Seriously, the warm thought machine felt a little stuck. Yesterday, I ran with the Learn to Run clinic participants, or those hardy souls willing to come out during -26 with windchill. It felt colder than that, and I wore pretty good layers. The edges of my hair turned frosty, and my glasses fogged up a few times. (I kept unzipping the mouth guard on my running shirt.)
Is it hard to breathe? I never notice it. It’s not a macho, I’m-better-than-you thing. I honestly don’t notice it. I simply start breathing then start the mantra breathe-step-step-breathe-step-step-breathe. I can say the air does feel different to my lungs. Cold air feels heavier than the moist heat breathed during hot yoga. I guess having layers of clothes makes things feel heavier as opposed to summer heat. I sweat buckets, but I have less layers. The cold air seems to smother my skin from sweating out anything. It’s a good thing in the middle of cold/flu/pneumonia season, but I crack open the moisturizer as fast as possible. It’s the thing I hate most about winter-all that dry, itching skin. (Blech!)
Itchy skin aside, what keeps me going through January involves light. Slowly we get more sunlight, minutes like precious alms for a poor man. If I keep going through January, my reward for enduring those dark days are hours and hours of daylight
Unpaused Life 
I admire your tenacity. 🙂
LikeLike