From Sunshine to Snow

am: 40 mins easy in snow
Drills with George + lots of strides
pm: 45 mins easy/steady on trails at the lake
12.5mi

We'd read the weather forecasts and prepared for the worst but I don't think anyone expected to see over 2 foot of snow after peeling the curtains back this morning. I was up at 0800 and I was pretty nonplussed to be honest - there's no point in getting annoyed; just make the best of it. I had some breakfast and wasn't planning on running but drills was put back an hour so I just did an easy run beforehand instead of warm up & warm down. I was a bit antisocial and boring on the run as I didn’t throw any snowballs or mess around as I stubbornly wanted to get it out of the way and avoid running stupidly slowly. The road was very clear so I just took the risk and ran with the traffic on the road up to the track. Once we got there I ran in lane 1 with a kicking running style to get the snow out of the way and then it wasn’t too bad. I just kept lapping and then ran back along the road – job done. I warmed myself with up with a hot mug of tea and then headed into the underground car park for drills! My glutes were still sore/tight today so I was careful what I did and missed an exercise in the middle – I had a good stretch here instead. It was a bit different to last week as we did more clawing-type exercises like the regular ‘cycling’ drill that I am used to. Lots and lots of strides. I had a shower and some porridge with Rocky Balboa on the TV - I paid little attention! We went to Super-U and the roads were remarkably clear - credit to Font Romeu and the surrounding area. I had a general massage as soon as we got back, focussing on my tight glutes that are still there from Saturday's session! I felt nice and loose afterwards. I got a few league games in the bag on PES and then found out Bogdanovich has played his last game for the Reds - not the sort of uplifting news I wanted on a snow day. On our way to reception Paula Radcliffe had just arrived for physio but I didn't manage to catch a glimpse of her! The trails at the lake were great as the snow was not an issue down there; it was very wet underfoot but it was a relief to be able to run naturally given the conditions. It was really cold and blustery and not pleasant to run in but had to be done. It started out at very easy and then we gradually picked it up to a good pace that seemed relatively easy but my legs were heavy to begin with. I didn’t do strides as I just got straight into the car to get warm. Barkesy and I agreed that you feel incredibly satisfied getting the scheduled training done in adversity so morale was high. We had a proper British dinner of steak, mash, veg and gravy before a meeting at 8pm to discuss the changes to training plans for the week. The decision we came to was to move the session on the dam from Saturday to tomorrow so fingers crossed the weather will hold off a little but I'm not holding my breath. I Skyped Phil again this evening and altered my schedule a little due to the weather. A big well done to one of my best friends James Wilkinson for taking on the 1500 guys at BUCS and bagging bronze.