Another winter of potential injury looms

I've always considered it a point of pride that I get outside to walk/run/amble year-round, regardless of the conditions.

This is easy during Northeast Ohio summers, which at worst are maybe a touch warm and humid at 5:30 in the morning when I'm out there.

It is another matter in mid-January, when we have stretches that make you think we live in Alaska.

It's admittedly a bit early to be thinking about this, but in a couple of short months, most of my morning constitutionals will be taken over the frozen and slippery pavement of Miller Avenue and West Miller Road. These conditions make for treacherous movement on flat ground, but throw in the two big hills on this loop and it gets even hairier.

In the 18+ years we've lived in this neighborhood, I've fallen three times while exercising. And only one of those left a mark, which was a black eye I wore proudly for a week or so. The other two times I just laughed about it.

It's generally safer for me now that I walk more than jog, but it's still power walking, and I still try to keep a pretty fast pace when I can.

The obvious solution is to buy a treadmill, and we've talked about that. But the only place to really put it is in our basement, which has very low ceilings. You can buy low-deck models for this type of scenario, but none I've come across seem to be of especially good quality.

Plus, while I do go on hotel treadmills when traveling, I find them to be absolutely soul-sucking. I would much, much rather be outside, even if there's risk of a tumble.

Of course, I say that now at age 51. Check back with me in 20 years.

A few more falls and I'm likely to have a different answer by then.