"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882)

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Scoreboard: Mike 0 Arctic Wind 1

Well here we are at the beginning of an arctic blast. Temperatures yesterday were in the teens, windchill in the single digits and off I go for my typical Saturday morning 10 mile fun-run.

The wind was out of the south & west, oddly enough...arctic wind from the south? So I started by heading west for 2 miles and then south for a mile and a half. Anyway, all bundled up per my previous post description of winter running gear I felt pretty good.

So when I reached the farthest south and west points of the run I really looked forward to running with the wind at my back. That was fine for the next 2.5 miles. I even flipped the face mask up.

Then a new pain, and actually it's one that crept up when I made my long run to the in-laws a few weeks ago. I've never written about this in the blog before....BUT...here's the deal, I think I made a bad choice in underwear. See, I switched to boxer briefs a few years ago and while they are very comfortable, they don't really support too well. So I think my exposure to the wind froze a couple parts of my anatomy. Like, froze. Millions of nerve endings frozen, chafing against loose fitting cotton briefs. With each stride causing more irritation. To the point of a standing fetal position, wretched in agony, to trying to walk with a glove in my pants trying to warm things up, to my bare hands cupping the area in my pants walking thru the neighborhood like a pervert.

Eventually, I warmed up enough, sort of, to manage a short jog to the BP and coerced the attendant to let me make a phone call. Fortunately he didn't speak english so he wasn't sure what he was agreeing to at first. Luckily, I was only 2 miles from home so I was able to warm up while waiting for Fun Guv to make the little trip to pick me up. I bought a PowerAde and came home for a well deserved shower.

So gents, any thoughts? Tomorrow I have a 6 mile run scheduled and temps will be in the single digits with negative wind chills. Although Fun Guv & I don't intend on having any other children, I'm not sure I want anything to freeze and fall off. Any advice?

One item though, this is man vs. nature ~ no treadmill.

I think my brain froze yesterday too as I have no thoughts regarding the Vote For Mike '08 campaign other than updating my video that got pulled from YouTube for apparent copyright infringement.

I must have "the man's" attention. Establishment pulled a video from YouTube after I used it with a voting connection. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

Thanks for reading.

6 comments:

L*I*S*A said...

First: you need some Under Armour compression shorts to wear as your base layer.

Second: You're a shmuck to not at least do maintenance miles on a TM. Save the chest thumping for the long miles, as I do.

SRR said...

Jesus! I'm cold just thinking about that run!

Nitmos said...

You are one up on me. I hid inside this weekend and skipped my LR. As for frozen appendages, I don't seem to have that problem (insert your own joke here) as my boys seem fond of burrowing into the lower abdomen without prior permission.

Animal said...

Man vs. nature aside...don't be a schmuck. Run indoors, ya fool, before you literally crystalize your lung tissue!

Geez.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Lukie,

I can't really help you. I ran a nice 14 miler at 5am yesterday in 45-50 weather.

I think I overdressed with the shorts with the long sleeve and short sleeve shirt.

My marathon is 13 days away!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, doesn't someone make wind proof running undies?

Or try some vaseline for insulation.

-tange

Russ said...

geezus is it cold or what...i grew up in the UP, so am used to bitter cold...but doesn't make it any easier..i agree with the underarmour underwear a great improvement from the jockstrap we used in high school...i too have the retreat issue that nitmos so eloquently describes so can't help you with the chafing...i used to dread getting into a hot shower after our long runs along lake superior in the winter due to the frostnip we used to get on our privates because it would hurt so much...on the treadmill, i have learned to suck it up and run on there and actually sometimes look forward to it, kind of acts as a built in coach from time to time.