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| Bare pavement! (But note how narrow the road is.) |
I knew this winter had brainwashed me when I began
regarding each new snowfall as a workout opportunity. Do you know that
shoveling snow burns somewhere around 475 calories per hour? Keep that up for
90 minutes and – check! – another day’s workout is complete. Or so I told
myself when the combined effects of school cancellations, icy roads, and
treadmill burnout dwindled my options almost to zero.
On March 1st, I went for my first outdoor run
in six weeks. It was a Sunday morning, early enough that there weren’t many
cars out. The sun was shining, but it was still very cold – an invigorating
nine degrees, to be exact. But at least there was no wind!
Those few moments during the previous week
when temperatures hit the thirties, plus a major road-clearing endeavor in my
neighborhood, had created long stretches of bare pavement. I noticed it the
night before and thought, “Do I dare?” I’d seen other – hardier, gutsier –
runners out on the ice, but I‘d never had much luck with that. But bare
pavement! Hallelujah! This was my chance.
Ah, cabin fever . . . A doctor once told me that there’s no excuse –
opportunity-wise -- for skipping your cardio workout because you can always
march in place. Lift those knees! Swing those arms! Keep your chest high! Go!
Okay, but when the benefit of your daily run is as much for the fresh air and
change of scenery as it is for the increased heart rate, marching in place
loses its appeal pretty quickly. (As does borrowing your child’s Wii Fit and
doing the karate classes.)
It is hard to describe just how good it feels
to be outdoors, breathing cool clean air, moving at a nice clip along roads
that only the day before were treacherous with ice. With more snow in the
forecast for that night (indeed another five fluffy inches fell), I knew this
would be only a brief respite: I’d be back to the treadmill the next morning.
But somehow it was enough – just enough – to get me up over that terrible
dread-filled hump so many of us are facing as we wonder just how long this
miserable winter will last.
At this point, I think we’re all entitled to
complain a little bit about the winter. It’s been a tough one. Someday we’ll
recount – with seasoned survivor’s nostalgia – our stories of the Winter of
2015, with its two blizzards, its endless cold, its sobering tales of collapsed
roofs and ever-narrowing roads. I’m pretty sure at this point that Spring is
coming . . . and that we’re gonna make it. (But no, I’m not forgetting the
April 1st Blizzard of 1998.)
Thinking ahead to warmer weather, the NSRWA
has some events coming up that might interest you. March 28 and 29th
is its annual Gardening Green Expo. River Clean-Up Day is April 11. And you can
still sign up to volunteer this Spring’s river herring count. For details,
visit www.nsrwa.org.
by Kezia Bacon
February 2015
Kezia Bacon's articles
appear courtesy of the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, a local
non-profit organization devoted to the preservation, restoration, maintenance
and conservation of the North and South Rivers and their watershed. For
membership information and a copy of their latest newsletter, contact NSRWA at
(781) 659-8168 or visit www.nsrwa.org. To browse 15 years of Nature (Human and
Otherwise) columns, visit http://keziabaconbernstein.blogspot.com
