Injuries, Ultrarunning nights and Mo Farah's incredible move at The European Team Championship

Please say hello in the comments if you manage to get to the end, I feel lonely on here!! You can also tweet me: @scott_leach 

My mountain bike attached to my new implement of torture/boredom- the turbo trainer

This week I have continued to battle with the rib injury I sustained last week with my epic face-plant fail, so my "running week" consisted of turbo-training, an ultra-running night and the European Team Championships in Gateshead. So let's start at the beginning.

The rib injury that I got by taking a quick face-down inspection of the floor at The Chevin last week is still very painful. A quick trip to the doctors confirmed that I hadn't put a hole in my lung and I left with some powerful pain killers. Of course, this left me wondering how I could keep up my fitness whilst I am unable to run. It seemed there was only one choice as anything that involved upper body would be very painful. An exercise bike. I don't dare cycle on the road as the jolting would hurt too much so I decided on a turbo trainer as seen in the picture above. For those of you who don't know, it basically transforms your road bike in to an exercise bike. An extremely generous friend, who ought to know better, took pity on me and bought me an early birthday present of an elite turbo trainer and very good it is too. I dislike cycling at the best of times, but at least I can do this in front of the TV with athletics/tennis/cricket to distract me.

INJINJI!! (Must be shouted in a kung-fu film style) Couldn't resist this new pair at Accelerate.

On Thursday night I made a trip to Sheffield to Accelerate, the best running shop I have ever come across. My main job involves me walking around shopping areas across the whole of Yorkshire and sometimes further afield. The one type of shop I never pass without going in is a running shop, and if it's an independent, all the better! In the course of my job I see a lot of running shops! I have grown pretty tired of listening to the total rubbish that is spouted by the "knowledgeable" assistants in the biggest chain (who shall remain nameless) so it was a real pleasure to meet Chris in Accelerate and hear him talk sense. The first thing that impressed me was when he told me that Accelerate only stock neutral shoes. Blimey!!

So, back to the point- the shop have started to run Ultra Running evenings and I attended my first one on Thursday. A short film about the Transvulcania race in Palma provided massive amounts of motivation to step up to ultra running and this race has now been entered on to my ever-increasing list of "must dos"  

This was followed by a talk about the West Highland Way (WHW)  race by John, a veteran of 11 finishes. The WHW is 95 miles long and is run in June each year. John explained the stages of the race, and then it got very interesting as we started to fire questions at him to find out his personal tactics and ploys for getting around such a long race. The best part was a story he told to us:

He was running through the night many miles in to the run when he ran past a house. In the garden was a row of big flowers. In between each flower he could see woman's face turning their heads backwards and forwards. In his exhausted and sleep-deprived state he could just about work out that it was an hallucination, but he tried to decided which bit wasn't real. The women's faces, he concluded, must be the hallucinations.

A while after the race he decided to revisit the spot so he could check on what he had seen. As it turned out, there were no flowers in the garden at all- the whole thing had been in his head. It just serves to show you what ultra-runners put themselves through!

Deb then gave us a talk on the Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc. Debs explained that she was used to doing extreme events and had raced for 24 hours before, but never in a purely running race. She entered the UTMB  on pretty much a whim and it had clearly been one of the best experiences of her life. She explained it with an excited enthusiasm that seems like it hasn't diminished despite the years since her race experience. She raved about the incredible crowd and made us all want to sign up right there and then, if any of us had the points required to enter it or managed to beat the incredibly quick-closing ballot for this now extremely popular event.

After the talks there was an open discussion on all things ultra including kit and training and many a good tip was picked up and funny story told. An excellent night that is soon to be repeated. You will not regret spending your evening there! I picked up a couple of things before I left including some more Injinji socks (I never race or run long in anything else now) and some Clif Bars which may look like squished up squirrel poo, but they taste great and are made from entirely organic ingredients. If they're good enough for Scott Jurek.... they're far too good for me, but I'll eat them anyway!

