Its brass monkeys

It most certainly is.

I took my wife in to work this morning and it was bitterly cold 🥶. On my return journey I saw a decent amount of runners both male and female braving the dark and cold. I looked on in admiration knowing that today was run day for me and at some point I would be out there.

I got home and deliberately faffed for a few hours until it just had to be done. On went the man tights (obviously 😀), double layers on top, buff and new cold weather gloves.

To keep my runs interesting I have decided to mix them up a bit and todays outing was for cadence drills.

After my warm up the Garmin buzzer signalled it was time to up the cadence right on a sharp corner with black ice. I managed a bit of balance skating before going again.

Bizarrely, as soon as I increased my cadence everything improved almost immediately. My breathing became easier, I was running taller and I was going a touch faster. I should know this from previous runs but, clearly I had forgotten the benefits of form and cadence.

I even had a well done as I past someone for a second time ( I think, although she may have been talking to her dog 🤣🤣)

Another one in the bag.

I think I will have a short easy one on Friday as the last two have been tough, but enjoyable.

Happy running all.

[Hidden]

It's definitely been a day for the man tights, mine were dug out of the running drawer for this morning's jaunt, coz it was definitely 🥶 even doubled up on the teeshirts long sleeved with short over the top ✅, layering success.

That compliment was it for the runner or the dog 🤓 it's a Wednesday mystery......... Take it as aimed at yourself Boom 💪

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

For me, clearly 😁😁

[damienair Administrator]

Today is run day for me too. But just a nice easy 5K. Tomorrow I will be doing another interval training run. I will try and get out the door at 5pm.I must look into cadence a bit more. It is not something I have looked into much.

[Hidden in reply to damienair]

I really find that cadence has a massive impact on how well I can run. It effects how much my legs ache (or dont), my breathing and general "ease" of running.

Of late I have ignored, or forgot about my steps per minute which gradually got slower and strides longer which is maybe a contributor to why I have been increasingly struggling.

Just upping my cadence today made a huge difference. 👍

[Roxdog Graduate10]

Sounds great and nice to get acknowledgement from others! I find other runners ignore me, but I sometimes get friendly comments from walkers. Those gazelle like runners seem to be in a world of their own, so that's fine I suppose!

[Hidden in reply to Roxdog]

Yes, I'm not in the gazelle league 🤣. And any acknowledgement even from someone talking to their dog is gratefully accepted 😀.

It was great to hear you managed to get out again. Brilliant.

[Fionamags Graduate10]

Interesting observation about cadence - I must give it a try. My cadence has been getting very very slow.

[Hidden in reply to Fionamags]

Hi Fionamags

As I mentioned, for me it made running much easier. It felt really strange initially doing shorter steps more frequently but when I got used to it I was less breathless, could run for longer and could get up hills much easier.

Its only recently that I realised I had been trying too hard to recover post covid that I ended up trying to force my running resulting in longer strides and lower cadence.

Hopefully I can get back on track now.

Good luck and happy running 🏃‍♂️ 👍