A Christmas Eve run

I am already feeling a little bit guilty about the gastronomic excesses that seemingly cannot be avoided at Christmas time, even when it is just the two of us for the Christmas weekend. To ease the guilt and to earn another mince pie or two, I took myself out with the pooch this afternoon for a stormy run on the Forêt de Bélesta loop. The loop formed part of the Trail des Citadelles 70km race this year so I was keen to explore it for the first time. There was a strong chilly wind blowing and snow storms threatening but I reckoned the circuit should be quite well-protected.

The first 5kms was constant climbing but I was on good tracks and paths which made things easier. From the high point, I could see the winter weather on the march and hoped I would make it back before it hitFrom there, it was very enjoyable running but with a 1.5km long tricky, slippy and quite steep descent back into Belesta where I almost came a cropper! I arrived back at the car after 1 hr 59m 57s of running, 15.05km with 600m of ascent. The best thing about the run is that my legs felt great and I could have carried on! Stats on the usual site

I had a very enjoyable visit to Lavelanet market this morning to fetch the fruit and veg for the weekend and managed to pick up a dozen fresh-as-they-come (harvested in the early hours of this morning) oysters while I was there - jackpot! I managed to avoid the stupidmarket today, having done all of the 'basics' shopping during the week so we can now relax and look forward to our gastronomic Christmas blowout tomorrow.

Happy Christmas and best wishes to you all!