Two years after buying a pair of 4WD vehicles after we'd struggled to get to work for a fortnight we've finally had a reasonably protracted period of snow (during most of which I went to the Alps...).
However my other purchase from that previous mini-ice age has come in handy today - a set of Kahtoola Microspikes. I bought them because I was running a lot on the canal, and once a few people have been along the towpath it gets very slippy - as it was in places today.
K decided that the snow might be a bit tiring for Izzy (she's about 98% border collie - I'm sure she'd be fine, but hey ho...), and Herb's away, so I was on my own today.
I ran in trail shoes, and I wasn't really aware of slipping a lot for the first 3 miles, but once I'd put my spikes on I made better progress. In fact looking back at my stats I speeded up by a good 15-20 secs a mile after I put them on.
I turned at the Tesco road near Crossflatts with 5 mile and a tad over 40 minutes on the watch, then running back was slightly harder work - hardly surprising when I look back I haven't run 10m since May 2011 - and explains why I'm so unfit!
I started feeling like I was getting a bit of rubbing on the ball of my left foot after 8 miles or so, so I stopped a couple of times - I think it's my shoe/sock combination rather than the spikes though.
Anyway - 10m in the bank in just under 82 minutes. I'm thinking if I can keep getting a 10-14 miler in most weekends, along with a selection of midweek runs I should be in decent shape to maybe do some racing later in the spring.
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