After today I officially LOVE snowy runs. While yesterday was a bit difficult due to the lack of sun glasses/glare from the snow, today was amazing. Also if you don’t already own a pair of polarized sun glasses, I highly recommend them. I have Native’s which are expensive, but completely worth it. These puppies have allowed be to be able to see things when in many cases I would have been, yes, blinded by the light. I also use them as a headband. This irritates all of my friends and family, but whatever. Anyway sun glasses rock, spiel over.
Today’s run (also like my sun glasses) rocked. It snowed yesterday, not much, but it was “packing snow” and fantastic for running on. My run ended up being more of an obstacle course-like race, instead of a traditional run, but it was awesome. I did 3 miles in 34 minutes. I felt very much like a gazelle, leaping and bounding (not on the Sahara) over the snow. My sunglasses made everything look crisp and sharp in the sunlight. It was very beautiful and made me even more motivated. I was originally only going to run 2.5 today, but I was so enthralled with being outside in such beautiful weather, I added .5 to the run. Good timing too, because now it’s cloudy and looking like snow (part tres).
I really enjoyed the run; I felt giddy like a kid. I tapered myself and didn’t run as fast as I wanted to, but I made up for speed with distance and felt just awesome. One of my favorite things to do on a run is coasting on the down hills. I love it because I basically cut the calf muscles and work solely with my quads. Some people don’t like the pounding feeling of charging downhill, but I do. When you are flying on a down hill, you can feel you quadriceps moving like a cheetah up and down, pumping to propel you forward. Really the feeling is inexplicable; I’m not doing it justice. But by the same accord, I recognize that you really should run the up hills and walk the down hills in trail running, but whatever. I know my strengths.
During the run I tried to implement some different techniques to make my body work harder without expending as much energy and give my knees a bit of a break. One thing I tried was shortening my gait (in between the leaping I had to do over snow banks and snow drifts). This was very Very VERY helpful. Once I shortened my gait, the pain in my knee decreased so much so that it was essentially non-existent. I was thrilled. I also tried something I have done before many times and its when you focus your attention to straightening your back as you run and making your quads do more work than your knees. I often find that I sag physically on runs and I slouch. When you slouch while running, you look like a gorilla and you put a lot more weight on your knees. Utilizing your quads more during a run helps you take some pressure off your knees and helps retain better form. Also, squeezing your glutes while running gets a similar response from you back and quads.
Good stuff.
Also if you’ve read my earlier post about running with others, you may enjoy this article: Distance Runner ISO Sole Mate. I thought it was hysterical and awesome. Enjoy!
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