Gateshead international Stadium. that's Mo Farah leading the 5000m

Saturday found me at the Gateshead International Stadium for the European Team Championship with 7 friends and boy did we get lucky as the 2nd day on Sunday was conducted in torrential rain! 

Mo Farah's outrageous run in the 5000m will live with me forever and I am pretty sure I will tell the story many times over, but back to that later...

The stadium proved easy to get to and was well set up. The lack of toilets and concessions stands inside had been thought about and extra facilities had been set up outside; all you had to do was get a free pass-out bracelet. 

Our seats allowed us a wonderful view of the women's pole vaulting. And what an incredibly impressive set of athletic and, dare I say it, sexy women, they were too! Sadly our seats were a little too low to gain a great view of the 100m and the long and triple jumps on the other side of the stadium, but other than that, they were great. I was amazed about just how much was going on all the time. It was great fun trying to keep up with all the things being flung around the stadium as the track and field events over-lapped. You see much more in person than you ever do on TV!

We really had got lucky with the day I picked as we witnessed, amongst other things,  Jessica Judd's fantastic winning performance on her senior début, the  men's 4x100 team actually passing a baton without dropping it and Mo Farah essentially taking the p@#% out of a European field of athletes. If you didn't get to see it, here's what happened:

Mo set off slowly, actually at the back of the field for the first lap. He slowly moved up and then was content to sit behind whichever other athlete lead the field for the next few laps. A lap or so out he claimed the front spot with consummate ease, but it was when the bell went that I witnessed the most outrageous piece of running I have ever seen.

A split second after the bell went Mo literally jumped and started sprinting away from the pack like a startled rabbit. The crowd immediately and spontaneously jumped to their feet. He began to put distance between the rest of the runners and in seconds was already metres in front. I could only imagine how demoralizing that must have been to the also-rans in the race. Mo had been toying with them. The race was so easy to him he could just cruise along then blow the field away as he pleased. The final time was very slow for Mo which perhaps explained his tactics.
Here's the last lap on the BBC website. 

I had a brilliant day in Gateshead and can't wait to go to another meet there but I have to say, what a sad reflection of this nation's taste in sport that an amazing event like this failed to fill a relatively small stadium when the tickets are an incredible bargain at £17 each, when you consider a bunch of men-children falling about on a football pitch can command triple that and fill much bigger stadia. It's just wrong. Add to that the fact that this is the first time the championship has been held in the UK for 13 years and I am baffled as to the relative lack of interest in the event.

I could go in to much more detail but I am sure I have waffled long enough. I hope your running week has been enjoyable as mine turned out to be, despite the absence of actual physical running.

I know that too many of the 1000 views a month on my blog are from spambots, but if you've got down this far, please do leave a comment and say hello!

Twitter : @scott_leach

Race review: The Pain Barrier, Frickley. 13/4/13

Say hello in the comments or tweet me: @scott_leach

The very brief period at the start when I was clean

I really ought to be a little more careful to check out the crazy races I do before I sign up for them. In the high of finishing the Men's Health "Survival of the fittest" last year, I signed up for this 10k "mud run". The obstacle course in Manchester had been fantastic fun and I searched on line for something else a bit mad to do. This one sounded like a good idea at the time....

Fast forward a few months and the day of this one loomed very large, in a very inconvenient spot as the end of my marathon training was coming up. I seriously considered not doing it as I still needed to fit in my final long run before the marathon and I had almost no idea of the effect a mud run would have on me. And little did I know.

