also linking this with Meranda and Lacey for the Friday with Fairytales and Fitness link-up. 

 

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