Maybe I like running in the cold…maybe I just wanted to get one of these hats.

(Sunday Paper, Year IV, Issue 50)

A few weeks ago I showed you my exercise chart for the year and joked about the patterns it revealed.

But it wasn’t really a joke - I really don’t like running in extreme heat (I didn’t run in July) and I had never tried running in extreme cold. (January and most of February didn’t have much happening in the running department either.)

I’ll never keep myself hydrated enough to make running in the heat a pleasant experience.

But my opinions on running in the cold could be changing.

Once again, apologies for writing about my running experiences. But I’ve always written about what’s on my mind, and for better or worse, lately that’s running.

And last week, I joined Team Framingham for a cold weather run.

I was kind of dreading it, but I was also kind of looking forward to it (and not just because I was going to get the hat you see pictured above because I participated in the run).

Each of these runs would have been easy to skip - I’m last on the wait list. No one would notice I wasn’t there. But, first of all, I’m holding out hope that I will need this marathon training because I’ll actually be participating in the marathon come April. And even if not, when the training runs come around I approach them as an opportunity to do something I otherwise wouldn’t be doing.

And last week I certainly would not have been running in Newton in 25-degree temperatures had it not been for this run.

I layered appropriately (there have been few positive takeaways from attending Jets games growing up, but one would be that I learned to layer appropriately in the winter), and at the risk of plagiarizing/paraphrasing ‘Frozen’, the cold really didn’t bother me at all while I was running. (It did bother my phone, which reacted the same way as the time I left it out in the sun and overheated….it shut itself down because I guess it was too cold.) The only thing that bothers me after running in the cold is my nose…when I get back in the car and get the feeling back in my face it hurts for about 20 minutes. I saw some people running with a scarf covering their face. That seems like a good idea.

This is also important - so far I haven’t lost my footing on any slippery surfaces. I imagine that helps too because I ran hills last week that were somewhat slippery - they have to be easier to run when I’m not worrying about slipping and falling on them.

I’m finding that I rather enjoy running in the cold. I always thought 40 degrees was an ideal running temperature - I always feel pretty good after a run in that temperature.

But maybe I can dial that down ten or twenty degrees and still be comfortable.

We’ll see if those temperature limits get put to the test this winter….I’ll be doing another long run next weekend.

Writing

*There is about to be a transition in the work schedule again. This is a good time for that - the holidays are a mess for me with work. But I’ll hopefully have a chance to settle into a project I’ve been thinking about come the new year. Meanwhile, it has been a fairly productive past couple of weeks. I wrote something I’m proud of and I’m hoping I can get traction with.

Comedy

*Saturday night was December’s Comedy Night at Exhibit ‘A’. It was another sell-out, and another great show. I don’t know what more to tell you. I thought about posting pics Saturday night and saying, ‘Another great show at Exhibit ‘A’’ during the show, but I just wanted to enjoy it. It’s such a good time. Tickets will go on sale for the January show this week. As you know, I’m headlining that one. I’d love to see some friendly faces in the audience.

Keep an eye on the social media for the ticket info…and check the end of this post for a special sneak preview of the poster that will be up at Exhibit ‘A’ starting….well, last night.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

*Before I get to what I’ve been enjoying, I have a gripe: The Holly station on Sirius plays a good selection of Christmas music, but so far I have yet to hear ‘Underneath The Tree,’ my recent favorite. The weird thing is, they play a lot of Kelly Clarkson’s Christmas album…but not the one that got the most play on terrestrial radio. So I’m hoping that will change as the holiday itself nears. (I have been hearing different songs lately, so maybe they’ll unveil different, new choices as the holiday approaches.) That said, they play a couple of Sia Christmas songs, and I really like ‘Candy Cane Lane.’ So that’s this year’s frontrunner for ‘favorite new Christmas song’ for me.

Thoughts On Dog Ownership

*The (only) nice thing about the rainy weather following the snowy weather is I feel like it washes everything clean and I don’t have to worry about Tate getting salt on her feet when we go for walks. I’ve heard that can be painful for dogs. So we’ve been having pretty good walks lately and maybe my favorite thing is how excited she gets when she knows we’re going for a walk instead of just outside to pee. (Her. Not me. I pee inside.)

Notes

*One last running note - I saw 50 degrees early this week and figured it would be a chance to run in some decent weather, so I went Monday morning thinking I’d make it before the rain came. I ended up running in the rain on snowy/slushy sidewalks…then Tuesday morning turned out to be beautiful. The rain washed everything away and it was definitely the better running day. Oh well.

*It’s been years since I got some cold weather running gear (OK, sorry, one more last running note), but I think it’s time to treat myself to a couple more items to keep layering myself appropriately.

*If you’re like me, this time of year people do end-of-year lists and stuff and you spend a lot of time thinking, “That was this year?” There’s a website called No Depression that put out a year-end list of albums that came out in 2019, and my brother’s Thousand Dollar Dinners was on the list…and you can vote for it in the website’s Readers Poll as a favorite album at this link. I don’t know what happens if it gets enough votes, but let’s try to give it the most votes. You can vote (just once, I believe…if that’s not the case don’t tell my brother that I only voted once) through tomorrow (Monday). And if you do nothing else - give the album a listen if you haven’t already. It’s very good. You can find it here.

*You’re going to think I’m crazy but…I think our Christmas lights outside looked better in the snow than they do with the snow washed away. I know. I need to make up my mind about these things I can’t control.

*Tickets will go on sale this week, and I’ll certainly keep you updated (Follow me on Twitter or Like the Facebook page to stay updated!), but I figured since you’re such loyal readers of the Sunday Paper you deserve an early look at the poster for my big headlining show at Exhibit ‘A’ next month. Thanks for all the support: