Brrrr!

I had a very unsatisfying run this evening. It was freezing outside and the pavements were glistening with ice so I had to try and run mostly in the middle of the road where the cars were keeping the tarmac warm. This wasn't ideal as it was rush hour and it was dark, so I had to keep hoping back onto the pavement. I couple of times I nearly slipped and I found myself running really slowly and delicately, picking up my feet in an exaggerated way. If it is possible to run gingerly, that's what I was doing. It made the run very unsatisfying as I never built up enough speed to feel I was working my lungs and getting my legs moving properly, and I ended up cutting short the last loop as I was bored of worrying about skidding across the road on my butt. A short, unsatisfying run today is definitely better than broken bones for Christmas!

What do runners do who live in really icy countries like Finland and er, Iceland? I guess they must run on treadmills a lot during the winter, or maybe they wear trail shoes all the time, if their grip works better on slippery frozen surfaces. Perhaps they have special ice-proof trainers, or attachments for their regular shoes, like snow chains for their car tyres. Either way, I hope it warms up here soon, although with snow forecast across much of England for this week that doesn't seem likely.