My mother had a wise old saying we kids would hear from time to time, especially in winter.
It’s colder than a witch’s tit out there.
This saying popped into my head this morning during my run, as it was indeed colder than a witch’s tit out there.
By the way, when I heard this phrase as a kid, it literally made me picture what a witch’s tit would look like, which was, naturally, shriveled. I also wondered why a witch’s tit would be colder than a normal, non-witch tit. Are witches cold-blooded like reptiles? Do they just not know how to dress for varying weather conditions? Come to think of it, I had never seen a picture of a witch wearing a cozy woolen sweater. Hmm.
This morning was COLD, hovering around 20º F. And while I realize that’s considered a mild spring day for anyone who lives in Minnesota or North Dakota or Canada, ’round these parts, you would call that cold.
It does get colder here. There are definitely times in the winter when temps dip into the teens. And although single digits are not the norm, they do happen. Below zero is almost unheard of for Long Island (unless you are a witch’s tit).
For running, 20º F is right around my breaking point between “I can do this” and “can I do this?” I haven’t done too many runs in below-20º weather, but I also haven’t been as committed to running in the past as I am now, so this is something I need to be prepared for this winter.
I wore a couple extra items of clothing this morning: a long pair of socks underneath my usual short ones, an extra base layer between my first base layer and my outer layer, and a lightweight tube scarf I got in a race swag bag. Plus a thicker pair of gloves.
I probably didn’t even need the extra base layer as my torso was actually toasty on the run. But my legs were FREEZING. I was just wearing my usual leggings, but when I got back home and took them off, my legs were so red they looked sunburned. Maybe it’s worth wearing an extra layer on the bottom over my leggings, like a thin pair of sweatpants. Or a ski suit.
Either way, I need to be prepared for a few months of this. It’s only mid-December and, technically, not even winter yet.
I warmed up at work with a coffee (Guy & Gallard, my go-to coffee place, had chocolate raspberry today!) and, of course, as I do every Friday…
Starting off the weekend right.
My Body Is A Machine 
Geez that seems cold for December in NY. I think of that as more of February temps. Your coffee sounds so good! Uniqlo has these awesome HeatTech tights that I wear under running tights. They are super thin but work amazingly well to keep you warm. They are about $15 and so worth it. When I taught in Central Park all winter they made everything a lot less miserable.
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Ha yeah, I think it’s definitely colder than normal here! Oh that sounds great, I’ll check those out. I think I definitely need something else to wear on my legs.
p.s. I love getting coffee at G&G because they have like 12 pots and you can get it yourself and mix and match so I always get a combo of a flavor and decaf – otherwise I’ll be too jittery. 🙂
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