I think I am starting to win the battle against this cold, so I took my new cross country spikes to the local park to try them out. My comfortable easy pace was up on the previous couple of days, though I stopped twice: the first time because a massive Irish Wolfhound decided I was acting like prey by running so I had to stand still and wait for its owner to retrieve it, the second time to take a photo of a massive plane presumably coming into Filton with a much smaller plane as an escort. The ground was frozen rather than muddy, but the sensation of running in spikes wasn’t too different to my usual running and trail shoes. The shoes were much lighter and the sole thinner, and you could occasionally feel the bite of the spikes. I took them up and down some hills at the end of my run and thought I could feel a difference both up and downhill in terms of traction.

There Is Power In A Union