The first conundrum was what to wear for such a race. Gok Wan really ought to do a program on this kind of thing, although perhaps practicality might not be his first concern.
A lot would depend on the weather of course. As usual I set off with a variety of options in my bag so I could change if I needed to when I got there. In the event, the weather was pretty warm. I decided on a pair of above-knee lycra shorts, a long sleeve compression shirt and a dri-fit t-shirt over the top. The t-shirt turned out to be a mistake as it soon became very heavy and wasn't necessary, however, I didn't really want to inflict the sight of me in a compression shirt on the general public without a t-shirt to hide some of the man-boobage. I also needed to decide on whether to wear my GPS watch. I really wanted to be able to tell how far in to the race I was, but didn't want to break a pretty expensive piece of kit. I checked out the specs and found it had an IPx7 rating. Having been an engineer I knew this to be a high ingress protection score, so I decided to wear it. Half way through the race as my hand and arm sank fully in to the mud for the umpteenth time, I wondered if I had made a mistake. There was so much mud on the watch that it was impossible to read at times and wiping it with my muddy hands didn't have a lot of effect, I was spreading the mud more evenly instead of wiping it off. I did manage to just about wipe off the bit with the distance on it though, so it proved useful. Thankfully, it still seems to be working and I have used it since.

My unrealistic expectation of the race was that there'd be a bit of mud, maybe a couple of water crossings and I'd probably go round in 45-50 minutes. Talk about naivety! As the race unfolded, I found I had seriously underestimated just how tough this was going to be.

Looks like a baby crawling on the ground, which is exactly what I felt like.

As I lined up at the start I looked around, eyeing up my "competition". I certainly wasn't deluded enough to think I could win it but no one seemed confident to take a place at the front, and in fact, the people at the front were a few metres from the start line, no one wanting to toe the line. It seemed only a few people were actually keen to try to set a fast pace. The general consensus behind me was of simply "getting round".
Suddenly a little voice spoke up in my head and said "We could finish in the top 10 here". I replied with "What's with the "we", pale face?".

We set off after a few minutes of comic relief when the inflatable Saucony arch collapsed at the start line. Oddly, the same thing had happened when I did the Wetherby 10k last year. And no, I am not going around puncturing them. A few people went off  hard, and I set off at a fairly quick pace of around 4 mins/k. For the first couple of k the course was a dry and reasonable trail and I thought I had better crack on while the going was easy. It really didn't last......

After leaping a couple of ditches, the hills started. Let me get this straight, the people who set this event up are evil, evil I tell you! Not content with running a race on a 4x4 track liberally spackled with man-deep holes filled with mud and water, they had set the course to run up and down the nastiest hill for probably miles around, not once, but at least 2.8 billion times. Well ok, it was something like 4 or 5 times, but it felt like a lot more. The hill was so steep it was impossible to run up, in fact, it was pretty much a scramble. As I said, evil! The effect it had on sapping the strength from my legs was pretty impressive.

As my brain is now trying to block out the memories of the race, trying to recall the exact order of the things we did, even while looking at the map, is tough, so forgive me if I get slightly mixed up. As we came down the massive hill for the 7000th time we entered the biggest water obstacle, so large that a rope was needed to pull yourself through it.

I enter the pool at about 1:08 in the yellow shirt. What the video in the link below doesn't show is that there was a couple of feet of mud underneath the water. Half way across I heard someone in the crowd shout, "Swim, it's easier" It sounded like good advice so I set off.

Nearing the end of the biggest pool

Swimming past the guy in front of me put me in 5th place at that point. Another thing that wouldn't last.

The course continued through huge deep ruts in the land, in the main filled full of muddy water. At times the mud was thigh-deep. Having already lost most of the strength in my legs from the hills, dragging my legs out of the mud time and again was beginning to seriously take its toll. I have no idea where it was on the course, but at one point we entered yet another swamp. This one was nipple-deep and mostly mud. It had to be 30 metres long. Time and again my right leg jammed solid in the the mud. Eventually it became so difficult to keep lifting my legs out that I decided an army-crawl would be a better tactic. It was, but it came with the price of utterly covering me in mud and saturating my already heavy shirt. Worse than that, as we neared the end a splash of muddy water hit me square in the face from a competitor in front of me. I was wearing contact lenses, which helpfully decided to hold some of the mud underneath them and cause me a lot of pain and also meant that I was running through a fog of mud for the next couple of k. I was just beginning to think I might have to pull out and seek help, when suddenly they cleared and I was ok, just about.

