My weekend on the outside seemed calm and uneventful but it was all the little subtleties that made it extreme. Ever since Christmas vacation ended, I’ve felt a strong urge to simply stay in bed. Perhaps it’s the months of little to zero sunlight that’s done it but I’ve had to kick myself out of bed each morning and I feel like jumping right back into it most of the day.
Though, I don’t let myself stay in bed. I can’t. My schedule is pretty tight. I have to get up by 6 a.m. (at the very latest) on weekdays and no later than 6:30 on weekends. I have to work out and walk the dogs before I even get the girls up for breakfast. The past week has been extra challenging on me physically as I’ve challenged my body in new ways. I started a new gym so I’ve been trying out some early morning classes, noon classes, night classes and their weight room to determine what I like and don’t like. This left me a little exhausted.
The weekend arrived but it was not the restful, recharger I craved. I had to motivate all our crew (except Mist who was working) to get out the door and drive to the ski hill by 7:30 a.m. I swear, as a parent, as an adult human being, nothing challenges one more than motivating and organizing an entire family to get to the ski hill in the early morning hours with all the equipment accounted for. It’s a true testament to one’s sanity. By the time we snap on our skis and head down the first run, it is nothing less than pulling off one of the greatest moments in parenting. We survived it. We are on the hill and in all the right equipment.
That is only ever the beginning of a day of family skiing; on Saturday, the mountain proved challenging. The conditions were a little on the icy side and the fog was unbelievable. By mornings’ end I decided it was unsafe to remain on the mountain as I could no longer see the slope for the thick, prickly fog.
On Sunday morning I was up early again for a 8 km run with Peter along Mission creek. I became super hot by about the four km mark and took off my jacket and ran in my t-shirt. After the run I stretched outside for about ten minutes, got in a cold car and drove to the grocery store where I shopped for an hour, still in only a t-shirt and leggings. Just as I left the grocery store, I suddenly felt cold for the first time all morning. I put on my down jacket but it was too late, my core was already in a major heat deficit with me unaware until my hands turned white and I lost feeling in my fingers. By the time I arrived home with the groceries, it hit me that I was hypothermic. I ran to the bath and it took about five minutes of soaking in warm water for my fingers and hands to sting as they regained circulation. I was still so cold that I had Pip turn on the fire-place and Peter make me tea so I could warm up. After about 20 minutes in front on the fire I felt okay. It wasn’t until about an hour later when I realized how much better I felt, being warm. It’s crazy how easily my body temperature can plummet with me unaware.
I often feel the cold when I’m active outside in the winter: fingers and toes will hurt and begin to feel frozen and I’ll start to seriously shake from the chill and then once I’m in a warm place, my hand/feet will thaw and cause agonizing, sharp pain—all Canadians know this pain. It’s not hypothermia. It’s just being cold.
True hypothermia isn’t as dramatic as all of that. There is no pain, no shaking, just the sudden realization that I could no longer feel my hands (they were completely numb) and they’d changed to a deathly yellowish-white colour. In hypothermia, it’s not the extremities that are cold; it’s the body’s core temperature. Thus, the body quits sending blood to the extremities in an attempt to boost its core temp.
I now realize that if I take off my jacket while running in winter, I must immediately put it back on as soon as the run is over. Otherwise, hypothermia gradually creeps in with me being totally unaware.
So there you have it, a subtle weekend of extremes. All those months of polar bear dipping, alpine skiing in -20 C, I never once got hypothermic; yet, a morning run in a t-shirt and an innocent trip to the grocery store were my hypothermic downfalls.
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