I’m not keen on snow. People tell me it makes the scenery look pretty but I say, what’s it done to the wonderful colours of nature? Plus, in England, it tends to turn into great grey lumps and outstays its welcome along the edges of roads - right where I want to run.
Yesterday’s snow remained on the fields but by lunchtime today, the roads had got rid of most of it, so I togged up and went out for my run.
One thing in snow’s favour is it makes the countryside seem even quieter. It’s quite eerie in places. Up near the neolithic Hoar Stone, which I mentioned in C25k’s Roundup post, there’s a long plantation of trees on the other side of the road. As I ran past, a huge buzzard with wonderful broad wings flew out just above me and headed down the lane ahead. Silence. You could cut the ambience with a knife.
I had all my winter kit on today, taking no chances: the new Futakotamagawa beanie (from Contra, ethically made and all profits to Parkrun); my old faithful yankee fleece hoodie with hi-vis gilet over it; my new Decathlon tights and a pair of woollen gloves. Shoes and socks, it goes without saying, of course.
I’d recommend the beanie, just the right weight and thickness for exercising, and fits like the proverbial glove. It pulls nicely over the ears for comfort but my earphone, being a tiny bit chunky, was pushed further in and produced a heavy bass bias. I just had to turn the volume down and adjust to it. Great hat for about a tenner. 👍
The tights are great value for money too, although I felt a bit uneasy about lack of support in the gentleman’s region. I had to resort to wearing my regular undercrackers beneath them. This isn’t good for long runs as they could chaff something horrible so… I went shopping for some runners’ undies. (Yes, folks, there is such a thing as gentlemen runners’ undies! 😆) With luck, they should arrive tomorrow and be tested out on my Tuesday run.
Today’s scheduled run was 1km “Goal Pace” repeats - 5X, followed by 200m “Stride” repeats - 3X. In between all the repeats are little 200m slow jogs, and 10 minutes warm up and cool down sessions either end. It all took just over an hour and covered 10.6km. I felt I’d improved a bit on the last time I ran this type of workout. I really enjoyed doing it anyway.
Back home, it’s started to snow again and it’s still coming down! I replenish the bird feeders while my eggs boiled - post run egg mayo sarnie! Mmmmmm.
Happy running, folks! And take care on the ice and snow. 🙂
