A Rocky Balboa style run up the snow covered slopes of the Uetliberg

I am sure you have all seen that scene in Rocky 4 where Rocky goes to deepest darkest Siberia and runs up the snow covered mountains, slipping and sliding and grinding his way up till he reaches the top.  Well my run today was like that in some parts.  The Uetliberg is completely covered in snow at the moment, and whilst there are some paths that are relatively clear, I avoided those and tried to find the ones that were covered in deep snow.  Most of the way up I was following a downhill bike trail, which quite obviously is not that flat and not that straightforward.  The only part where I was following a well groomed trail was when I was on the sledge track, and after almost getting wiped out by someone on a sledge I decided to leave that rather promptly.  The sign indicated walkers were allowed to walk on it, but people travelling fast downhill on a sledge don't have that much control and you are putting yourself in the firing line.

I knew my progress today would be slow compared to normal, but I still managed to reach the top after 7.5 kilometres and 1 hour of running.  An average pace of 7.5km/h given the uphill and snowy, slippery conditions is not bad at all.  The other day I saw that if I was to average that kind of pace in the MDS I would be in the top 100.  I would be ecstatic if I did come in the top 100 by the way.

The total distance I covered today was 21km or a half marathon as you may prefer to call it.  I have had ever such a slight cold the last few days and was a little worried incase a run made it worse, but I actually felt much better whilst I was running, and since coming back I feel okay too (other than being a bit more tired than normal).  I have been drinking lots of "special water" the last few days.  By special water I mean that I have been adding echinacea drops and WinterFit formula to normal water in order to try and stave off the cold.

This weekend I will try to fit in at the bare minimum another half marathon, and then on Sunday we are going snowshoeing in St Antönien once again.  There are lots of ways I can turn the leisurely snowshoe hike into a serious training session.  For a start I can always walk in the deep powder where there are no existing tracks, and if I really feel like punishing myself I can take the snowshoes off altogether.  Out of those 2 options I will probably go for the former one, but you never know.