Polar Bear 5K

We are moving on through winter pretty quickly over here!  I am happy to share that I have been diligent in my anti-winter-depression schemes, and things have been going great!  Perhaps all I needed was a good detail oriented plan...per usual.  In any case, I have been using my light box every morning to start my day, taking fish oil and vitamin D, exercising, and getting outside as much as possible.  Of course outdoor activities are all but impossible to squeeze in on my long work days that start and end in darkness, but my days off have been purposeful for the most part.  On days I work, Felicity and I have been pretty good about making it to a 5AM trampoline class most Mondays to get a jump on the week.  As completely miserable as that probably sounds, I can't tell you how invigorating it is (once you have succeeded in rolling yourself out of your toasty bed cocoon of course).  Luckily, not all days start like that, and getting outdoors has been integral to my sanity!

Though the snow had been manageable so far this year, hellooooo $100 electric snowblower my new love, it has been predictably frigid.  Felicity and I have been forcing, and cajoling, ourselves out of the house to move our bodies even when the temperatures are in the single digits and much lower with the wind chill.  We have continued to run, and are planning on our first 10K this spring.  In that vein, we ran our first Polar Bear Dash 5K in 5 degree weather around the back cove to the eastern prom!  Though our feet were pretty icy, and the path was mighty slippery, we did it! (and yes that is my dad's monkey hat on my head that he so graciously let me borrow)

It turns out that at the end of the race we felt like, hell, we can do anything! And so we keep trying to push each other, walking with Oboe at the river, snowshoeing up north, and checking out new classes.  Movement has seemed to be one of the most important keys to this season for me. I'm lucky to have a friend who is as crazy as me!