Running in the Snow

The snow was deep this past week and we enjoyed a few snowshoe outings. The temperature has warmed up, the snow is melting and it's time for the Yak Trax. They fit very easily over the shoe and provide just the right amount of extra grip without being too cumbersome.

They have velcro straps that fasten over the top of the shoe. Very easy to get on and off and they really provide you with that extra bit of confidence on the snow.

The floating bridge at Hayward Lake where we did a 2 hour outing today. It is really a great work out running in the snow, the effort is a little more and you can feel your leg muscles working it!

Wind warning for tomorrow with milder temperatures - that will melt the snow. The snow was nice while it was here!

A Weekend of Snowshoeing

Friday night it snowed! Not too much in the city of Vancouver but several inches where we live in the Fraser Valley. Our original Saturday plan was to run at Buntzen Lake but with the snow and unpredictable road conditions, we decided to stay closer to home and embrace the snow. So we went snowshoeing and broke trail at the Malcolm Knapp Research Forest. It was hard work as the snow was up to 15" deep further out. Today we doubled our pleasure and went back to push our trail in the snow a little further and enjoy the bright sunny day. Dave joined us for the outing and we covered about 12km.









There is more snow in the forecast over the next few days. Winter is here!

First Long Run of 2012.

Saturday was our first long run in 2012. We completed almost a 5 hour outing on trails on the North Shore. The departure from home was a bit dodgy with trying to register online for Chuckanut 50km trail run. Registration opened at 8am and has a history of filling up in minutes. It is a popular ultra in Washington state just over the Canada/USA border. This will be our 5th time for this event. Once registered we were off...

We picked Marla up and arrived at Craig's to meet up with Craig, Liza and Wendy. We ran from Craig's through Lynn Valley until we found the trail to join the Dirty Duo Route. It was great to catch up with them all. The time passed quickly and we all did well considering we haven't been out for this long for awhile. It was a cool/wet day on the trails and we met snow at the Mushroom Parking Lot. There was a bit of lolly gagging around the half way point but Craig ensured we picked up the pace and all was well.

I didn't pack enough food for the run and really appreciated Craig sharing a fruit bar with me close to the end. Sometimes we become complacent with our outings and aren't as prepared as we should be. It was a good reminder to us that we need to take more food for the longer runs.

The post run food was good! We were all quite hungry. It was nice to share our running plans/goals for 2012. There are many great events - how to fit them all in?

Happy Trails in 2012!




Craig and I last year at the finish of the Dirty Duo 50km.


Craig and Wendy post run Saturday.


Craig and Liza post run Saturday...waiting patiently for our food!