A friend sent me a run a mile a day challenge. She said the walkers in the group (me) could walk a mile a day instead. So I decided to take the challenge, since today being my day off, I had intended to walk any way. I set out and checked my pedometer to see at what mile point I started so I could track my walk. I wear my pedometer every day; it’s like a body part now. I’ve even forgotten to take it off and gone to bed wearing it a couple of times. It’s a good thing I don’t take a shower with my clothes on!
I knew it was cold out, I mean its winter after all, and it has been cold for quite awhile now. It looked like there was relatively little wind today. It felt a little colder today and that little bit of wind seemed to bite at me. My face became cold very quickly. I got about half a block away from my house and my nose started to run. Now I’m not talking about just a little drip or two. It was more like someone had gone up my nose, installed a water faucet and then turned it on full blast. The tissue I brought with me was destroyed before I turned back to go home. My nose never stopped running until I got in the house and blew the rest out. The pressure in my head was gone and I felt fantastic.
I had read or heard on some program or other, if your sinuses are draining, that you won’t get a sinus infection. Well my nose runs every time I’m outside in this weather. So that has to be good, doesn’t it? I asked my allergist if my nose running helped as much as draining does. He confirmed it for me. Good, I will be out walking every day I can now. When I walk tomorrow I will bring a face cloth instead of a face tissue. I don’t want to have to wash my gloves everyday!
Other than the constant flow from my nose, the walk was a good one. I had pep in my step that I haven’t really had for a couple of months. I covered a longer distance than I had been. So for the first day of the challenge, I walked a little over a mile and a half. Yes, the cold did help make me move faster, but it also sort of invigorated me too. I was nice and warmed up except for my thighs and face. I guess its time to break out the thermal underwear.
All of this running nose stuff is starting to give me a clue into changes I noticed in the last couple of years. I used to get 4 or 5 sinus infections a year. Last year I had only two. I say that’s a huge an improvement, wouldn’t you? Hey, I just found another benefit of walking, I could have written for a previous post. Now I know why I have been getting fewer infections and all I had to do was go for walks in the cold.
I started walking in this weather 3 years ago. So it was all the walking in the cold weather and all those running noses. Huh. I got healthier because of a cold runny nose. Who knew? I will be celebrating every runny nose I have from now on. This year I’m hoping to go for the sinus infection gold, or clear actually!
