Bloody snow...

How come all my friends on Facebook get so excited about the arrival of snow? To me it's just a big fat inconvenience. I mean I suppose I get a little tiny frisson of pleasure at making footprints in fresh white snow, and it's fun for the kids etc etc... but that's all overshadowed by not being able to get on with life as normal. Yes I am grumpy.

I thought my biggest obstacle to training this week would be work. I was covering for a teacher and teaching every morning. There were a few meetings thrown in, lesson planning too, and I was examining on Saturday as well, so I went from not working at all to a 6-day week. With the kids finishing school at 3.15pm, I didn't have a lot of spare time. But actually I did better than I thought I might.

I stretched every day (just about, some days it was only once through each stretch), did 3 strength training sessions (although they were a bit shorter than I might have liked), and I ran 4 times - 2 easy runs, 1 hill repeats session, and 1 long run.

The long run was on Friday, which was when the snow was first forecast here. As I looked out of my classroom window that morning, it started to come down earlier and heavier than predicted. I told my students I was planning to run after the class and they looked at me as though I was nuts. By the time the class finished, the college had decided to close completely, due to the weather.

I got home at about 1pm to find Pete home from work - they'd had a lot more snow in Brighton and had shut up shop too. At least that meant he could pick the kids up and I had a bit more time. I'd eaten a sandwich in the car on the way back, so I was ready to go!

Garmin finds satellites in the snow

The snow wasn't too deep yet, and most of the roads and pavements I ran on had been cleared. The worst problem was the icy wind in my face. It was horrible, and at times felt like running into a wall. However, to avoid icy or snowy paths, I had a boring route of 4 miles in one direction on a main road, then turn around and come back. This meant that it was a LOT easier on the way back, with a strong tailwind!

So while my speed was pretty crappy, it was faster on the way back, and I was glad to get 8 miles in despite the snow.

Snowed under

The snow was pretty feeble by Saturday and I had high hopes, but today it has been coming down all day. When I got up it was snowing and settling. I ran 3.6 miles which was tough in parts due to snow getting clumped in the heels of my trainers so I seemed to be running on platform heels. I got cold and wet, and I couldn't see out of my snow-covered glaases - frankly I've had better runs.

Most annoyingly I thought I'd run 19 miles this week - when I plugged the Garmin in it was actually 18.92m - aaaargh!

I'm hoping the snow won't last all week, as I can't cycle in it, and that was something I missed this week. At least the kids have been enjoying it though:

I had no part in this - I was warm inside

And I do have something to be happy about - great new shoes which I won't be wearing again until the snow has cleared off!