The New Year started off well with one of those beautiful blue-sky days that just screamed 'come out and play, come out and play'! Who could resist such insistence! After the previous day's rain, the natural choice was for a run along tracks and hard-packed trails. We hadn't 'done' the track from Cominac to the Col de Vièle-Morte  for a year or two and the last time was on the mountain bikes. It promised great views too, so it seemed the natural choice.

It didn't disappoint. The outward leg was just over 7kms at a steady gradient with a total of 425m of ascent. It was fantastic to feel able to run it all at what was for me, a decent speed of between 9 and 10 kph. The view did not disappoint. The Pic Rouge de Bassiès and other peaks above Aulus-les-Bains looked magnificent in their winter finery.

We reached the end of the track after 7.4 kms and were obliged to turn around and retrace our steps. We had a fun, fast run back to Cominac. The total outing was 14.7kms/425m+ which we covered in 1h28m of moving time. It had been a handy little outing - the old legs felt great. The 3 weeks of relatively little activity since my last race seems to have paid off - hurrah!

Yesterday was a truely awful weather day but today the weather Gods apologised and treated us to another blue sky day. I had to head down to Tarascon for a haircut so while I was over 'the other side', I knocked off a 10km/435m+/1h20m circuit from Surba which took me up to Bedeilh'ac, up to Calamès and then to la Roche Ronde before a steep and slippery descent back down, returning via the back lane. Great to be out in the sun and to get a few more kilometers (albeit slow ones) under my belt. The dog enjoyed it too!