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.

CRUNCHY SNOW

It was a seriously crunchy sound when running today. I started out with my normal shoes for running in snow and then realised that the road was like ice. Back I went to the flat and dragged my orienteering shoes out of the back of the cupboard. They have got serious metal studs in them. Running was great once I had these on. It had thawed yesterday with +5 and last night it froze again so everywhere was either ice or crunchy snow. I really enjoyed my run in the woods. Loads of kids on sledges and plenty of good tracks to run on. I started at 1400, the sky was clear and the sun was up - or to be precise going down - thats one joy of living so far north. In places it had already dropped below the trees and the temperature was starting to get crispy (that's a very technical weather term for -5) I was surprised not to get any blisters from the shoes though as I haven't had them on since the early summer when I was training for Jukola in Finland. But the feeling of security when running on the icy bits was great.

I have been keeping my runs to around 30 mins most days. This is the longest that I can run day after day without overstress and being too tired to work in the afternoon. I know that I can run longer just by slowing down but that does not suit me at all. My whole running history has been about clipping along at a good tempo and I am not about to stop that now, whatever the training books say is most effective. I also don't get warm if I run too slowly so there is good reason on cold days like recently for getting on with it. I hope that this snow stays for a while because I want to get back out on my skis again.

THE WHITE WINTER IS HERE

Winter has come properly to Latvia. I had a good 40 minute run in the snow this morning out in the country in Mazcalaca. The snow was just melting so it wasa bit slippery in places. But the world was white evrywhere and really beautiful. I loved every minute of it. The river salaca was a dirty brown colour and it stood out starkly against the snow. My legs ache a bit now because snow is always hard on the body, but it was worth it.