Some collected thoughts on running in winter conditions, after a few days of exactly that in January 2025. All the pictures below are from a couple of days in the local hills, 9-10 Jan. This advice is mostly concerned with local, low level trails than the more serious business of winter mountain running.

1. Run to experience. Now is not the time to be trying new things. Expect to do a bit less than you would have done in non-winter conditions.
2. No FOMO! If conditions put a stop to your running, don’t worry, stuff happens. Catch up on your strength and conditioning or yo instead. Always better to enjoy what you can do, than get hung up on what you can’t.
3. Know your weather history. These few days have been really icy, because it was very wet (parts of Greater Manchester flooded) before it got very cold. So anywhere that has flowing or standing water is now sheet ice. If it had been dry before the cold snap, ground conditions would be far easier. Probably the worst combination is wet, then cold, then snowy, so that the surface water freezes and then gets covered by snow.
4. Surfaces – smooth surfaces like roads and pavements often become the worst thing to run on, because just a thin covering of ice makes them treacherous. (See the photo of a minor road, combined with the earlier wet weather, this become sheet ice.) Uneven surfaces like rocky trails will be better, even with icy patches. Grassy paths are often the best, as they hold water less frequently and the grass stays grippy.
5. Know your snow and ice. The whiter/more opaque stuff is better to run on than anything shiny, grey or transparent. Even ice – aerated or crystalline ice goes whiter and is grippier due not not being entirely smooth, whereas smears of pure ice appear grey or transparent. The picture of a bridleway shows some snowy sections (ok) mixed with ice smears where there has been water drainage (not ok).
6. Expect everything to take longer. I am reasonably confident on this stuff and my runs generally take 20% longer in snow or ice.
7. Downhill is riskier than uphill – you land harder and have more momentum.
8. Snow changes. The simplest version is that snow gets compacted by cars or footsteps, and gradually becomes more compact and icy. This is one reason why pavements and roads become so bad. But it can also happen on popular paths. Another factor is the freeze-thaw cycle, when the temperature switches between above and below freezing. This will gradually convert fluffy white snow into more compact and slippy snow-ice, where some spikes would become necessary.
9. Accessorize your feet? Trail or fell shoes are OK in most conditions. All the photos taken below were from a run in a pair of decent trail shoes, when there was a lot of ice around. Skirting round the worst bits normally means you don’t need any extra kit. But, something like Yaktrax works well in these conditions, and if venturing into the mountains in full winter conditions, I would take Kahtoola microspikes and potentially also a light ice axe (if the mountains are covered in snow-ice, there is no other way to stop yourself).
10. Safety! Carry warm stuff and a phone. My recent runs were fine in a base layer, windproof, leggings and gloves. But if you hurt yourself and had to stop, you’d get really cold really quick!