Heather Fell, Olympic modern pentathlete silver medalist, writes about her life 'on and off' the track.
I was so relieved to make it home I didn't even consider the snow packed icy drive down to the house. Unfortunately my car had no intentions of going back up. Therefore the next morning I had to rely on my parents. Feeling like a child again I woke my father up at 5.30am to take me to training. I am now seriously in his debt, especially when we arrived at the pool to discover there was no swimming!
There may be no fencing or riding available, swimming is reduced and running is quite a challenge in this weather but I've been working around this. What better way than combining fun in the snow with keeping fit; I reckon my sprints back up the toboggan run have to be helping! Although building snowmen might not have quite the same crossover.
This aside, I still thought I'd better venture to the gym and attempt to hit the treadmill. I've never found running indoors easy, but I was getting rather depressed when working really hard just to run at my usual warm up pace. It wasn't until trying to increase the speed - when I reached my maximum effort far too soon - that someone pointed out it was in mph not kph, what a relief!
In between training I've been attempting to put together a review of 2010 for BBC Radio Devon. With the help of the editor I've hopefully managed to collect enough audio from various local highlights. So if you fancy a listen, tune into interactive lunch this week.
By the time you read this, Christmas will be over and I expect the snow will have melted. However, the celebrations won't have ended yet — Happy New Year!
n Times readers can stay updated with what Heather is up to via twitter: heatherfellnews