Hold on to your hat.

I came across a great story recently about scientists reexamining long held truths. Truths that sometimes turn out not be really true at all. After long and arduous research they concluded that there is not any proven cure, regardless of how exotic or farfetched it might sound, for hangovers. Fair enough. But, the piece that caught my attention was their debunking of the widely held belief that most heat is lost through the head. The belief, they relate, came from a U.S. army survival manual from 40 years ago that advised on the importance of head covering in harsh weather due to the proven fact that 40-45% of body heat was lost through the old noggin. Very pertinently, these debunking science chaps said, “If as much as 45 percent of body heat were lost through your head, going out without a hat would feel like going out without trousers.” Flaw in the study apparently was that it was done in extreme conditions and the only part of the participants uncovered was the head, so in that case the 40-45% heat loss figure through the head was possible.

It is hard to let go of something that is widely held to be true. Sometimes when I go running when it is cold but not freezing, I think about whether I will wear gloves or whether I will wear a hat. And, it seems that often the hat wins and the gloves stay at home. Wonder how much heat I lose through the hands? Head and hands are the two parts of the body most often exposed to the elements, and they are both pretty sensitive. Cold fingers hurt, cold ears really hurt in a sharper way. But I can imagine some other parts of the body that would hurt even more if left exposed to the elements. Like Saturday for example: I went running on the snow. We got a fairly big storm here on Friday night. 7-8 inches or so. So, Saturday morning I went out for a run. Planned to do 5 miles or so along the Charles River and if conditions were decent, well, maybe I would stay out a while and get my weekly long run done. The paths along the river were mostly ploughed and cleared, but there was not much road showing under a layer of lightly packed, snowplowed snow. In general, the river is a great place to run—if you wish you can run about half of the circuit from the Science Museum to Harvard Square and beyond on the grass margin by the side of the path. I like to do that as it cuts down a bit on the wear and tear on the joints. Fine place to run, but also a windy place to run. Especially when you are on the Boston side of the river along the Esplanade where the July 4 celebration takes place. Even when it appears as though it is a calm day, chances are you will find a stiff breeze down along there; however, when you have a cold, wintery day, chances are you will encounter an arctic blast. They should start a wind farm there. The wind in the winter at least seems to blow from the West toward the ocean, which is a mile or two away. And if you are doing a counter clockwise loop—with the wind in your sails—you think you have found that effortless pace, finally. And if you are running the opposite, you see the runners coming toward you who think they are suddenly fast while you lean forward just to remain vertical. The aching ears might be the worst part. There’s a good mile of exposure until you get some limited shelter from trees as you get closer to the Boston University boathouse.

I have done a few cold runs along there. I remember one from a couple of years ago in February or March of 2006 when the Gatorade in my water bottle turned into a slushy. It was pretty slippery on Saturday, and I was extra cautious as it is just about a year since I fell on that path by the river and kinda had to stop running for a couple of weeks. And to help prevent that from occurring again, following directions I saw in a recent Runner’s World article and on this website, I decided to try out putting 1/2 inch hex-head sheet metal screws into the soles of a pair of my running shoes as a way to gain some real traction out on icy and frozen paths. This very day, I went to the hardware store and bought a box of screws. I have rigged up the shoes, and tomorrow morning if I can get out of bed in time, I will go and try them out before I go to work. And that is what my next blog will be about.

Thanks for reading.