Snow Shoe Running

How about just running in the snow with regular shoes? Great workout, plus good practice for those run-into-the-water swim starts!

Seriously, I haven't tried it but it does look cool. Don't have enough snow in MD to do it regularly anyways :-(

Running with boots or shoes in shallow snow may be a good way to injure yourself as you don't know what's under the snow surface (unless you run on snowmobile tracks). I trained with snowshoes during a winter long and it is very demanding. I used to do intervals training and it is as hard as interval training on a cycle roller. Plus, it is very easy to find a hill that is 300 feet long where you will be able to do 2 minutes or more intervals. Plus you are outside which is the way to do sports !!

While I focus more on cross-country skiing in winter, I always do long snowshoe rides when it gets colder. I suggest that you start with long walks and begin to run for a couple of minutes at a time. Don't be surprised if you find it very hard, especially in deep loose snow (harder as it sounds..). I never was able to run for a long time without stopping. That is why I used this type of training for intervals.

Good Luck !

Christian.

(You can change "swimming" for "snowshoeing" in my signature below... ) :-)

I was thinking about doing a little snowshoeing this winter myself. I probably wont do any running because all I have is the large snowshoes. I thought this would be a good way to strengthen the shin muscles and maybe prevent shinsplints while running. Skiing would also be a great alternative to running.

I'm lucky, I can travel 3 miles across town to a wooded park that sits behind a ridge so not much sun gets to it. The snow can stay there weeks after the rest of the town is snow-free.

Any website in particular to get info about the snow shoe races in NE? That sounds like a blast!

Last winter I started snowshoeing a great deal - never even thought of trying to run on them though...after four to six hours of trekking through loosepacked snow, I was ready to die. I could see how it would be an effective workout if you actually were able to build to the point you could run on them though. I would highly recommend a groomed trail and running snow shoes if you plan to try it though...

Here's one based out of Western Massachusetts:  http://www.runwmac.com/  and click on the link for snowshoe races