Snow far so good

Training has been a bit hit and miss this week thus far. On-call work menace and British weather has seen to that. However, the 'hits' are summarised below.

Swimming continues to go well. Not brilliant, not by a long shot. Well, in that I am able to swim a continous 45 mins without a break.

Cycling has proved difficult this week. Ron, John and I were all available at different times and wednesday seemed the only night we could all group together. When wednesday night came, John was otherwise engaged and the freezing conditions (-2.2C) prevented Ron and I going out (remember Ron's 'spill' last week?)! Today was icy too and prevented me taking my road bike out. Scotty had a trip though, to Wyre Forest. Had never been to Wyre Forest before. The forest looked awesome, as it's floor was covered in a layer of crunchy, brilliant white snow and any sign of water was frozen solid. Scotty left tyre marks in this snow as she cycled numerous laps of both the green and blue marked mountain bike trails. These trails were real easy and provided no technical challenge at all, save dodging all the dogs and walkers that were littering these designated trails (grr). Followed a long hill to a so called mountain bike area, but found nothing at the top except a main road and a closed gate - maybe further exploration here should I visit again. Returned home feeling sniffly, but pleased my bike had been out at least once this week. Plan to cycle from or to work in the days that remain, but the weather and my motivation will dictate this.

Ran at the beginning of the week in those asics trail shoes I praised before on this blog. Somehow these shoes have gone out of shape and were crippling my feet. Not to worry, I went to Stratford to purchase some new shoes. I found a nice £70 pair, but told the guy in the shop I wasn't prepared to pay £70 for shoes that were not gore-tex. This particular pair of shoes were asics 'gel trabuco 12 wr' and although not gore-tex were still water resistant. The shop guy sold me said shoes for a more reasonable price of £60! Cody and I went for a second run, to try these new shoes out. We ran a couple of laps around Oversley Wood and the shoes felt comfortable and kept my feet dry.Skipping continues to be problematic. I think that I should perhaps donate a little more time (and maybe effort) into it. On a brighter note though, during my second skip session this week, I managed a continous 2 min skip! Plan to skip for a continous 3 mins now.

'Can a matchbox? No, but a tin can'.