Looking back at my training log it was year ago this weekend that I set my PR for cold weather running.  Did 2.5 laps at Lake Zorinsky in Omaha (my now wife lived up there).  Not much plowing had been done, so the trail was not good.  North wind in the teens, air temp was -8 degrees, wind chill was obviously colder.  I don’t keep specifics in my logs, but this stuck with me.

Now a week ago we were blessed with the first big snowfall of the season here in Lincoln.  Most areas got about half a foot to a bit more.  It also got us two snow days at school.  I always try to take advantage of these when I can. Got up Monday and trudged off.  If there is more difficult training than running in shin deep snow, I don’t know what it is.  Usually around here we get pretty heavy, wet snow that is pain to run through.  But this particular storm had dropped some unusually light stuff on us.I headed over to Jamaica Trail and linked up to Rock Island.  I was surprised to find that I had first tracks on both trails.  That is always a great thing.  I was able to maintain a normal stride, much to surprise.  For most of my run, when I looked down, I couldn’t even see my feet as they cut through the powder.  It. Was. Awesome.  Not great for running fast, but that is never the goal in base phase running.

Later in the day I headed out with my cross country skis to the south 14th parking lot for Wilderness Park.  This is an activity that I enjoy when I can get out and do it.  The light snow we had might be good for running, but it made for tough skiing.  Snapped some photos, still learning this photog stuff. If you have any resources or tips let me know.

As a side note, beware of photos these days.  Here are four versions of the same image.  The first is the original, the other three were put through some imaging software.  Remember, composition is key and something I am working on: