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

ALTHOUGH not from choice I am still slightly ashamed to admit it has taken me until now to run my first cross-country race of the season.

I was a little worried during the week when it looked like I might be waiting even longer, due to a mild injury I had picked up. I followed the doctor's advice and ran a few short flat gentle routes as a test. This was all fine except cross-country is far from flat and gentle! It turned out that as a result of my enforced rest from running my legs were in fact fresh, so the hills and intensity didn't pose the problem. The one shock to the system though was the mud, I forgot you are supposed to go straight through it when racing!

I am delighted it is December; not only have all the 'slugs' been removed from the top lip of many men all over the world now that the charitable 'Movember' has come to a close but it also signifies the start of Christmas. This doesn't mean I am one of those smug people who has finished all their shopping and has the smell of home-made mince pies wafting from the oven, I am far from that; however it does mean that it's now acceptable to drink mulled wine, dig out the Christmas jumper, hang tinsel everywhere, eat a little more than normal, sing Christmas songs and watch a festive film you've already seen five times.

Times readers can be updated on what Heather is up to via?her social networking site twitter:heatherfellnews