This could have been pretty much anywhere on the course

At 6k in to the race I was blowing harder than I ever have in my life. I was beginning to find religion and was praying to any deity that would listen for this torture to end. My shoes AND socks were full of mud, gravel, rocks and god knows what else. Then mercifully there was a section that was on dry land. It was a heavy track, but still, no mud and water at least. I cruised along trying to recover on the hoof, and managed it to some extent. At some point I stopped and emptied out my right shoe. It didn't help much.

More mud, swamps and water and my feet were becoming a real problem. I could feel the rocks and gravel digging in to them from all angles. My arches were beginning to bruise and feel painful. I had no choice but to stop and empty out my shoes properly. I really wanted to carry on rather than stop as I was pretty far up the field and was on course to make my goal of a top ten finish, but my sensible voice spoke up and reminded me of my marathon training and that I couldn't afford to damage my feet. Emptying out my shoes and socks was a much more difficult task than I had anticipated. I need to squeeze them off and the socks needed to be flicked inside out as well as cleaning off the outside, so much debris had worked their way in to them. I probably should have just discarded the socks in hindsight. I had trouble getting my soaking wet feet back in the shoes and by the time I started running again at least 3 minutes had elapsed and annoyingly at least 10 guys had passed me. However, my feet now felt comfortable again and I set off to try to chase down the people who had passed me. I managed to catch a couple before the end of the race, but I was so shattered at this point that it was as much as I could manage.

Full on monkey-gurn mode

Then it started to finally become fun. We entered a tunnel that I think passed under an old railway line. It would have been stupid to run through it as it was too dark to see my footing and the roof got lower and lower as I neared the end. A lot of spectators, including children, had positioned themselves at the end of the tunnel and I could hear them screaming as soon as I entered the tunnel. It was a great feeling being cheered though the tunnel then bursting out in to the forest with the kids going wild and lots of shouts of encouragement. I got a small cheer for springing up on to the bank and off I went again.

The course zig-zagged through the forest and then spat us out in to the biggest mud patch of the lot. It was just about shallow enough that I was able to force my legs through it instead of having to army-crawl. The presence of children was the only thing stopping me screaming out a constant commentary of foul and disgusting language.
I had no idea how far I had still to go. My GPS watch had lost signal on a couple of occasions (Something it has never done before) and was telling me I had at least a kilometre left. So imagine my relief when I rounded the final corner and found myself staring down the finishing straight. "This one is shattered" I heard someone comment in the crowd. Not having that, I thought. I summoned up my last reserves of strength, put on my war face, and sprinted to the finish.

Doing my best to sprint impressively through the finishing line

I crossed the line in 1:05:14, 19th position. Only 3 people out of about 340 went under an hour- that's how hard it was. In the last pain barrier they'd run in Parkwood, the winner had done 43:06, the Frickley course was at least 5 points higher on the evil-psychopathic- genius scale. I was gutted to have finished outside the top 10, which is, of course, a ridiculous emotion for my first (and probably only) mud run. Having to empty my shoes cost me, but then, everyone else was dealing with the same problems, maybe they just ran on with shoes full of gravel?

The leader board.

Stig of the dump, or possibly me, not entirely sure.

After I crossed the line the MC pushed a microphone in my face. It took a minute for me to catch my breath and indulge in some "witty" banter. I waffled something about having sunbathed for 20 minutes half way round and regrettably cracked the obvious and almost certainly oft-repeated mud-being-good-for-the-skin-"joke" . Afterwards I was sorry I hadn't thought to accuse the organisers of breaking the Geneva convention.

