Snow, Snow, Snow

Seal Skin socks and Inov-8 studs dealt very well with uncompacked snow and the little ice that has been around. So Friday to Sunday included very nice, but quite cold evenings of 5 or 6 miles in the dark on snow. I suggest a snow plod multiplier of about 1.2 making the running a little harder, but no where near the added difficulty of last year. Still, more snow is forecast so the snow plod multiplier may increase.

Hound has a new green flashing led collar which appears to stop motorists who can't work out what it is.

The tail end of this week has been really about getting myself reacquainted to running in the cold and dark. While moving I find I need a lot less insulation that I expect when I am starting out. This is important to be able to judge how many layers and how thick each one should be for the temperature and wind. I have pacing for 2 winter rounds coming up in 2 weeks time and keen not to make the same mistake as last year where wearing a Buffalo Smock almost cooked me alive, even though the temperature was around -8. Major lesson learned.

Other major lesson was that drinks not in a flask will freeze, so I have a few heating pads which should take the chill off a drink in a camel pack without melting the bag itself.

Cardington Cracker race next weekend. I suspect it will be fun! For some historical reason it is one of my 3 favorite fell races of the year (Long Mynd Valleys and Nant Peris Horseshoe are the 2 others). A time of 1.42.30 last year, so lets go for under 1.40 this year, but times relative to last year will be irrelevant if there is a lot of snow to slow things down and spice it up.