Each time I thought I might break off and venture out to combat the snow yesterday, Wednesday, another storm would blow through. So much so that I resorted to a run on the treadmill followed by a return to my old friend the Concept 2 rower. Must admit to keying in a 6 mile run on the treadmill but hit boredom threshold at only 3; but made up with 3K on the rower.
If these conditions persist I will have improve my tolerance levels. Both Pat and I find the treadmill much harder work than running outside. Compared, I read, to others who think the opposite. Queer.
A few years ago I did use the Concept 2 rower quite frequently and managed to rank higher on it over 10K than I did on running rankings! I particularly recall choosing to row a 10K in preference to watching yet another boring
England football game. Unfortunately that was the day England beat Germany 5-1!
Much brighter today, so initial plan was to jog over to the nearby golf club and plough around a few laps on it's hill side course; but the snow was simply too deep in the main and where it was shallower the slopes had already been claimed as a sledgers' playground.
The local grammar school was closed yesterday as the outside steps between the buildings were too "dangerous" to cope with. Today they were on holiday so they occupied their time by engaging in this much safer activity!
Picture shows a sledger on Ben Rhydding golf course with the Cow and Calf rocks in the background.
Fortunately just further on is a tree lined, traffic free lane. With just a couple of inches of snow on it, the lane provided an excellent venue, as it has previously, for ten short hills reps.
My INOV8 Mudrocs coped well with the shallow snow on the lane and I was able to concentrate on a pretty good knee lift, pushing off the forefoot as normal.
But ploughing up and down twenty times on the same narrow groove the underfoot conditions were deteriorating to ice. I was nice and comfortable
with what I was wearing but the temperature must have
been down at or below zero.
I'm sure I'm not alone in being staggered that we are having to cope with these conditions so early in the winter. I had hoped it might be January, if at all, when I could have lowered the miles and done some more rowing and dare I say it even some weights.
Let's hope for work and play it goes as quickly as it came.
The view from the top of the hill rep over to Beamsley Beacon
Hi Terry
ReplyDeleteHave you considered screw shoes. This article tells you how to do it and, although the sheet metal screws can be a little hard to locate, they are well worth the effort. I have a pair of Nike Free 3.0s with 15 screws in each shoe and they are amazing - no slipping even on sheet ice, long lasting and they don't even damage your shoes when you remove them. Here's the link
http://www.skyrunner.com/screwshoe.htm
Best wishes,
Martin Pearson
Interesting solution, Martin. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteQuite a few videos on Youtube showing this method. Obviously care needed with Nike Air shoes. Hopefully conditions will improve but if not I certainly have shelves of old shoes to experiment on!!
Hope you are enjoying the blog. See you arond in 2011. All the best, Terry
Treadmill runs are definitely much harder. That's all.
ReplyDelete