Snow and sand pose similar challenges for runners.
While their softness and give makes running harder than it already is, those same properties make both snow and sand great opportunities to build strength, and character. If the thought of running on either surface fills you with dread, here’s the good news: you can get a great workout on snow or sand in a very short amount of time and should cut your run time down as much as fifty percent.
Whether you live in a snowy climate, a climate with soft sand (either on beaches or trails), or find yourself traveling in either a snowy or sandy climate, know that seemingly impossible surfaces can do you good—and there are tricks to making them easier.
The Why
Having a “why” always helps with motivation to get out there. When in doubt, remember the why.
Why run on soft surfaces:
It builds major muscle groups.
Running in snow or sand is hard. Every step can feel like one step forward, two steps back. But that extra effort required to run though even one inch of fresh snow or on sand that gives way underfoot even just a little bit is building valuable strength in your body.
Your quads work harder to run through snow and sand. So do your glutes, your calves, your core, and even your shoulders and your arms. And since extra effort is required of your whole body to move on a soft surface, your lungs and heart are also getting an extra workout.
It builds minor muscle groups.
Since snow and sand are unstable surfaces, all your tiny stabilizer muscles and connective tissues work harder to keep you both upright and moving. Picture the motion a joint like your ankle goes through when hitting a soft surface—since bodies are amazing, the tiny muscles, ligaments, and tendons in and around your ankle engage to keep the joint stable.
This kind of activation occurs throughout your body when you move on a soft surface. It’s like a built-in Pilates, strength-training, or core-strengthening class outdoors, which is a huge two-for-one bonus since you’re also getting in your running workout.
It builds character.
I’m not saying that running in snow or sand is easy. Aside from the temperature that may come with either—winter cold or tropical warm, or whatever—the soft surface alone is just hard. And anything we tackle that’s difficult is good for our overall well-being by making us feel like we’re tough; we can overcome things; we did that.
Add to the surface the weather, and those benefits of character building go through the roof.
The How
Approaching anything difficult is always easier with some tips and tricks. The following can help you work smarter while working harder (but also makes things easier!).
Choose your surface wisely.
When running on snow, there’s always the fear of slipping on ice. Seek out white, crunchy surfaces while staying away from clear or black ground, which could be black ice. Crunchy white snow/mixed snow and ice will provide better footing as it crunches beneath your feet.
When running on a sandy beach, staying close to the water’s edge, especially at low tide, can create a downright springy surface for running that can feel like a rubber track. Running on dry, soft, deeper sand away from the water’s edge is much more difficult (but can offer great gains in very short amount of time).
Choose your footwear wisely.
In snow, traction is your friend. If you have trail running shoes, wear those over road shoes, even when running on snowy roads. The traction—rubber teeth underfoot—dig into the snow and give you more control of your footing.
Consider investing in a pair of slip-on traction devices like Black Diamond’s Distance Spike (for deep snow) with their 8mm teeth made of treated stainless steel, or YakTrax Run Traction Devices (for thin snow and ice) that have a combination of steel coils and 3mm carbide steel spikes.
Both devices slip over any pair of running shoes and can turn even road running shoes into winter-surface running footwear.
For sand, I personally like to run in minimally cushioned road running shoes to allow my feet to move naturally with the sand. I opt for shoes with fully closed mesh uppers to sand doesn’t sneak in through the sides of my shoes, while still allowing my feet to breathe.
That said, any pair of shoes that you currently run in will do just fine in sand. You can run barefoot in the sand but should ease into doing so. Running barefoot in the sand has even more strength gains than running in shoes, especially for your feet.
But like any strength training program, running barefoot in the sand requires a gradual build-up. Doing too much too soon can cause injuries.
Run less than you think.
This may come as good news: you should cut your time running in snow or sand to roughly half of what you would do on hard ground, at least at first.
Because soft surfaces require added strength—physical, cardiovascular, and even mental—your body needs time to adjust. Wrapping your head around the harder workout does, too.
Build into it.
See how your body feels after a shorter-than-regular workout on soft surfaces. If no new pains linger past 48 hours, you can increase your duration on snow or sand. Remember that some pains are okay.
The ones that feel like muscle soreness and go away after a couple of days mean you’re getting stronger and fitter, and that you’re ready for more.