The mud pack at the spa I had booked left a little to be desired

Lessons I learned from this race:

1) Check out what I have let myself into BEFORE I turn up.
2) Train for the race. Road running does not prepare you for this kind of insanity.
3) Football socks, tied at the top would have been a much better idea than the shoes liners I was wearing
4) Sod vanity, next time, a short-sleeved and unflattering compression top is favourite!
5) It's amazing how much you want to punch people when they shout things like "It's not called the pain barrier for nothing" 6k into the run when you are totally shattered. Luckily enough, even if I were so inclined, I wouldn't have had the strength to commit the ABH I would have liked to at that point.
6) £100 pairs of Saloman goretex trail trainers are not much help in these situations. That said, they stayed on in the face of extreme provocation and never felt like they were about to be lost in the mud.
7) Running wicking athletic gear such as lyrca shorts and compressions tops under a shower whilst constantly squeezing and massaging them for half an hour will not remove this sort of mud, in fact, it didn't seem to help much at all, the water coming out of them was still dark brown.

After the race I spent quite a lot of time saying how I would never enter another event like this, that it was too much and I would rather do pure obstacle races in between my road and trail races. But predictably, I now feel like having a crack at another and trying to get in to the top 10 with some more specific training.

The event on the whole was very well organised. There was no queuing when I registered around an hour before kick-off. The car parking was well organised and very close to the start. I felt a few more port-a-loos could have been provided, but it didn't take long to get in one. The MC did a good job and kept up the energy well before the race. I was a little disappointed that there was no beer tent, but I did leave fairly quickly after the run so I am not sure if the registration tent started serving later. The medal and tech t-shirt are very nice designs and felt like suitable winnings at the end.

Damage report:

Thighs quite sore for about 3 days afterwards. Ankles felt like they had been battered with a cricket bat. Cuts to the back of both ankles. I am still picking splinters out of my hand 5 days later. Thankfully, little else!

All in all a well run and enjoyable (in a sort of masochistic way) race. This was a very serious challenge and the name "The Pain Barrier" is very well deserved. Would I recommend it? Hell, yes, if you're as big a nutter as I am.

Running kit: Modern trainers are a curse

That's right, thought I may as well put the controversial bit in the title, but we'll get to that later.

In my experience I have found that there is more snake oil in sports goods than the reptile house at Tropical World.
Last summer a team at Oxford University examined 431 claims in 104 products. Here's the BBC report on the study and here's the abstract on the BMJ (British medical journal) site. And basically, they discovered it was all pretty much nonsense at worst, and hugely exaggerated at best.
I first started to suspect that something wasn't quite right with what sports goods manufacturers told us when I was constantly told to "drink, drink, drink" from numerous different sources. It just didn't seem to make sense, especially when I was running only 10k on a cool day. When various fancy trainers started to cause me problems, I began investigating and found that there were studies that backed up what I found.
And don't start me on sports drinks, we'll be here for ever!

But anyway, let's try to be positive, it's not all bad....

My Dad did most of his serious running in the early 80s. I think technical materials were around at that time, but obviously, they weren't up to today's standards, nor were they all that commonly used. My Dad ran in pretty much nothing but cotton. Today, I would find it really tough to run without my tech material clothing. Maybe I should explain what I mean by tech material? Here's some of the properties and advantages they have over cotton:
Wicking: Modern materials draw moisture away from the skin as opposed to cotton, which stores it nicely and helpfully rubs it over your skin turning your nipples in to tiny scabs.
Flat seams: To help with chaffing issues. Those cotton seams can feel like razor blades after a few miles
Light weight: The materials start off light and because they don't hold the moisture, they don't feel like you're running in chain mail on a sweaty day.

As you can gather, I love modern running materials and it came as a huge revelation when I discovered it a few years ago as I had always trained in cotton shirts. The added comfort that being able to wear modern clothing; tights, jackets, buffs, gloves, socks, hats, etc, etc is huge.

Here's the sort of stuff I'm talking about, and no, I'm not a rep for Nike!!

