Back on track.

I decided to weigh myself a couple of days ago and identified the reason why all my clothes had started to get smaller. Enough of this binge eating and drinking over the festive period, my days of salad dodging are behind me. Despite the weather, I have started to put in some serious training to get my plans of turning myself into an elite international athlete back on track. Having checked out the weather forecast, I realised that the snow and ice is going to be around for some time, so I went for an eight mile run yesterday.

During the run, I learnt quite a bit about running in the snow so I will pass on my wisdom for anyone planning on walking or running in the next few days. There are basically two types of snow, white crunchy snow which is actually reasonably grippy and then there's clear, shiny, reflective stuff that resembles the surface of the sure skate rink - this is ice and is especially good for making you fall over (there is a third type - yellow snow but your mum will have warned you about that). Ice 'hot spots' can be found on the prom, at the bottom of Broadway and down Royal Avenue.

At lunchtime today, I went for my first off road run in my sparkling new fell shoes. I drove up to the Clypse reservoir and ran up to the Creg ny Baa back road and then round the Conrhenny plantation and back. The scenery was fantastic with the snow but I never thought of taking my camera. The running was good too, a particular highlight was when my feet plunged into ice cold water after penetrating the sheet ice on top. I now know what I have been missing out on. My wife, who is a reasonably experienced fell runner came along too. Although I don't profess to be an expert after my first 'fell run', I like to think towards the end of the run that I gave her a few useful pointers as to how she could improve.

Not one to rest on my laurels and with time on my hands I went out for a walk this evening. It's the first walk that I have done for a couple of weeks so it was good to get back to it. I think with all this excellent training I'm off for a couple of beers and a salad.