Winter Challenge

Unseasonably cold weather has hammered the Shenandoah Valley since the first full week of December. Then last Thursday, three inches of snow fell. Running has become a challenge already.

For the cold, drinking a full glass of water 30 minutes before a run helps regulate body temperature, as does dressing in layers. For me, temperatures or wind chills in the teens require tights and wind pants, three long sleeved tee shirts and a shirt sleeved tee, my ski mask, gloves, two pairs of socks--and my inhaler. With practice, a runner can figure out the appropriate amount and type of clothing. Information is available on the web and in running magazines also.

More challenging, however, is coping with the snow. When the snow isn't too deep, some run with specially designed traction devices added to their shoes, such as YakTracs. A friend of mine screws a few screws into his shoes for traction. Here in Broadway, however, finding a place to run after a snow is difficult. If one is willing to drive to Eastern Mennonite University, the college allows community members to run on the indoor track for free--when the college is open.

For me, driving 15 minutes for a 30 minute run doesn't make a lot of sense. Running the trail in the park is not an option until the snow melts, nor is running the outdoor tracks.

Running on the road, even if it's plowed, isn't safe because the shoulder is deep with removed snow. Additionally, if the wind is gusting, we face a tortuous 1.5 miles of wind at a time.

What we've done is run on the parking lot of John C. Myers Elementary school. The parking lot has a high section and a low, which provides a steep (albeit short) hill for rudimentary hill work. We run around the perimeter using the clock as an estimate of the number of miles traveled, and we estimate on the high side, adding a minute to the normal number of minutes it takes to run a mile. This option gets pretty tedious, but it works.

Another option we've used is to run in the subdivision near the school. Taking every cul de sac available provides a run of about 1.5 miles (again we run by time). This route is pretty hilly, too, and the houses block the wind.

Sometimes we just give up and cut the runs short--choosing a one or two mile as fast as we can tolerate and calling it speedwork. That was the option I chose for this afternoon's run with my seven-year-old grandaughter. With the wind and the cold, one mile on the hills of the suburb was enough. And the hot chocolate reward at the end was precious.