SNOW - AGAIN

I left my scarf in Loughborough by mistake and told Alex that it didn't matter as spring had come to Latvia. So here we are again - it snowed again in Riga last night! Today was my first serious run since I tore my calf and the woods were beautiful, warm and white. Underfoot was seriously slippery as it was powdery wet snow on ice. I nearly went over a couple of times. I think I have jarred my neck in the process. It really hurts now. What we do to be athletes!

BAD LEG

After an amazing ski on saturday in near perfect conditions I have been forced to be idle since then with a bad calf. I am doing al the right things, ice, heat, stretching, but it refuses to heal. My problem is that my calves are quite strong so I cannot get past the muscle strength to stretch them fully. I need to be doing this constantly but when I am injured it becomes really hard to get it right. I shall rest and stretch today and then try running again thursday. If that fails I shall just run and suffer until it sorts itself out. it always does work this way but it does hurt doing it.

Loads of snow and plus 4 so park is completely hard running on ice, water and slush. Oh well!!

NOT RUNNING

Running has taken a back seat to life and work this week. A torn muscle in my calf from the fall I had in ski race last week has not helped (I got cramp 1km from the finish and lost balance) I have kept busy doing squats and some elastics exercises. The good bit is that this has coincided with snow and bad running conditions so If I was going to miss a week this was it. Hopefully I shall be back moving next week. I am now looking forward to a ski tomorrow and then maybe the forest paths and roads will clear and I can start running faster again.

COLD - EXCEPT THIS TIME ITS MINE

Friday I hada good run round South London with Alex Byrne. Then I went on 4 day spree of shopping, watched the National Cross Country, worked for Athletics Weekly and was drinking good wine with Alexes parents. Now I have a cold! My fault entirely. Mind it is raining heavily outside and the snow is slushy everywhere and not much fun at all. I hope it doesnt freeze again or it will be glass like everywhere. Anyway I am now itching to get back to running. I really feel ready to put in miles and race somewhere. I think I shall aim for the Riga half marathon in May. Hopefully though one last ski in Mazsalaca this weekend.

I might also run in the veterans competition in Tampere in August. It is time to remind people I am alive again...........

We shall see how the summer goes.

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.

SLUSH SLUSH, GLORIOUS SLUSH!

The sun was out today so went on my medium length route through the park near the sports academy. It takes about 10 minutes along the road to get there but it is worth it. The forest there is on sand so there are lots of dune type ups and downs. It has been raining the last days so the snow was really slushy and heavy and in places huge 50m wide slush puddles had formed. Splashing through those was fun. Around the lake, and where people walk, it was completely blue packed snow like ice. Luckily though it was a bit soft from the rain and with my orienteering studs on I could run on that without too much worry of sliding over. Mind even on soft ice it is hard to turn corners without a bit of risk. There are lots of Tom and Jerry moments of feet moving but body going nowhere.

But I really enjoyed the run because the park was empty and I was often on tracks that were well trodden and firm but with clean sun sparkly snow on either side. It was absolutely beautiful. The only thing to spoil the day was that my feet hurt on the pavement on the way back. It is not often I look for ice to run on because it is softer!!

What is also pleasing is that with regular running and not too hard I am now running as fast on slushy snow as I was three months ago on firm tracks. I dont want the winter to end but I am looking forward to clipping round my courses in the spring