Winter running

Get your running done while you can. According to one or two computer models there’s a wintery spell coming this way that will make the recent cold snap look like nothing. Our running colleagues in the UK and Ireland have had to be innovative to get their miles in recently. Either that or take a little break. Ordinary running shoes aren’t much use to you on snow and ice. So what do you do? Hit the gym – get a few miles in on the tready, maybe take the opportunity to throw in some weights, core, plyo? We’re lucky in that we’ve got plenty of runnable beaches which are usually snow and ice-free. Unfortunately we’ve got a big dog population, most of whose owners are secretly delighted when their brutes run amok, snapping and barking at runners – ‘He won’t bite, he’s only being friendly.’ ‘Ouch!’ ‘Oh sorry, he’s never done that before.’ Or do you pull out the trail shoes or cross country spikes and carry on as usual? Your choice.

Well if there’s to be an apocalyptic winter I got a few good miles in this week.
Monday – Green Road/La Blinerie/Rue de Samares/Coast Road – a ‘quick’ 3.1 miles.
Tuesday – Coast Road/Ponterson Lane/Rue de Maupertuis/Coast Road – 3.6 miles fairly quick.
Wednesday – Green Road/La Blinerie/Rue Soulas/Blood Hill/Route des Cotils/Rue au Long/Rue de la Lourderie/La Petite Sente/Coast Road – 6.6 miles at a nice tempo. Then 3.1 miles with the St Mary ladies as per previous post.
Thursday – FB Fields/Inner Road/Rue de Jambart/Coast Road/Ponterson Lane/Inner Road back to FB Fields – approx. 3.2 miles wearily.
Friday – rest day.
Saturday – Wednesday’s route to Grouville Arsenal then down to Grouville Church/Rue de Grouville/Rue du Moulin de Bas/Route des Maltieres/Mont du Gouray/Gorey Harbour/Coast Road home. 10.3 miles with three nice hills but I ended up running on empty. I could barely manage a few warm-down strides.
Sunday – Barefoot strides 3(100m x 5) – 0.9 miles.