ANOTHER COLD DAY

easy run yesterday in the woods. the ground was rock hard -8 or so and the tracks looked like rivers of glass where they have melted and refrozen several times. Kept the run steady and enjoyed the crunchy noise and feeling wearing studded orienteering shoes.

Sunday I also manged another ski in Mazsalaca. It was cold again, about -12. I went out on my skating skiis. The tracks were very rutted and frozen so skiing was hard to improssible in places. In reality a good skier would have had no problems but I am out of practice and my balance and technique are simply not good enough to cope with this sort of challenge. But is was good fun anyway. My arms and shoulders still ache two days later.

MAZSALACA

Out on skis today for an hour. It was -12 so my fingers did not enjoy it at all. I was on trhe tracks around Mazsalaca. they have huge potential witha bit of work. The skiing was hard because the tracks had been used when the snow was soft and melting and now the snow was iron hard and with lots of ice around. At least I didnt fall over, but close!!!

My technique needs some hard mileage to sort it out. I was really wobbly much of the time. Funnily my skating was better than my classic. It has been years since that was the case. perhaps the strength training is working at last. Tomorrow is set for -18 so I might not get a chance to go out. lets hope I can.

RUNNING IN THE COLD

Holidays in Finland this week. Two days I ran in the cold with Marcus and it it was hard work. The first day was -4 and the second about -7. My fngers really did not get warm for the first 20 mins each day. But the view in Turku was beautiful with snow and frost everywhere and the tracks there are wonderful to run on. Today was back in Riga and I ran for nearly an hour round the woods. The temperture was -7 again but today in the same amount of clothes I was not cold at all. Very strange! But it was much harder to run on the slippery snow here and I was moving much more slowly and with more effort. I felt really drained by the time I got back home. But the forest was again beautiful and it felt good to be alive. I was the only person running though. There were several old cross country skiers (where are the youngsters?) on some very good and extensive tracks. There were also loads of children on sledges and one ignorant parent who had taken his 4x4 right into the forest mucking up the tracks as he did so. Why do people do things like this?

Tomorrow it is likely to be very cold so we shall see what to do.