Written October 11, 2024
Hello Dear Readers,
The very chilly morning temperatures look like they’re about to bounce around chaotically over the next week. The weather may rise 10 degrees before dropping 20. We are riding a roller coaster made by some weather machine. I don’t like these swings because they don’t give me time to adapt.
Ever since my brain stroke, I have caused trauma in my hypothalamus, and I have lost control of my body temperature and the thermoregulation system. Our body is supposed to adjust heat by sweating, shivering, or changing blood vessel dilation. Brain stroke also damages the censoring system on my skin so that I can feel both cold and hot at the same time.
My wife keeps the house temperature at about 65F (18C). She believes that being too hot in the winter or too cold in the summer would break our thermoregulation system. Living in Portland, we hardly used a heating or cooling system. This is not as possible in Nashville, where the weather can be hotter and cold. Since I have a problem adjusting my body temperature, this helps me greatly during hot summers or cold winters.
I change how I dress to control my temperature by consulting the weather app on my phone. It can be critical when I go running. Sometimes, I do a 10km run and could be outside for over 60 minutes. I started to log my running speed; I noticed that the temperature greatly impacted my running performance. Sometimes, the temperature shifts to 10F while I am running. The volatile temperatures leave me either overdressed or underdressed.
The temperature will not stop me from running unless there is a snowstorm. I hope to run a 10k tomorrow, but I’ll do so after breakfast. It’s been several months since I’ve eaten breakfast before running, so I’m curious how returning to that schedule will feel.