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

It has been really, really cold the last few mornings. You will probably think I'm nuts, but I think it makes it lovely to be out there running, especially early when it's still quiet. It's been beautiful, both yesterday and today. Very cold, very crisp and decidedly sparkly! Either a full on white frost that sparkles wherever the light catches it, or a dusting over the darker patches that has it's own sparkles that seem to dance and change as you move by and change the shadows. It gives me something pleasant to think about, and I don't generally feel too cold, although I think that warmer tights would have been a good plan.

Yesterday I managed to squeeze in 6 miles running before work - it was something of a squeeze though and resulted in a bit too much dashing around the house once I'd got back to make sure I was actually out on time. Maybe not the thing to do on the morning I'm supposed to start work earlier than the other days. Still, I enjoyed the run and I made it out on time, so it can't be too bad.

This morning I did a 4 mile jaunt. It was fine and mostly uneventful, apart from the burst water pipe down on the ring road. I don't know what had happened to it, maybe it just froze a bit. Anyway, it was gushing all over the path and road, creating rather hazardous conditions on both the footpath and the road. It was also impossible to negotiate that area without getting your feet wet, something I'd rather avoid in such cold conditions - yuk! Mind you, I did okay, I only got my toes wet and they warmed up again pretty quickly.

I was quite pleased with how things went this afternoon too. I went straight to the swimming pool from work. Apart from a few thoughts about not wanting to strip off for it when it's so cold outside, I managed to get myself there reasonably happily. I now do have a schedule to follow again, I knew what I was supposed to be doing and why. Last week I embarked upon a 12 week Olympic distance triathlon training plan, just to break myself back in. However, I didn't get any swimming done at all last week after the carry on with Ryan being ill and off school. So I want to catch up this week before I get too far behind. Therefore the plan for toady was to complete the 2 sessions that should have been done last week: a 30 minute continuous swim; and a set of short distances totalling 28 lengths of the 50m pool. I'm not up to speed really, hardly surprising after very little swimming of late, so I only did 28 lots of 50m in slightly over 30 minutes - oh well it's a baseline to improve upon. So, in total I was swimming for just over an hour and completed 56 lengths of a 50m pool - not bad for someone who's out of practice.

I also then came home and did 55 minutes on the indoor bike. So, all in all, a pretty successful day. I feel good about having done it all and crammed it into the time available!