LIFE’S LESSONS

I should start keeping track of Life’s Lessons as they pertain to running. Some that come to mind are;

In the winter, start your run INTO the wind.
Do your strides on a gradual
downhill and with the wind.
During the winter base-building phase, focus on
duration, not distance.
If you’ve “been there” before you don’t have to be as
cautious.
Don’t taper all summer.

You never know when these Lessons will spring themselves on you. For example, last night I went snowshoeing for the first time and came up with this one;

Don’t wear ankle socks while snowshoeing.

This morning I ran a very slow 5 miles. The trail had about 3 inches of fresh snow, so it was slow going – even in Yaktrax. This evening I met about 10 members of my training group for about an hour of snowshoeing/running. We only had 7 pairs of snowshoes, so some people had to “just” run. I used the snowshoes for about 35 minutes and then ran for another 20 minutes.

To be honest, I enjoyed the running more – even through about 6 inches of powder. The snowshoeing just didn’t do it for me. I’d rather just go for a run than lug those things around. I suppose if I were in some exotic backcountry they’d be cool. But when you’re putzing around a golf course in St. Paul they’re not so cool.

Anyway, since shoeshoeing so closely resembles running, I'm logging it as a 6 mile run.