No Fan of Winter
Posted: Thursday, December 02, 2010
by George Stay
The pedals go around and around, the wheel emitting a purring hum, kicking up a bit of wind.
But I am not outside. I am indoors, where the scenery never changes. Welcome, I think to myself, to another winter.
I used to love winter. No, wait. I can't say I have ever loved winter. As a child, winter had its moments when, bundled up in snow pants, coat, scarf, hat, mittens and clunky boots I would go outside with my siblings to play in the snowdrifts created at the edge of the field across the road. But I never loved winter. The old farmhouse we rented was cold and drafty and each of us would rush each morning to a register to stand in its warm embrace while we dressed for school.
No, I have never loved winter. With its cold, its ice, its snow. It is depressing to awake in darkness and return home from work in darkness. And the things I loved to do most -- play football and basketball and baseball -- were not very doable in winter. Not that we didn't try. After we moved into town, my brother and I would take shovels and brooms to the nearby park to clean off the basketball court. And we'd play endless games of one-on-one even if the poor ball could barely bounce from the hard, cold asphalt into our equally frigid ungloved hands.
No, I have never loved winter. But I did find a certain tolerance and even affection for it when I ran. There was something so spiritual about stepping out into a layer of newly fallen snow and feeling like I was the first person to ever tread upon this all-white landscape illuminated only by the white glow of the moon. It didn't matter that it required donning tights, two shirts, running pants, a running jacket, hat, skiing-glove liners and rag-wool mittens. Or that I would return home with icicles clinging to my beard. The pull of frigid air into my nostrils would freeze right there and it felt good. I just had to watch my step and not fall on any hidden ice.
No, I have never loved winter. I came to appreciate its beauty -- the curl of snow at the edge of a new drift, the hoarfrost lining the needles of a fir trees, the clarity and simplicity of a dripping, long icicle. How the landscape can be transformed so easily just by a layer of snow. The ugliness and emptiness of the end of fall, with its stark grayness and brown ground is covered until spring.
No, I have never loved winter. I like it even less now that I look to cycling as a key part of my exercise routine. Winter drives me indoors where I spend hours riding nowhere, staring at a spot in the wall, or monitoring every minute on my computer. When I am outside riding, I hardly notice the miles glide by. Indoors, I can hardly keep my eyes off the odometer.
But I keep pedaling, because I want to be able to go back outside once winter has gone. No, I cannot imitate an outdoor ride inside. Nothing can mimic the roll of the land, the push and pull of the wind, the art of turning, accelerating and decelerating for traffic, stop signs and the like. So my indoor workouts are divided into steady-state efforts where I pedal and pedal, working to a steady crescendo at the end; and spinning workouts, where I drop gears and get out of the saddle to imitate both hills and accelerations, then sit back down to imitate recovery.
I do all of this to music, thanks to satellite television and wireless headphones. I do not ride to the beat of the song. The music is merely a distraction, a mental diversion. Sometimes I also read, but mostly I just let the music take me somewhere else. As I pedal, Dido's "Thank You, " Jack Johnson's "Better Together" and Snow Patrol's "Crack the Shutters" take me to the woman I love and memories of sweet moments shared together before Arcade Fire's "Go Cars Go" and its marching beat gets me playing air drums and even trying to sing out loud. And so it goes as the miles to nowhere pile on, one after the other, until, finally spent, I stop pedaling and get off my bike. I realize that to someone else this may seem like a fruitless waste of effort, a man gone mad over exercise. But I assure it is not. It is just what I feel I have to do now in order to be able to enjoy riding the other seven or eight months of decent weather.
No, I have never loved winter. But I have found a way to endure its trials and come out the other side ready to go outside again.
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)I've been living in northern Fl. for 13 years now, but I'm from the state of Maine so I do know what winters are like.I kind of miss the snow but I don't believe I'd want to put up with anymore Maine winters.Good article GeorgeDavid, thanks for commenting. It is funny, but I always thought I'd leave here and go someplace warm when I was younger, but it never turned out. So I have learned to endure our winters.
I do not have any winter blues but our weather suits the folks here well . At times, it can be rather cold and I would joke that we are having winter. Right now, the weather here is mild (December) so rain is expected more frequent. For today (Sunday 5th) from morning till evening it's been showering off and on , on and off. We already feel inconvenient to go out but we still go as Christmas is due soon. (some shopping)I would take that kind of weather now, Hilda. I'm just not sure I could get through your summers. As my son pointed out to me, in winter you can always put on another sweatshirt or a jacket, grab a blanket to get warm. When it is hot there are only so many articles of clothing you can shed.
Well, it's great that you have such a love of cycling, that it can get you through those miserable months, George. Maybe one day you will move to a warmer climate.Maybe, Jennifer. We shall see. For now, though, I have found ways to cope. Thanks for commenting and for reading.
All I can say George is it's a good thing you don't live here. We're on day three of the first good snowstorm of the season. I'm a sunworshipper and love vacations south, but since I live in Canada I'm accustomed to winter weather. I love walking outdoors year round. In the winter, the stormier the better. I love the cold wind on my face and often take off my hood and undo the neck of my coat just to feel the cold air. Some might think I'm crazy, I'm not. Just Canadian. :)Brianna, I have great respect for all things Canadian. Especially its weather. And, no, you're not crazy. Sometimes that cold air just feels envigorating. It just isn't conducive to biking, which is my problem. But I did enjoy running in the cold. It was a lot of fun.
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