1) Cross-country running
How do you fancy being caked in mud, sprinting around fields and over fences on a Sunday morning in winter?
This one is definitely not for the faint-hearted but it’s mighty craic.
Most of the Irish cross-country running races are less than 10km, with 4km common for the women’s races.
Typically the novice races are 6km for the men and 3km for the women, with the intermediate and senior races 10km-12km for the men and 4km for the women.
That is not a long time and very manageable for most of us.
Why is it great? The social element to these races make them hugely popular, while for more competitive types it’s a way of retaining speed endurance over the coldest of the winter months until the season ends in late February or early March and the temperatures warm up…slightly.
2) Snowboarding
So you can’t exactly pop down to the local piste for a half hour of half pipes but you can jump on a plane and be in the Pyrenees or the Alps in under two hours from Dublin.
Because skiing is soooo yesterday we’re going to suggest you try snowboarding this winter.
The benefits are quite immense; you’ll develop incredible core and lower leg strength while also getting a superb cardiovascular workout…assuming you don’t mill yourself on the first jump.
3) Mountain-biking
We may not know it but Ireland has some of the best mountain bike trails in Europe.
The European MTB Championships were held in Cork this year while up north, Rostrevor in County Down attracts thousands of visitors annually.
In the west, there’s the Greenway out of Westport over to Achill Island while down south, the Great Southern Trail (GST) is a unique 96km (60 miles) stretch of countryside in West Limerick/North Kerry along the route taken by the Old Limerick to Tralee/Fenit railway line which opened in stages between 1867 and 1887 but was closed by 1978.
Some redevelopment of the old railway as a walking and cycling greenway has already taken place and today you can walk and cycle along 36km of the Co. Limerick section of the route between Rathkeale and Abbeyfeale, along a short stretch near the Lartigue Museum in Listowel in Co.Kerry and work is on the Tralee-Fenit section is well underway.
The roads are bad and more dangerous this time of year, so why don’t you kit yourself out and hit the safer trails this winter?
4) Ice-skating
Robbie Savage made it look easy, but it’s far from that. It’s probably the most dangerous of all these pursuits too, but well worth a shot. Why?
It’s a low-impact exercise that’s good for building lower-body muscles including the hips, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves. It also improves balance, flexibility, quickness, and agility but be warned, going over on your ankle is painful and common.
5) Northern Lights
Okay so not exactly a winter sport but if you’re to get up good and close to one of nature’s wonders you’ll have to do some trekking or dog-sledding across frozen lakes and through forests in freezing temperatures, with probably no more than a guide and a head torch to direct you. Sounds awful doesn’t it?
Between now and March you’ve got a good chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Fly to Iceland or northern Scandinavia, commonly known as Lapland, and just head north…
