Snow Runner

I woke up at 6:15 like a little child on Christmas morning!  I ran to the window to see if we had snow and I wasn’t disappointed!  Our street was covered, but with only about 2 inches of snow, not the 6 inches the weatherman had promised “Snowquester” would dump by 6 AM.  🙁

Bill and I strapped on our YakTrax and headed out for a snowy run.  We hoped the trail would have a couple inches of soft, shock-absorbing snow, and that our run would be a real treat, but we found much of the trail covered in slush.  Stealing a phrase from one of my friends on facebook today, we ran in a “giant white Slurpee!”  It snowed on us the whole hour that we were out, but because it was such a wet snow, my jacket and ponytail  looked like we’d run in the rain.

The thing I like best about running in YakTrax is that you really don’t have to change up your form while you’re running, and you don’t look like a Nervous Nellie out there!  YakTrax are like chains for your shoes and increase your traction and stability on ice and snow.  Be aware that when the pavement is mostly dry with the occasional icy/snowy spot, running on the dry pavement on your YakTrax can cause them to break.  In those cases, I run along the side of the dry trail in the snow or grass until I hit the snowy patches again.

YakTrax Tracks

We saw what we assumed were fox tracks, but no foxes; geese tracks, but no geese; bird tracks, and of course Yak tracks (get it, YakTrax).  🙂  We saw some robins that must have wondered why they had returned to our area so soon.

Perhaps these were Hokie Bird’s tracks!

After our run, one of my clients braved the weather and came to my home gym to workout.  She has just recently recommitted herself to a healthy lifestyle and I was so proud of her for refusing to let a little snow keep her from getting her workout completed.  While she was here, it started snowing like crazy and I thought she might have to spend the night with us!

As soon as my client left, I spent at least an hour getting my own strength training workout in.  I had time to focus extra on my core since the rest of my day was a SNOW DAY!!!

I made beef stew for dinner, using my mom’s recipe.  I always buy the leanest steak I can find and cut it up rather than use stew meat.  I added lots of onions, tomatoes, red potatoes, carrots, and corn; and I must admit, it was delicious!

Back to the real world tomorrow after today’s “not as snowy as hoped for” day…

• Questions:
• Have you ever run in YakTrax?
• Do you ever run and strength on the same day?
• Do you love to cook comfort foods on snowy days?