Tag: running winter

  • Them Feets

    Sunday Runday, and I didn’t.

    For a whole week I’ve been sidelined by a heel ailment that I’ve self-diagnosed as a touch of plantar fasciitis, or runner’s heel.

    Them feets!

    The thing is that I’m supposed to run a half marathon in a little more than a month.

    The thing is that I need to keep in half marathon shape while not exacerbating an injury that could take a couple weeks to recover.

    Them feets!

    The thing is I’m a stubborn guy and I’m having trouble sitting it out. Resting. Healing.

    I have a stationary bike in my basement tho, so while my running crew plodded out on the winter trails I descended to my little exercise space and spun out twenty klicks of aerobic fitness.

    Them feets!

    Then I met the runners for coffee where we can actually, finally, go inside and sit for a bit at the local recreation centre, proof of vaccination required, and all in all not quite back to normal, but close enough.

    The countdown is on to race day and I’ll cross that finish line, hell or high water. Right now, tho, it might be with a limp rather than a leap.

  • Three Cheers for Traction

    Having run for well over a decade in the ever changing seasons of the Canadian prairies I have fought many battles with the hardened warrior otherwise known as winter trail conditions.

    Ankle-deep fresh snow. Ice-slickened asphalt. Road slop like oatmeal or worse, dirty slush.

    It is only November yet already the paths have become an assortment of challenging terrain …

    … except that back in the late summer I bought a pair of trail shoes.

    They haven’t been a perfect winter shoe, but they have made tackling the traction obstacles a formidable challenge rather than an impassible barrier. Unlike my summer sneakers or even previous winter runners I’ve owned, there is a remarkable surefooted stability to be found even in deep snow and icy patches on the sidewalks that I’ve struggled to find elsewhere. I’m sold, and even pullover spikes or other traction offerings that I’ve used over the years don’t seem to fall into a comparable classification as having tested my trail shoes through the abrupt arrival of winter weather this past week.

    So I ordered a second pair yesterday.

    Kinda. Sorta. Almost.

    The summer version, which I own, is a light and responsive shoe meant for muddy paths and navigating narrow gravel trails.

    The winter version, that second-ish pair now en route to my house, is a waterproof, insulated version of the same shoe but with grippier soles designed to take on those cold and epic winter conditions and a warmer approach to footwear.

    Ice and snow will become far less of an excuse this winter.

    I mean, I say that now… ask me again when it’s dark, icy, and minus forty degrees outside this January.

  • trails chill blight

    We ran in the fresh snow last night. It was cold and potentially dangerous, a truth unceremoniously marked by an encounter with the local emergency services at work in the dark, chill below the trails.

    pow’dree treads in i’see dark.
    en frozen. blust’ring. cold. nay, stark
    thern’winds whorl, rustle, haunt thas’night.
    four, boundless, b’yond trails chill blight.

    tha’sun were set, tho hints re’maned
    magenta skies in west’ern waned
    walk’d peoples and der’hounds thru snow
    we past dem. wav’d. en on weed go.

    where fresh fel’n snow obscures ern’root
    leap’t o’er berms forged a for’gone foot.
    tho, oft thru past we runners been
    wern’t weer cool soles upon thas’seen.

    resolute shunn’d eer’even pace
    skiffs weer leapt oer’en shad’wee lace
    well thru branches blinkt urgent reds
    signals marking emerg’nt dreads

    where oer thar creek spans trestle’d path
    uniforms climb out tha’natured wrath
    en’wen weed shine er probing lights
    peekt down tward on griz’illed sights

    silence. chill. in’gulfed we four souls.
    onward ran, tho er hearts weer holes
    marked hold’en to thas thing below
    som’one fell, froze, succumb’d by snow.

    thern’winds whorl, rustle, haunt thas’night.
    four, boundless, b’yond trails chill blight.
    digits numb’d weed end our jaunting,
    frozen. blust’ring. cold. nay, haunting.

    – bardo

    I am not a poet, but a friend has inspired me to read more of it and think more critically about its place in the constellation of my creative pursuits. Occasionally, I’d like to post a poem here when inspiration strikes.

