EMBRACING WINTER
Who cares if you look like a dork? Staples asks
Winter is king in Edmonton, the champion of all seasons. It makes us cower, shake, whine and scurry for shelter. It drives us inside and makes us inert. It constantly kicks our collective butts. It defeats us.
But not Susan Yackulic, not so much as with most of us, at least.
No one ever defeats winter once and for all, but some do figure out how to give it a good battle, with Yackulic, 58, a lifelong resident of central Alberta, near the top of that list.
I’m writing about her today because a) she’s going to give a public talk about coping with winter at Pecha Kucha Night 27, which is on the opening night of the Winter Cities Shake-up conference, Feb. 18 to 20, and b) because there are few things more gratifying for an Edmontonian than to arm yourself against the sometimes oppressive onslaught of winter’s cold and darkness.
The challenge of winter becomes all the more daunting as we age. If you’re already having a hard time just getting around the house, it’s more challenging to walk over icy, snowy winter sidewalks. This is where Yackulic comes in.
She’s a retired teacher who worked in Whitecourt and Vermilion, then settled in the Cloverdale neighbourhood of Edmonton about five years ago.
In her youth, Yackulic competed in national cross-country ski competitions and in the following decades she kept extremely active as a marathon runner and cross-country skier. A few years ago, however, she started to have hip problems and pain. She went for an MRI. Severe deterioration of the cartilage was found in her hip joint. She will likely need to get a hip replacement in the near future.
Yackulic had to quit running because she knew it would make her condition worse. At the same time, she wanted to put off surgery for as long as possible, yet somehow remain active.
In a newsletter for retired teachers, she came across an advertisement for something called Nordic walking, which is essentially walking with poles but no skis.
The poles are like ski poles but have removable rubber stoppers, which are used in the summer. The poles absorb some of the shock of walking, prop up walkers on icy sidewalks, and engage the back and arm muscles, Yackulic said, so Nordic walkers tone those muscles and burn off about 20 per cent more calories than normal walkers.
Yackulic is now so keen on Nordic walking that even for short walking trips she’ll use her poles. For one thing, since she quit running she’s developed a bit of a “mid-life crisis belly,” as she puts it, and she wants to burn the extra calories. For another, in winter she’s afraid of falling.
The fear of falling is a major driver in keeping folks indoors in winter, Yackulic says.
“Think about our newcomers to Alberta. Snow can be very frightening to them and as we age the possibility of falling is something people realize could be career-ending, could be jobending, could be detrimental to their family life.”
Another big issue, Yackulic says, is simply wearing proper clothing to head outdoors. “People don’t know how to dress ... They dress like my children, for briefly running to the car and getting to work and then running into work.”
I’ve been walking to work this winter and can testify to the need for dressing properly, with not just warm boots and a heavy tuque, but also a huge scarf necessary for the coldest days. That said, now that I have figured out how to dress, I find the walk not any kind of major challenge and often entirely enjoyable.
There are the icy sidewalks, however, which make me wonder if I should give Nordic walking a try. I do have one final concern, though. Nordic walkers look a bit dorky.
When two Nordic walking pole manufacturers pitched their product on Dragons’ Den this same concern came up.
Businessman Kevin O’Leary, who is now running to be leader of the federal Conservatives, went so far as to grab the poles and strut about the set, saying, “Hi! I’m a dork!” then singing as he walked, “I love to go a-dorkin’. Wherever I am, they call me a dork.”
So what does Yackulic say to these dork allegations?
“If men know that this will strengthen their upper bodies without having to go pump iron in the gym, that’s a big sell for a lot of guys. That’s not dorky at all.” Good sales pitch. Besides, if you’re going to wrestle with winter, you can use all the strength you can get.