How to survive the winter...

The snow pile in our back yard, and the frigid blue sky.

Joy here...Okay, so winter has taken ahold of Ottawa with a vengeance.  Not only are we getting constant snowfall, but we're also getting ice in the form of freezing rain.  Now usually when there's a lot of winter precipitation the silver lining in all that is that the temperature isn't too bad.  Usually when there's snow and freezing rain the temperatures are hovering around zero (which, trust me, for winter is pretty comfy).

But, alas, this winter Mother Nature is playing one heck of a sick joke on all of us, because she's whacking us with mountains of snow and ice while also plunging the mercury down into the depths.  We're routinely waking to temperatures in the -20 C range, and with the windchill factor the temperature feels more like -30 C.

Opie, my trusty steed, now relegated
to sitting on a trainer in our basement
after such a full summer of riding hills.

In my last post, I promised that I was going to just keep going and not let the winter blahs get me down this year.  Last winter I started spinning classes and strength training as part of my strategy to get through the winter, and this year I've kept up with those activities, as well as using our indoor trainers with our bikes and buying a spin bike to use as home in addition to running outside in those new balance runners of mine.  So that's a lot of strategies in place to get through the winter.

On Saturday, after my last run and my last post about not giving up, I dutifully got on my spin bike while The Man was on his trainer.  He was doing a 2 hour ride on the bike and I had a 1 hour one planned.  For the first 1/2 an hour, I was just going really hard ("give'r" in the parlance of my hometown),* until The Man told me that in this "base building phase" of my workouts leading up to my 1/2 marathon and marathon goals, I shouldn't be working myself quite so hard, but keeping things in the easy mode, so I pulled myself back a bit.  I rode for one hour exactly, and in the end my average heart rate was around 136 beats/min, which is my easy zone.  At that heart rate, for instance, I can run and run and run without getting tired.  So even though my legs were tired because of the drills that I put myself through during the first 1/2 an hour, I didn't feel like I overly taxed myself.

The three stationary bikes facing the basement TV:
Litie (the Lightspeed), the spin bike, and Opie (the Opus).

But, no matter what, our rides indoors are always second-best to riding outdoors.  A basement is always just a basement, and something is always lacking.  Nothing beats getting outside.

So this winter as part of our strategy to survive the season, we bought ourselves cross-country skis.  Cross country skiing is a big deal in this part of the country, and everyone we know has told us that the only way to make friends with winter is to take up this sport (Nordic skiing as opposed to Alpine, or downhill, skiing).

Okay, so fine.

We bought ourselves some cross country skis and started to try to find someone to give us lessons.  Now, this is harder than you might think.  The city offers lessons, but you have to try to sign up through some archaic City of Ottawa recreation website, which doesn't really work, and you need to first create an "ID" just to log in...then you need to try and find out when there are slots that are free...then you need to pay upfront...then you can find out whether or not you can join some lesson with some other people...

Sitting in the car, waiting for it to heat up enough to
defrost the windows so that we can see enough to drive.

All we were looking for was someone to teach us what to do.  So we metaphorically told the City of Ottawa's website where to go and how to get there (I'm not sure it heard us).  Then we began our google quest to find a ski instructor in the area.

We called all the people we came up with.

All of them aren't interested in teaching super beginners (like us), but are interested in coaching people who already know how to ski.  As soon as The Man would begin his schpiel:  "I'm from the tropics; I've never been on cross country skis or done winter sports; I want to learn how to ski..." they would already tell him they didn't teach "beginners."

Loading up the skis for our first foray into
the world of cross country skiing.

Okay, so, f_ck it, we'll just head out on our own.  That was our thought on Sunday.

It was -23 C (with the windchill it felt more like -33C).

So we loaded up the skis in the back of the car, dressed ourselves in what we'd wear for a cold run, got the proper ski wax, and headed out to a local park where there's a 5km cross country ski loop that we've been told about.

We parked the car, turned it off, and got out (mistakes, all three).

We had to take off our mitts to put on our ski boots; then we had to keep our mitts off to wax the skis (more mistakes).

We were freezing.

Then we tried to clip into our skis.  The wind was tearing through us, and we were already shivering, the tips of our fingers burning with cold.  Someone skied passed us and said:  "you should probably have some face covering; it's pretty cold out here."  No sh_t sherlock!  Finally we were clipped in to our skis, but we were frozen solid.  We couldn't speak because our teeth were chattering, and we hadn't even started yet!

Home again...unloading the skis with the car still running...
it's warmer that way!

So we pushed forward, and then The Man fell over.  You can't blame him.  He's never been on skis before.  He was covered in snow and couldn't get up.  So he took off his mitts (again) and clipped out of his ski so he could stand.  But then he couldn't get back in.  I skied over, took off my mitts (again), and helped get him back in.  By this point, there was so much standing around in the frigid weather that we were ready to die.  Seriously.

We went forward for about 30 more seconds before we admitted frosty defeat, turned around and got back in the car as fast as our frozen little feet could carry us.

It was a huge ski failure.  Huge.

We got back home and stood in the hot shower for about 30 minutes before we finally felt ourselves begin to melt.

And then I threw all my resolutions out the window and did no physical activity Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.  In fact, I just stewed in a big ball of winter-induced rage.

Over and out,
Joy

*give'r 
Etymology: Canadian, particular to rural areas...
1. Going all out and/or balls to the wall to take care of business as quickly and as awesomely as possible 
2. Acting in a way that is like you're rocking out really hard, but at the same time, trying to solve a problem that may or may not involve drop-kicking something without hesitation