The Midwest girl in me...

You know when you're driving along and you see someone running or biking in spandex shorts and a long sleeve shirt and you peek up at your temperature gauge and it says 38 degrees and you think to yourself, "geez, those people are real idiots dressed like that running around in this weather?" Its safe to assume they're from the Midwest. Then there's the first day of above 50 degree weather when you can drive by your local college and all the girls are sure to be sporting the latest trends in short shorts and tank tops?!? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about Lease! Well who can really blame them, it's tough surviving the long dreary winters and we all want to soak up as much outdoor friendly temps as possible, me included.

I'm usually pretty practical about outdoor activities but I think the long winter plus 2 days of temps in the 60's recently has screwed with my sense of reality. Anyone else who knows what it's like to spend 4-5 months stuck inside on the treadmill, elliptical, swimming pool etc... will surely agree that the first glorious day of sunny outdoor running weather is heaven! I wouldn't call myself a nature girl but I enjoy being outside and especially getting my runs in on the real pavement when possible, but that first day of running outside is different. Its like I'm one with nature, the birds chirp along with every Christina Aguilera tune that plays on my ipod and Wilcox Lake doesn't smell nearly as sewerish as usual, in fact it almost smells like rainbows! And no matter what kind of day I've had or how little sleep I got the night before, that first day brings out the Lance Armstrong in me, I could practically shout "Live Strong!" from the top of my lungs and run all the way to Tennessee with the energy that comes from that high. So what happened this year was a little bit of a fluke. Just one week ago, we experienced 68 degrees for the first time in what felt like a millennium and I got in a great outdoor run at lunch and proceeded to rollerblade with Nick after work. The problem is that once you get back outdoors you really hate to go back inside to the treadmill. So I got outdoors again on Wednesday and skipped Thursday, planning to go biking on Friday. I woke up to sunshine streaming inside my bedroom and was thrilled with the idea of getting outside again so when I stepped out the door in my Adidas pants and a long sleeve t-shirt I felt a chill but figured I just needed an extra layer so I grabbed a thin fleece. I met Zach over at my parents house to borrow their bikes and he showed up in shorts so I thought for sure we'd be fine. About 50 yards down the street we commented that the sun wasn't as warm as we were hoping and definitely not the kind that warms you up enough to cancel out the sharply cold wind. It was supposed to reach 43 degrees but I doubt that accounted for the wind chill. We complained about the cold but figured we just needed to get our hearts pumping so we pedaled faster and tried to warm up. About a mile later our teeth were chattering, Zach was experiencing all that comes with cold wind up the shorts, (not that I checked) and my eyes were tearing so badly from the wind. I wanted to be tough Midwest girl who is used to the cold enough to soak up the sun and enjoy the fresh air but I couldn't feel my fingers and I think Zach was on the verge of tears so we gave in and raced back to the house to sit on the couch and warm up. I know it's typical to get a few extra warm days in March but I was really hoping I could withstand the rest of the March and April temps along with those above average days. It's back to the treadmill and episodes of The Tudors for those cold days but at least I have Jonathon Ryhs Meyers to keep me warm!