The best inspiration is not to outdo others, but to outdo ourselves

I've got three runs to report on again. Time just seems to keep flying away from me and I don't quite get everything done. However, here I am now. You will see the title reflected in what I have to say as we have run a gauntlet of different weather conditions in the last few days.

As I said last time, it was mild and drizzly on Tuesday morning. By the time I headed out in the early evening on Tuesday, things were totally different. It was snowing! The temperature had dropped by about six degrees throughout the course of the day, it was zero and quite actively snowing when I headed out. I was supposed to be doing 6 miles, with the first half being done at a good 5K pace. It didn't quite work out like that. I managed the first 2 miles in 9 minute miles (a good pace for me) but after that they all dropped to my usual 10 minute miles. The reasons for that were simple enough, the ground was becoming quite slippy with the wet snowfall, but also my glasses were steaming up, so my ability to pick the best route through the snow was somewhat hampered! Still, it went pretty much okay and I arrived back in one piece, if a little wet!

Distance: 228.9 miles

Time: 42:35:54

Calories: 21,815

The next trip out was yesterday morning, into beautiful pristine and clear conditions. Needless to say it was considerably below freezing. It was lovely really, the sky was clear, there was frost on every available surface and there were sparkling jack frost patterns and diamond sparkles to be seen everywhere. I quite appreciated just being out there, cold though it was. I did my 4 mile route and enjoyed it, although there were places where it was quite icy and rather more care than usual had to be taken. Mostly that was where snow from the day before had remained and then frozen solid during the night.

Distance: 232.9 miles

Time: 43:17:18

Calories: 22,197

Finally, I have just been out this morning, again to do the four mile route, but this time in pretty thick fog. Strange morning really. It snowed pretty heavily around teatime yesterday and so there was still snow lying when I went out, but it wasn't especially cold. I was a bit slow today, a mixture of reasons. Partly simply because I'm tired. It's Thursday, it's been a busy week and I've run quite a lot already. But the other factor was the conditions underfoot. There was snow in most places, but it was quite slippy. it hadn't frozen and was worst for running on where more people had walked on it and slushed it up and squashed it down. So, I rather plodded my around. Still, I did it - that'll do for today!

Distance: 236.9 miles

Time: 44:00:38

Calories: 22,598