Bbbbbrrrrr......it's cold!

(picture taken from our balkony these last few days)

Man, hast it been chilly around here over the last few days. Europe is gripped in a cold weather snap at the moment with some temps in Russia falling to -50 below. Yesterday we had -20 in Henndorf, and that is plenty cold enough.

It's amazing how we change to adapt to this situations. Going out of the house these days is a major exercise in clothes management. First there are the warm socks and thick winter shoes, then jeans, t-shirt, jersey, fleece jacket and winter jacket. Gloves and hat (and mostly scarfs as well). Run to car, jump in and put on the seat heater, and get every thing warm as soon as possible. We seem to be constantly swopping between -10 to -20 and 24 plus (inside), so the moment you get to the other side everything needs to be taken off again :)

Running on the other hand is not that difficult, but decidely more dangerous. I normally have two layers of pants on, a woolly shirt, a goretex jacket, two hats!!! and a pair of gloves. The roads are mostly just ice, so I need to be exceptionally careful where I put my feet as well. Adding to that is the rule that under -10 you should not strain your heart (i.e. no hard training) and should not run when the mercury drops below -15. Means I can only run just after lunch time. It's nice that I haven't had to do any hard training for a while, but I'm raring to go for it once the weather warms up.

Today I was running with Warti and Wolfi, and we ended up running on the lake. It is quite frozen now, but very slippery - makes for good training. The sun was shinning, blue skies, and if it had not been for the -10 indicated on my watch it would have been perfect :) We had a great time though, but in the end stayed out too long in the cold I think - tomorrow will most likely be a rest day.

Other than that the cold tends to keep us on our toes (actually more likely on our bums). I spent an hour scraping ice off our entrance way today, and another hour trying to get the car started and out of the nice parking spot I had dug for it. Battery was dead as a door knob - after destroying two tow lines I finally got the car started by using jumper cables (should have tried that in the beginning) and then had to dig it out before we could go anywhere - good power training though - I try to do a hour every two days or so :)

So my 2 cents on the cold, hope you are all well and warm,
Keep smilling :)
Richard.