And then there are GPS watches. Of all the pieces of running kit I own, I think this is the one that helps me most. I bought mine (a garmin 305) after having a look around a few running forums and seeing what was being recommended by the people actually using them.  I won't go in to a review of the one I own, but I'll tell you the benefits I find from using it. Being able to accurately tell exactly how fast I am running (To a point) is huge. Reviewing the data it collects after each run is incredibly useful and helps me keep track of my progress. I have so often found that runners under or over estimate the distances they run, so it's great to get accurate measurements. Also, I'm a geek, so I love the stats.
Some people prefer not to use GPS because they feel they can get obsessed with facts and figures and forget to enjoy their running. I see their point, but as a lot of my enjoyment in running is derived from challenging myself by lowering my times and upping my distances, I find it invaluable. If you run for other reasons than this, then GPS might not be for you.

Sorry about the blurry photo- I was excited (and knackered) after breaking my 10k PB.
The garmin connect site provides some great stats at your fingertips. It's nice being able to see how many miles I have covered each month in only a couple of clicks. Here's my page if you're interested.

So on to the controversial bit. Trainers.
I'll preface this bit by saying yes, I have read the wonderful "Born to Run" but my opinion is based on reading  around the subject as well, and more importantly,  from my own personal experiences.

In the early 70s the first cushioned trainers were released on to the market. This was a disaster.
Think about this; we evolved to be runners over millions of years of evolution. Why on earth would we evolve to require us to strap an inch of foam to our feet that needs changing every 500 miles or so? It doesn't make any logical sense. Evolution just doesn't make "mistakes" this big. Before the 1970s everyone ran in little more than plimsoles. The first 4 minute mile wasn't run on a foam cushion.

Don't believe we evolved to be runners? Read around the subject of  persistence hunting.

But! I hear you say, we run on pavements and concrete now! We need that foam!
Not true- studies have shown that the more cushioning we have, the harder we hit the ground. When you are forced to run as we evolved to do- on our toes- the correct natural gait takes over and the calves become our shock absorbers meaning we land much more lightly. The majority of us have grown up with controlling shoes with cushioning, so our bodies aren't used to this. It doesn't take too much time or effort to return to your natural gait.

Here's the next controversial bit:

"Gait analysis" in running shops is rubbish, total, total rubbish.

Let me explain by telling you of my own experiences:

When I started running again around 4 years ago I was a very heavy heel striker. My shoes wore away on the outer edge of the heel way before the rest of the shoes fell apart.
In I went to a specialist running shop and the shop owner (who is a very decent runner himself) "gait analysed" me. This involved watching me stand. (Yeah, seriously) He then sold me a very expensive pair of Mizunos. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of time for Mizunos, they tend to make natural feeling comfortable trainers. The pair I was sold, however, were a bad idea for a heavy heal striker as they had little cushioning there. To give him the benefit of the doubt- maybe he was trying to encourage me to run on my toes. But probably not.
Fast forward a while and I was experiencing lots of different problems (Back pain, shin splints, plantar fasciitis, etc) Again I was "gait analysed" by a specialist running shop. This time using a video camera. I left the shop with expensive Asic gels. To cut a long story short, they caused me hip pain. It took me a while to work out that it was the shoes causing the problem because seriously, how could it be the expensive trainer's fault? The ones I had specially selected for me?
On to a pair of expensive, heavily cushioned Sauconys. I was doing pretty well in these, for a while. Then I developed a pain under the ball of my foot which I only got when running. Swapping to a different pair of trainers removed the problem immediately.

So here's what I discovered: Expensive trainers are very unlikely to solve any of your problems, but they sure as hell can cause a few.

Once again, I can hear people shouting....."But I bought fancy new trainers and all my problems disappeared!!"
You ever thought that maybe it wasn't the arrival of the new trainers that solved your problems, but getting rid of your old, knackered trainers?

