First long run of the year
Yesterday I joined runners training for Quad Rock in running 15 miles up and down Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, my biggest outing since October 2019. It was lovely up there.
View to the south and west from a bend on the South Ridge Trail
There's a lot of packed snow and ice on the trails and for lack of traction I was going very slowly on slick descending stretches like the shady parts of Towers and South Ridge. After I got home and ate I bought and installed some some cheap hardware to add traction to one of my pairs of trail shoes.
The shoes I wore at Loopet Loppet
I followed the instructions on Matt Carpenter's screw shoe page and screwed 11 3/8" sheet metal screws into the lugs on the bottom of each Speedgoat. A 1/4" magnetic socket and a cordless drill made it as easy as advertised.
The neighborhood glacier
This morning I tested my shoe hack on a inclined patch of ice near my house and was pleased with the extra traction. I can run straight up and down the ice at an easy pace without slipping. I'm looking forward to trying these on my next icy hill workout.