Thursday, December 27, 2012

A new, yet not so different, sport!

"Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety."
Francis Bacon

"It takes some cardiovascular fitness. You are going to end up being fit if you do a lot of snowshoeing, and I think that's one of the reasons a lot of people do it."
Dave Rehm

My Christmas gift from Uber H :)
There is a regular shoe with laces inside the cover - it is all one piece. The boot is attached, sort of like a cross-country ski - very solid.

My family and I are registered to complete the "Pentathlon des Neiges" in Québec city on March 3rd! The race is made up of five winter sports and we are doing it as a team. My son Kevin will start us off with 15km on the bike (yes he will be biking in the snow with some winterized tires); then comes my daughter Jessica who will run 5.5km in the packed snow; we then have my husband (aka Uber H) who will cross-country ski for 9kms; followed by my daughter's boyfriend who will skate for 8.4kms and finally, I will be bringing us home with a 4.5km snowshoe run (for a grand total of 42km) :) I am super excited to have the latest and lightest technology. I did a 1km trial run on Christmas day and it will indeed, be a great workout. It requires more cardio than running only with my shoes and it works the quads, because I must raise my legs higher. With the storm going on out there today, I have a feeling I'll be able to give it a real try tomorrow! 

As for the training, I am pleased to say that it continues to go well. I even took pictures when I went for my long run on the morning of Christmas eve. It was so beautiful outside and the view made me smile :)

It was one of those runs where I figured I'd see how it went. The plan was 18km, but I didn't know if I had it in me. My grand-daughter was sick and had slept over two nights prior - she was throwing up and had me sleeping with only one eye. So, although I had slept better the night before my run, I didn't know what to expect. Well, it was one of those really nice and relaxed long runs and 18km felt easy. I took a few iphone pictures and the weather was amazing. I'm also pretty sure this long run is partly why I'm the only one in the family who didn't get sick (I sweated out the toxins). Everyone else got a 24 hour bug - throwing up and sleeping. The other reason could be the Super-mom gene (we've had contact with almost every bug raising our kids), makes us a little stronger ;)

Yesterday was my first tempo run on this program and I liked doing it their way. It was a short 10 minute tempo with a warm-up and cool down. All tempos are out-and-back with the first half at about half-marathon pace and the second half at close to 10K pace. So I'm supposed to do the first half of the tempo in one direction, then come back for the second half, which should end further than where I started (since I should be running faster). The goal is to work on negative splits. Last week was also my first time ever doing fartlek. I had to include 4 surges of 90 seconds into my run. I'm really loving all this variety within my program.

I hope you are all enjoying your holidays! My favorite part is having all my kids around for a few days :)

Cheers!!

Have any of you ever tried snowshoe running? What did you think?

10 comments:

Char said...

No, I've never tried snowshoeing. Probably never will unless there's some weird weather phenomenon that makes it actually snow in Brisbane. It sounds like a really fun relay that your family is going to do.

Char said...

No, I've never tried snowshoeing. Probably never will unless there's some weird weather phenomenon that makes it actually snow in Brisbane. It sounds like a really fun relay that your family is going to do.

Tina @GottaRunNow said...

I haven't had the chance to snowshoe, but I have worked in negative splits in training. Great workout! Have fun with the snowshoes!

Murph said...

Those snow shoes are... just... so cool!

ajh said...

That race sounds like so much fun and to be doing it all with family is a big win!!

RunningFromCancer said...

Anne - Glad to see you are back in the blogging community. Thanks for the comment a while back. I just sort of stopped blogging. Didn't have much to say. I still follow and read many blogs - but don't comment much . . . again, I just don't feel like there is much to say. I always enjoyed your posts and will continue to follow. I am deciding whether to continue . . . well really revive my blog or just leave it. ?????
All is well in Wisconsin - busy at work - ran 850ish miles - biked 1500+ miles - love snow shoeing. I hope you and your family have a very Happy New Year!

Two Wordy said...

What a fun race coming up in March! :)

Alexandra said...

Any time I try to run with my snowshoes on, I end up doing a face plant into the snow. Your new snowshoes look wild! Enjoy them!

Alexandra said...

Any time I try to run with my snowshoes on, I end up doing a face plant into the snow. Your new snowshoes look wild! Enjoy them!

Cinthia said...

It looks like Alaska! We'll we are kinda/sorta neighbors. I've never tried snowshoes but have heard they're a great workout, especially on the lower legs.
P.S. Negative splits, yippee!
Cheers and happy 2013.