Snow day! Train hard!

The other day I posted some training tips for training in cold weather, notably after we trained out in some cold. Today, something relatively rare happened in East Tennessee: it snowed and stuck. I took some advantage of the opportunity to test out some of my tips with a short training session outside (and even got a picture for you, although it's posed, from after some of my training). After going out today in snow and ice, I have a couple of things to add to that previous post.

First thing first, here's the picture I mentioned: it's me, standing by my snow-covered driveway (note how snow in East Tennessee usually doesn't amount to much, and yet several locals are proclaiming that it "came a blizzard," and almost all of the area's schools are closed today). I was spotted training a little out in the snow, and my loving wife asked me to pose for a picture. So, I stood strengthening in the Phoenix representational posture for a few minutes and let her snap a couple. Here's one:

It's a balmy 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-7 Celsius) here today, so doing a lot of standing was kind of a requirement to keep my hands warm since I'm not training in gloves. My Yin Style Baguazhang hoodie was nice for layering, though, as I noted in the earlier post about training in the cold.

So... what I had failed to mention and was poignantly aware of today is that when snow and ice are involved, you have absolutely got to be very clearly aware of the surface that you choose to train on. Under the light dusting of snow on my driveway, for instance, there is a layer of extremely slick ice that would not permit me to stand strengthening, practice strikes, or drill anything involving stepping without extreme care and focus in what my legs and feet were doing, which as often as not was sliding.

Training in the snow-covered grass was better for traction, although it too had its downside that really needs to be paid attention to when training out in this kind of weather. Snow is water, as you're well aware, and when it's made even a little warm or is compressed sufficiently, it stops being a powdery solid and starts being an icy cold liquid that will quickly penetrate shoes. Of all of the parts of your body that you do not want to have getting cold and wet while training in cold weather, your feet are perhaps near the top of the list because they get less circulation than most of the rest of you most of the time. Frostbitten toes can sneak up on you pretty quickly if you're training in wet shoes in the snow, so if you start to feel your feet getting wet when you're training out in the cold, then it's probably in your best interest to wrap up that session sooner rather than later.

Still, don't let the cold be a deterrent for training, but do be safe!