Over time I came to realise that by putting my feet in to trainers that control, push and shove my feet in all directions meant that it was taking over the job of the muscles in my feet causing those muscles to weaken and actually worsen my problems. I felt immediate improvement when I ran some very short runs in barefoot trainers. Through experience I realised that using very simple trainers, with less and less control and support actually improved my injury rate. I naturally moved from being a heavy heel-striker, to a mid-sole runner. When I say naturally, I never consciously tried to run differently, but by doing the exercises the physio recommended, it changed all by itself

After I discovered this I found that there was research to back this up. In one study people who had been "gait analysed" by running shops and bought recommended trainers were compared to people who had just chosen their trainers on comfort and fit, straight from the shelves.

There was no difference in the injury rate. None. Zero.

You pay out all that money for the fancy, top-of-the-line trainers, and for that, you get nothing. McDougal in "Born to Run" mentions a study by Dr Bernard Marti  that showed that high-end trainers actually increased your injury risk by 123%
If we want to be cynical, we could say that people who buy more expensive trainers are probably putting in more miles and are maybe already having injury problems, so you might expect there to be more injuries. But 123%? Well, no. And I would hope Dr Marti considered these factors in his study.
Besides, stats show that you have a huge risk of running injury no matter who you are, fat, thin, short tall, male, female, distance runner, sprinter, weekend runner, or obsessive nutter, your injury risk is pretty much the same.

Every beginner's running advice that I have ever seen has always included the immortal line "Get the right trainers" usually followed by advice to get a specialist shop to fit you "properly"

In my opinion and experience, the "right" trainers are simply ones that fit you well and are comfortable. If you buy trainers that "support" your muscles, you will make those muscles weak and that will lead to injury. Instead, work on strengthening all the muscles required to run and you will prevent against injury rather than treating a symptom.

Here's my current trainers (I also run in a pair of Brookes green silence), next to a really, really big leaf (My feet aren't small, honest!)

Ok....ok......here's my full collection.....

Fine, I admit it, my name is Scott and I'm a trainerholic.

I haven't gone in to food and drink supplements here, that is a huge and very complicated subject which although I have my opinions on, I probably don't have enough knowledge to discuss fully. 

That said, here is my very basic opinion: Eat as much natural, unprocessed things as you can. If you need to take supplements, then your diet probably isn't right.

So to conclude, sports goods: Don't believe all the hype.

P.S. I am aware that the phrase "In my experience" is dangerous, because the easiest person to fool, is ourselves. Here's an article that's very interesting in itself, but also discusses this issue (Read through it to find the bit I'm talking about)

Run review: Swinsty and Fewston reservoirs

This Sunday I woke up with nothing to do and all day to do it, so what better, I thought, than deciding on somewhere epic to run, rather than setting off down the canal again for the Nth time. Don't get me wrong, the Leeds-Liverpool canal can be really lovely, but in winter, with all the litter exposed in the bushes by the lack of foliage, it loses some of its romance. Call me crazy, but semi-submerged traffic cones and shopping trollies don't do it for me either. Surely, living in one of the more beautiful parts of the world I could find somewhere better.

I've walked around Swinsty and Fewston reservoirs a long while ago and mainly in the dark, so I didn't remember them well. Looking them up though, it seemed like it might be a nice place to run with a path that seemed fool-proof to a navigation-phobe like myself.
Then came the kit decision, would it be freezing cold? Would it be muddy? Would it rain?
I climbed in to the car with a giant, stuffed-full carrier bag, looking like I was off to Oxfam to donate 10 year's worth of clothing. On arrival I would be able to kit myself out for any conditions ranging from Saharan Africa to the Antarctic.

As it turned out, it was a slightly chilly day, so a long sleeved top and t shirt sufficed, the hat, gloves and buff stayed in the car. I looked slightly less silly and wimpy than usual, tights aside.
The trainer choice was more tricky. Would I need the trail runners or would my normal running shoes do? And if I chose the bright orange trail runners, would it ruin the look of my outfit?
I took a gamble on the normal runners - the paths looked well kept that I could see.

