VO2maxing

WINTER CAME BACK!

There wasn't a single flake of snow on Friday evening, but this was the scene on Saturday morning.

I ran through full-on blizzard conditions down to the market on Saturday, which is not the easiest thing in the world.

Particularly when you're into a headwind the whole way, and snow keeps building up on your face.

You know how I'd hoped the prior weekend's 100mm of rain would come as snow instead? Apparently I just needed to wait a week.

To beat the band, I say!

It snowed from 7am onwards with no respite - we prudently parked the car for the day after we got home from the market, as we'd already seen a car in a ditch and a couple having trouble negotiating slippery uphills. Come evening it looked like it was tapering off, so I finally got my snowshoes out for the first time since November.

Just as the weather turned to rain!

The deep, fresh snow around the neighbourhood made the running even more difficult than I'd expected, and the rain made the snow heavier and heavier as I panted and gasped my way around.

I set to work tramping myself down a stretch of sidewalk, hoping it would get easier as I packed it down.

The heavy, sticky snow kept piling up on the decks of the snowshoes, making them even heavier.

I only managed to get in 2 out-and-back laps of my sidewalk stretch before the elementary school's tractor with a plow blade ruined my hard work by plowing that stretch! I had to go seeking other routes to make up the 5km that I consider bare minimum for a run.

I actually ended up running on the roads around the neighbourhood, which were fortunately even more devoid of traffic than usual.

By the time I'd slogged my way through the lung-burning workout - which took me a full 40mins of moving time, plus a few breaks to try to catch my breath so my heart wouldn't actually explode - I was soaked with both rain AND sweat and good only for a shower, a bit of dinner, and bed.

I awoke Sunday to the sun breaking through the clouds and a winter wonderland!

Same stretch of sidewalk - the wind filled in what the plow had taken away!

I headed out for the first run straight out of bed, knowing it the temperature (already -5c/23f) was only expected to drop all day. While some of my neighbours were out clearing their walks, the vast majority of my hood was still thickly covered with snow. I actually hit a higher maximum heart rate running in trail shoes through the deep, heavy snow than I had the night before wearing snowshoes!

The sun and blue sky were lovely, though.

After some brunch and taking care of some odds and ends, Tanker and I got out for our very first cross-country ski of the winter on beautiful, sun-bathed trails.

I'd been looking forward to this since Saturday morning's run showed me the trails would be skiable!

Nothing better than sunshine through the trees in winter.

After we'd done a quick out-and-back ramble, we returned to the car so Tank could sip hot apple cider from a thermos and I could change footwear.

This time I used the FAST snowshoes

While it was comparatively easier running in much lighter snowshoes on packed snow than in my heavy EVA 'shoes in the deep, fresh snow, the strain on my hamstrings and hip flexors from the previous day's exertions in the rain had taken their toll. I was a couple of minutes faster for the just-over-5k run through the sunset - with less time spent stopped to catch my breath - but I was thoroughly knackered afterward!

I had just enough light to get it done.

I spend most of my running life just ambling around at a fairly easy pace: sometimes a hill will get me gasping a bit, and occasionally it's just fun to push hard and run "fast", but I seldom do anything that could be called speedwork. Since snowshoe racing is really just a competition to see who can suffer the most - I'm pretty sure if you're not tasting pennies you're doing it wrong - I'm really happy to have got these challenging runs in to try to build whatever top-end I can achieve before the racing season starts on February 2nd.

These runs, plus the balls-out running I'll be doing in the races themselves, will lay the foundation for whatever reserves of speed I'll carry into the spring and try to maintain through the summer...when really the only time I'll come close to the same heart rates will be when there's someone watching while I'm on a big hill, and can't really bring myself to drop to a walk..

Building fitness through social anxiety is not a recognized training method, but maybe it should be..

It looks like the snow may all be rained away by tomorrow morning, so I'm glad I was able to take advantage while it lasted! Now I just have to hope there's a decent base for the races themselves.