Monthly Archives: February 2008

Another really icy run today in -36 degree wind chill weather, and my pace suffered greatly due to the fact that I foolishly decided to run one trail loop again. I also seemed to have dropped my balaclava not fifty feet from my door and I did not notice it until I needed it around the 3 km mark. My gel heat pad worked, although my rigged up method of holding it in place failed miserably and I had to constantly adjust it back to where it should be. I had some of those iron oxidative disposable heat pads with me but they are as useless as a two legged chair. I bought some at the dollar store. I am sure had I bought them anywhere else they would have worked better. I had to remove my coat early as it was too hot. The problem with running in the … Continue reading →

I plan on doing a 2 km walk/run every day of the week when I am not doing a longer scheduled training run. I have been and am running 3 days per week, so that means I will be adding 8 km per week. I will be doing it on the treadmill, and it is mostly a walk because I don’t want to make an effort. I just want to burn an extra 400 calories a week as I am still trying to lose a lot of weight. I have said and still believe that you can’t exercise your way out of overeating so I am cutting back on that too. Let’s just say it is an experiment to see if I can accelerate things a bit. Today’s treadmill workout was completely a leisurely walk/stroll at no more than 3 MPH over 1.25 miles (I don’t have a metric treadmill, … Continue reading →

A very interesting run happened today in which I tested some new things. First of all it was a wickedly cold run at -36 wind chill in a 30 kph wind. Very nasty stuff! Thank God I was in the sheltered trees most of the time, but the 2 km I ran in the open was tortuously dangerous. For that part I was a wee bit under-dressed, and for the sheltered areas a wee bit over-dressed. Such are the woes of running in the winter I suppose. I ran 7 km in 49:50 for a 7:07 pace. In the past, I have had a bit of trouble running in these conditions because my belly would start getting too cold as in the first pangs of frostbite. I figure this is because every time I breathe my belly pushes against my clothing and pushes out all the trapped warm air. Probably … Continue reading →

Another 7 km run in -21 wind chill weather. It was a decent run, not too uncomfortable at a 7:34 pace. My Yaktrax seem to have lost their edge. They have 385 km on them. Otherwise they are in good shape with nothing broken on them except one tiny loop of one coil. I am running on hard packed snow which has been glazed over by the snowplows and cars. It is a good running surface, but if you hit a soft spot it really slows you down and the effort you need to maintain the same pace is much greater. You can really feel the difference in the snow temperature under your feet by the traction and hardness. If I am forced over to the shoulder of the road, it is like suddenly running into quicksand or something because it has not been compressed by traffic.