Winter Running - What? How? Why?
By ArcticDuplo
Well winter has taken a very firm grip in Greenland and aside from the insanely high amount of travel that I have to endure this season. Trips planned to the UK, Netherlands, France, Germany, US, Singapore and UAE before April next year, then whenever I am home (in greenland) the picture above is what early winter running looks like for me.
I tend to look at winter running as a different sport almost, Barefoot running is normally out fairly early on as they cover the streets and sidewalks in crunched rock to allow all the shod people some traction, but it really is a very nasty experience to run on crushed rock (it is some pretty sharp and pointy stuff).
Roads quickly get covered in thick layers of ice and compressed snow (mixed with afore mentioned crushed rocks), trackion is never perfect and the world "slippery" comes to mind.
I temd to sneak into a pair of seeyas and use it as an opportunity to work on my running technique (or form or whatever) if you can run up a steep icy hill without spikes it is going to take some work on your technique, same goes for downhill runs
Off trial I tend to favour the nordic (or is it cross country?) skiing trails, I run on the compacted part used for Skate skiing on good days you only dig in from from 2-10CM making it nearly runnable and a great quad workout. on bad days or on the snowmobile trail you will sink in anywhere from 2-30cm and have a serious quad workout. my choice of shoes for this is the spyridon and it is excellent for this kind of running.
Keep your ears and eyes open though, you do not want to be in the way of a snowmobile or nordic skiier going downhill.
Short hours of daylight means plenty of these runs are wearing a headlamp to increase the fun and temperatures are often in the -15C to -25C range.
This also means that I don't really focus on race pace or pace at all. I tend to focus on the outdoor experience, on having fun and experience the varied challenges and different running conditions the winter landscape has to offer.
On my travels to warmer climates the shoes are the first thing to get kicked off when running though
What is your winter running strategy? what do you do and how do you approach it?
Anyone doing backcountry snowshoe running? something completely different?
Would be amazing to get some inspiration and ideas