back on the trail

the sun at its zenith ... barely peaking (peeking?) through the trees at Hemlingby

 I'm not sure why I have a bit of a mental stutter when it comes to getting back into running after some time off.  There's just something about being in routine; when I'm running five or six days a week, I can't wait to get back out again.  When I've been off, for whatever reason, that first run back is always a bit of a push.  

Of course, weather like this makes it less of a push.  A touch chillier than it has been - and it will hit double digit negatives for the first time on Sunday - but it was pretty much as perfect as weather could get for this latitude of Sweden today. 

 

I think I have my winter layering worked out a little better ... essentially this means I am colder for longer to start things off, and I still finish the run with my jacket dampened from the inside out, but hey, I am approaching a happy medium. 

how sweet is that?!

One of the things I did during my two days off between ski trip and running again today was to calculate exactly how many kilometers I had on each of my pairs of running shoes ... the result: I kicked off the new year in running with my new pair of Wildcats.  I ended up running a lot more than I had thought I might post-Sörmland this autumn, so it was time to change it up.  Fresh shoes feel so nice ... 21km today, and my feet feel great (though legs are going to need a stretching out tonight).  

Now I just need to repeat that on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and so on ... Jennie and I didn't really do any new year's resolutions, seeing as how we are setting and re-setting goals as part of our routines naturally, but even within that cycle I have a particularly ambitious Easter holiday penciled in at the moment.  If things go according to plan, we will spend Easter weekend proper doing some backcountry skiing back in Jämtland, and then about three days later I'm still wanting to do the 80km of the Täby Extreme Challenge.  As I realized that TEC can earn me the 'running CV points' I need to get into some of the more popular ultras here in Europe ... maybe the shortest (94km) of the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc week of races in Cham?  Hmmm.  

Connecting fresh shoes with Cham and running, Jennie discovered these babies whilst we were cavorting about town.  She was looking for some trail shoes for the Åre Extreme Challenge multisport race she's aiming for in June, and she was quite excited about how they felt.

my model; Jennie's are a nice shade of blue

I, of course, need little encouragement to at least try on new shoes, so the next day I came back with a pair of running socks and tried them on for myself: Lafuma Moon Racers.  They are not minimalist.  They are not light.  They have a gimmicky lacing system that I think might actually work ... and, dare I hope, around the haus and up and down stairs they feel remarkably similar to the Montrail Odysseys I loved so dearly.

Will they fit the bill?  Well, now that I know my feet are still in running shape, it's time to try them out tomorrow, and see how they do.  Seeing as how my list of running events for the year are all between 56 and 80km, a little extra beef is probably (definitely) the right side to err on.  Sneer all you like, minimalist shoe evangelists ... I'd rather keep my 'artificial' cushion and 10mm toe drop and stay injury free. 

New shoes to try tomorrow!  Yeah!  Plus hopefully I'll get to posting a little bit about what I've been reading over the holidays, as a change of pace to our posting genres of late.