RUNNING IN SNOW

I ached this morning. last night I went for a run in the snow around Riga (and -9) and this morning my legs told me that I had done something really different from normal. Today's run around the woods was equally hard work. It was still -6 and one finger on my right hand stubbornly refused to warm up. It really hurt for a while. Running in snow is a good reminder for all athletes that too much running on the road narrows down the scope of muscle usage and after a long period of only road running, muscle can become so narrowly defined in movement that any sudden slip or movement out of pattern can easily result in a painful tear injury.

So my advice is, use the snow for training as much as possible and run off road and tracks in the soft snow to strengthen the legs and hips. You will run slower of course but this does not matter because you are probably working harder than normal anyway. The more that you do this sort of work, the more robust you will be during the summer track or road races.

What snow running really brings home to you is how poor are most running shoes for this sort of work. Normal trainers do not have enough grip and many of the supposedly off road shoes are frankly useless. They are heavy and the tread on them is far too rounded to be of any use. I have a seriously good pair of Adidas shoes with sharp edged studs on the sole but their fault is that they are too thin underneath to give any proper support when there are clear road sections. The heel is also only the small studs so they have worn away far too soon. Now I don't mind Adidas doing this to make money, but since I bought this pair I have never seen any more of them. These have become rather precious to me.

The best shoes made for snow and mud were the Adidas cross country that many of us also used for orienteering. They were remarkably comfortable to wear and the studs gripped really well. They also had enough heel to give some padding when running tired. But again, finding these things is like looking for gold dust. I have no idea why the shoe manufacturers treat us in this way but as soon as a decent shoe appears like Nike Air Mariah, they change it or pull it off the market.

Whilst I am on the subject and going strong, the best spikes I have ever had were from Adidas in 1976. They had a soft blue stipple sole, very small thin spikes and soft leather uppers. Wearing them was like wearing a fine pair of gloves and they felt like magic. Just putting them on made my adrenaline rush. The beauty of them was that you could feel the track under your feet and could almost dance when you ran. Now most spikes have huge swathes of plastic underneath and very little heel of substance. The front is so large that it makes the centre of gravity of your body move and actually throws you backwards instead of helping you go faster. They may be good for sprinters but not for proper runners.