Epic Fail

   After a couple of failed running attempts this past week, I went out to try it again today. I looked at all the likely reasons the past two runs didn't work out and I tried to make sure that all had been rectified.
   They were. There were no issues with rain and no issues with cold. Today what foiled me was snow.

   At least I think it was the snow. A couple of days ago we got about nine centimeters of the stuff and overnight probably another three. The sidewalks were covered but quite passable. Occasionally they were heavy with slush and, rarely, were bare. But I ran out of steam and had to walk three or four times. I have not had to walk for about a month now and I saw this as a major setback, particularly as I have a 5K run fast approaching.
   I'm trying to figure out what part the snow played and what part may have been played by my interrupted run schedule lately plus an extra pound or two of festive food. I never felt that I was going to slip or fall down at any point but what the snow caused me to do was run a little more flat-footed and it also did not provide a totally reliable push-off. It always seemed as though my foot would slide just a fraction of an inch with almost every stride. Whether this caused an extra energy expenditure or not is unclear to me. It certainly was a mental distraction, if nothing else.
   So now I need to figure out how to run in snow. I went out today and picked up a few hex head metal screws and attached them to the bottoms of my shoes. They would possibly be workable in actual snow but on concrete I can feel them pressing through the botttom of my shoe, uncomfortably.
   I'm rather hoping that the race course on New Year's Eve will be well-groomed and fairly bare. In the meantime I will have to look at alternatives and will likely be purchasing some YakTrax to train in, if I continue to do the run thing.
   Just one more reason to hope for an early spring....