I have to say, this was one of the more pleasant runs I've ever done, oblivious dog-walkers excepted.
The paths are incredibly well maintained, in fact I'd go as far as to say they are the best I have ever been on. The scenery around the reservoirs is really lovely and it keeps close to the water as you go around.
I lapped each reservoir, crossing over between them to form a figure-eight.
Here's the route (Ignore the slight spiky detour at the bottom of Swinsty, that was a teeny error)

My fears of a wind and rain swept run didn't materialise and I managed not to trip over any dogs OR punch any oblivious owners.  The path gently undulated providing a good challenge without being too much for a lazy Sunday afternoon bimble.

So my conclusion is: If you want a pleasant, easy, Sunday afternoon run in lovely surroundings, with perfect paths and no navigation, and running up embankments occasionally to avoid the odd canine doesn't bother you, then look no further. I have to admit though, I don't think I would attempt this on a weekend in summer. The battle through the crowds would probably be too much.
And park in the northern car park- there's an ice cream van in there!

Snow running

No, I'm not sure what's going on with maniacal smile either

I am very used to being called a nutter, strange, mad and all the rest for being a runner, but this is usually from non-runners. Last week, however, I experienced the odd experience of having fellow runners call me similar names. Why? Snow running!

Leeds experienced some bizarre weather on Wednesday. I woke up at 11am (I'd done a night shift, before you judge/feel jealous) to see the beginning of a snow storm. There was a very light dusting of snow on the pavements outside. By the time I left for work 3 hours later, there was around 4 inches of snow on the ground. An hour after that and one abandoned car, I trudged in to work 40 minutes late. By the time it stopped snowing that evening something like 6 inches had fallen.
One can tell when one has become an adult when one sees snow and doesn't think "Yay!!" but instead, "Oh dear, that'll cause some traffic problems" and also, when one starts referring to oneself as "one".
The only upside for me, was that I would be able to go for a run in the snow later. When my friends found out about this, I got the usual incredulity from the non-runners, but I also got it from the runners too!

A walker on Skiddaw in the lake district a couple of years ago

I arrived home from work and excitedly pulled on my bright orange trail runners. I have become a huge wimp when it comes to running in cold weather these days, so I also pulled on a long-sleeved compression top, a t-shirt, a soft shell jacket, full length tights, hat, buff and gloves too.  And off I set. Once again I quickly returned to the sense of childhood joy as the snow squeezed and squelched under my feet making wonderful crunching and flatulence noises depending on whether I was hitting hard snow or the rapidly thawing stuff. I felt the trail runners gripping in and enjoyed the extra challenge of controlling the reduced friction under my feet.

The trail runners, in warmer times

So why do most runners have such a fear of running in the snow? They think they're going to slip and fall. Pretty simple really. Same adult voice that warns them about the traffic chaos coming because of the snow.
The fact is though, most runners have never tried running in the snow. Fear stops them, but is it really so hard?
Well.....no, it's not.

In fact, I run on ice too. I used to do it before I had fancy, extra grippy trail running shoes too. So here's my theory:
You hit the snow/ice much harder when running than you do when walking, thus the ice/snow that you struggle to walk on, can be run on. Sure, your feet skid a little from under you, but it's more than doable. Don't try to stop or change direction or stop too quickly though, obv, for that way lieth disaster.

The next day the snow was all but gone and the traffic was moving again. Shame, I thought, I won't get to do another snow run.

I'm not saying snow/ice running is for everyone, I've got a pretty good sense of balance and my feet skidding under me doesn't faze me too much, but if you can lose your fear and go for it, then it can be a wonderful feeling.

Here's my snow running tips:

1) Run with confidence
2) Trail running shoes will help, but they're not actually essential
3) Don't panic when you feel your feet slipping a little under you, it doesn't mean they're not gripping at all
4) Give yourself extra time to stop and change direction, take extra care at road crossings
5) Buy decent cold weather running gear if you're a wimp like me - keep yourself comfy!
6) Enjoy it!