Heather Fell, Olympic modern pentathlete silver medalist, writes about her life 'on and off' the track.

I am often asked about my 'glamorous' life and what exotic country I'm off to next. Well right now it seems everyone else is abroad while I'm the one at home training hard.

I don't blame anyone escaping the January blues but I am a little envious of most of the other summer Olympic sports away on warm weather training camps in the southern hemisphere. However. it isn't just my athlete friends who have escaped the British climate; my parents are currently skiing, my sister is soon to go and a large percentage of my friends have either been or are about to head out to the slopes.

There was no chance of hiding those extra calories consumed over the festive period this week when the dreaded skin fold callipers (to measure body fat) were dusted off. I feared the worst but it was a pleasant surprise when the results were calculated to show that I have somehow turned the excess into more muscle. Now I'm awaiting my blood test results - which I'm feeling more confident for - as two weeks of wholesome home cooked food should have fulfilled all my nutritional needs.

With both the recent bank holidays falling on weekends I had a healthy break from competing, but not for long. This Sunday saw my second cross-country race of the year with a trip up to Cardiff to represent the South West for my first time — and hopefully not the last! I was incredibly honoured to be selected but got a little worried when stood on the start line next to several girls in England vests, unsurprisingly they were soon out of my sight.