faster running, foggy glasses, and might've met a skunk this morning...

This morning it was time to step up one more notch, where my intervals of running are concerned.  So, after 5ish minutes of warmup, I did 3 rounds of:


1 minute slower jogging
9 minutes faster running


and then of course 5ish minutes of cooling down at a walk.  The good news:  despite the dread in me that screeches that I need to SLOW DOWN ALREADY on moving toward 30 uninterrupted minutes of faster running...this level is absolutely do-able for me.  Enjoyable, even.  I find it very, very strange that it can be enjoyable for me to run like this at 5 AM in the frozen air on a Monday, of all things!  It's very strange, and I am very grateful.


This past weekend I picked some stuff up to help with the issues of the dropping temps.  A friend had recommended a product called "Shift It" for my glasses, which have been fogging on parts of my run for weeks now.  I've been unable to find that.  I've searched on the internet and all I can find are dealers in the UK.  She said it is used by motorcyclists on their helmet shields for defogging.  So on Saturday I went to the local Harley dealer.  They didn't have that brand, but they DID have a big bottle of some other helmet shield defogger for about $5.  So I picked it up (it's worth noting that I had already also tried the place where I bought my glasses...one would think an eyeglass place would carry such a thing...they had "heard such a thing exists," but they don't carry it, couldn't tell me where to look, and were worried that using it might damage the finish on my glasses...UNHELFPUL.) 


The other thing I picked up was a face warmer.  I had picked out an amazing balaclava (ski mask) online, but my son and others had assured me I'd look too terrifying in it, so I decided to try something decidedly less scary looking and also about 1/3 of the price (though at $24.99, it wasn't what I'd call CHEAP.)  I picked it up at Dick's sporting goods, in the most innocuous color I could find.  Here it is, as pictured 2 minutes ago on my couch: 

  Thus far, I am bummed at my results.  While I think the face warmer might work out nicely for biking, when I'm not breathing so hard...I didn't like it for my run.  It was wet from the exchange between my breath and the outside air within mere minutes (in fact it's still kind of soggy...was gross, putting it on to take this pic).  Also, it was too much of a test for my defogger.  Less than 2 minutes into my run, I had to fold down the part that goes over my nose, cuz the wall of fog on my glasses was just to much to see through.  That worked for about 10 minutes, and then I was running in fog for the rest of the run.  


I'm pondering other solutions.  I could try running without my glasses.  I don't see well AT ALL without them; while I could tell the difference between a car, a person, and a deer without 'em, I probably couldn't differentiate a skunk from a raccoon (an important issue that I can easily think of, as this morning I startled something in the woods next to me and my glasses were too foggy to see what it was...I hustled and hoped I wasn't getting sprayed by a skunk, and it seems I came out fine this time).  


On the "bike winter" lists and on some running forums, people talk about using snowboarding goggles for their winter expeditions.  I don't know if I could get a pair of those that would go over my glasses or not.  and then...would it work, or just be good money thrown after bad?


And what about my high-tech "terrorist mask" that I wanted in the first place?  It has a plastic air exchange thing that seems like it would avoid the moisture element.  It has special padding around the nose to avoid fogging the glasses.  See, I'm wondering if I just need to buck up and buy the thing and not worry who I terrify...I'll be bummed if I spend $50 or $75 in "other solutions" that don't work, and then STILL have to spend $75 for the mask...

And don't even MENTION moving indoors...I'm not ready for that.  I love my run in the morning, out in the fresh air and quiet.  I am absolutely not interested in moving inside.  That's not the answer!  


I dunno.