  • Winter Reprise Surprise Run

    Sunday Runday, and yesterday morning I did some work in the yard, took the dog for a lovely spring walk, sat in the grass, cleaned up some flower beds, and generally enjoyed the spring.

    This morning we met for a run on icy sidewalks and through ankle-deep snow.

    These woodpecker winter days are nothing too surprising for anyone who has lived here very long. The gentle-jabbing joke that quickly circulates on text threads between local friends is “ok, who put their snow shovels away for the winter! It must be your fault!”

    So, surprise… no.

    But it is still very much a shock to the system when one is expecting something slightly warmer when planning a spring run.

    I’d already cleaned up and packed away all my winter running gear. The mitts, hats, heavy jackets all tucked into the closets once again. The shoe spikes hidden away for next winter.

    Maybe it was my fault the snow came back for a reprise.

    We immediately made for the trees and escaped the icy city streets dropping into the river valley trails. The snow was deeper there but the ice was far less dangerous.

    The snow storm had blown in quickly and aggressively, dropping a near-horizontal storm on the whole region. Somewhere between five and ten centimeters of fresh white powder covered the ground and then also the west side of everything. Wind. Horizontal snow. It sticks in unexpected places. The fluffy white kiss of winter’s last gasp clung to the trunks of trees and every branch of every tree creating a magical scene along the trails.

    I spent almost as much time snapping photos as I did running.

    As much as we’re used to a fresh snowfall here, it never ceases to be a breathtakingly beautiful opportunity to inhabit these familiar spaces as they are temporarily dressed in an all-encompassing snowy veil.

    And temporary is the key word.

    Even on the loop back I could see the melt begin.

    Have you ever felt that sensation of momentary awe when you witness some bit of slow-motion nature happen in real time. Like, when you walk through the woods and a branch tumbles to the ground from high up in a tree. It has been growing there for years attached to the trunk of an even older tree, and then in that one moment as you pass by it happens to reach a critical tipping point between gravity and connection, and it falls down to the ground.

    This morning was like that, except in high speed clumps of snow were loosing from their grip on the woods, tumbling through the lower branches and releasing a puff of snow as they crashed to the ground, here, there, here, over there, and there too.

    Even the slippery city walks had mostly thawed as we returned to our vehicles and stopped our GPS watches for another successful Sunday run.

    And by next Sunday, likely as not we will be back to treading through familiar spring trails and snowy paths will be just another week gone by.

  • Urban Creek Run Club

    Sunday Runday, and the weather improved by about thirty degrees Celsius over last weekend. I’m not afraid of the cold, but since I couldn’t run with friends I’m not running alone in brutally freezing temps.

    This weekend we resumed our small band of cohort runners for the second real run club of the year, and located some urban trails closer to the downtown of the city where we could enjoy the zero degree weather.

    The run included some scenic views of the downtown. (I used to work in one of those buildings! I guess I still do, I just haven’t been there in almost a year.)

    We navigated our way through some of the asphalt paths, still crunchy with a layer of dirty snow, up and into one of the neighbourhoods, and then back into the creek valley via a staircase. My calves were not impressed. I guess I should go up and down my stairs at home a little more frequently than to just refill my coffee.

    During the fall this is a lovely canopy of colours rich with that scent of gently decaying foliage. Today it was a well-trod winter path, wide enough to socially distance.

    None of us were feeling particularly fast, but it’s been a long, cold off-season. Most of these folks should have been running marathons this year, but thanks to the pandemic it’s more likely to be virtual 10k races.

    And yes, those are shorts… anything warmer than zero is shorts-weather around here.

    And the creek, still frozen, beckoned us for a short stretch of our total distance. The water underfoot is frozen for about thirty or forty centimeters of ice thickness. If it happened to crack though, no worries: the creek itself is only about a meter deep.

    Cold yes, but not too deep.

    We concluded with some lawnchairs in the parking lot, drinking some coffees from a nearby local and independent cafe, bundled up in our blankets and trying to keep at least six feet apart while we recovered.

    Hopefully the running season keeps at this pace, even though my personal pace could use a lot of improvement.