Winter came a little bit early this year and it came with a fury. I think most of us in the Twin Cities were glad that the storm track moved and we missed the 14″ of snow that some had predicted! Nevertheless, I went for a run with my visiting sister during the snow storm this past Tuesday morning!
She wasn’t really prepared for such nasty weather so I had to loan her a few things. I actually had to dig out quite a bit of winter gear myself. I wore tights and merino wool shirt underneath windbreaker pants, a long-sleeve t-shirt, and a windbreaker jacket. I started with a Smartwool neck gaiter but that proved too hot and an Icebreakerz hat. And my Saucony Utili-Mitt. I love those gloves! I had to loan her pretty much the outer layer of everything and gloves/hat. You can read more about my winter gear plans on this old post about running at -21.
I pulled out the Yak-trax and I actually had just gotten a pair of new ones in the mail to review. But decided at the last minute not to wear them. Probably should have. My dilemma is that the first 1/2 mile of my run is on the hospital’s sidewalk which is usually pretty much immaculate. Yak-trax are horrible on dry or little snow covered surfaces. But for the rest of the run they would have come in handy. They aren’t super easy to slip-on mid-run. Sometimes I’ve just ran in the “grass” instead of the sidewalk if I know the route will be super icy. That isn’t a bad solution for a short period of time.
Oddly as it seems, I am looking forward to running a bit more now that winter is here. Last Sunday I rode my bike to church for the last time for the season. Depending on how the storm progressed I had contemplated riding it to Solcana Monday morning, but there was already enough snow on the ground that I decided that I was done for the season! Since I won’t be riding to work on a regular basis anymore, that leaves an extra day for running! This past week I ran 2 days and Crossfit 3. I thought about running on Saturday morning and could have without the kids but thought I should take it easy. I’m not sure if I’ll run with the stroller much. Two main reasons – too cold on the kidddos and don’t want to ruin the trailer. It seems that if I don’t want to ride my bike in the salty slush, I probably shouldn’t use the trailer which cost almost as much as my bike! How cold is too cold to push the kids? I’m tempted to try a trail run with the trailer using the ski attachment. Anyone tried that with the Burly or Chariot? I know it works well for skiing and snow shoeing.
Ok, so that’s some random winter thoughts. Are you excited for winter to be here?
