Winter is fast heading to this corner of Sweden. We woke up this morning to sheets of ice covering the roads and a heavy frost showing on the lawn. Hardly the ideal day for a long run. If it were not for the fact that I am due to work tomorrow I would have happily swapped the planned runs around and head out for a long run on Sunday, as it was I just had to make the best of it.

By the afternoon the worst of the ice had melted away leaving just small sections which could be carefully avoided. I decided that if I could run the majority of the route on gravel paths a run was still possible as long as I was careful. An ideal that sounded great in theory but wasn't so practical when trying to link 20 plus kilometers of gravel tracks together. There was no way to avoid the inevitable, it was going to have to be several laps of a lake on a lighted exercise route on the edge of town.

It wasn't really the best of runs, the route was slightly more hilly than what I am used to for a long run and started with a long uphill slog. I think the start effected my mood more than I realised and that was even before I started the monotony of running the same section of track again and again. It was probably still a good workout despite being shorter than last week long run, but in terms of enjoyment it wasn't good at all. Hopefully I can work out some new routes so I can avoid having to do more routes in this in the future, but hey, its done and logged so it isn't all bad.

Lessons learnt from this weeks long run

• I don't like running laps. One or two I could maybe cope with but today's seven was really starting to get to me.
• A running jacket will fill with wind and act as a sail pushing you backwards while running against the wind but doesn't seem to be so helpful when running in the opposite direction.
• A proper visit to the toilet before a run isn't an optional extra, my apologies to anyone in the vicinity of my foul odours during todays run. Luckily I didn't see many people at the lake today, or maybe they just stayed long enough to smell the air before heading straight back home again.