Therefore it always comes as a bit of a shock when the summer season starts and I put on summer hill walking boots for the first time.
Today, I decided that I would combine the faithful mountain bike and the running shoes - just as well give the ankles a proper wake up call.
With a diddy rucksack I succeeded in the mountain bike bit but only managed to run about 500m (distance not vertical) of the hill climb due to pathetic hill running legs and deep, tussocky heather terrain. Instead of wiping myself out completely I adopted the walking-with-a-sense-of-urgency approach.
Once the plateau was reaching, an excellent carpet of running friendly terrain lay ahead. It feels good to move around the hills without a fleecy hat and gloves on :)
Never saw a sole all day and the only company I had was the birds and the newts.