13 km's running today & 10 km's yesterday is a pretty good comeback start, after my 3 weeks long sickness period. Let's see if I can keep this pace up, then I will be a sub 4 hour marathoner again during 2009. I will not set up any other specific targets for this year yet. First I will se how the winter season develops and how I feel after Vasaloppet. I also need to put my life priorities right. Running etc is a part of my lifestyle, so there will always be some room for it, even though I have to accept some decline in quality from time to time. I know how bad I can feel when I'm sick or injured for just a week or two without any training, so it has to be a priority activity, if the other sides of life shall be good as well. Life is Good (LG).

Returned to civilization last night. A couple of days earlier than planned. It's been a bit of a sick house (colds, eye infections, upset stomaches, etc) up in the winter cabin in the mountains, so we have spent more time inside than on the skis. Lots of nice snow though and respectful temperatures, sometimes around -15 C during skiing. Even colder down in the valley, around -24 C. So yes, we have felt the strong winter weather for sure, but it's somehow nice. I like it, as long as the car works and water & electricity in the house are OK. I can remember times from the past with some small problems due to this kind of things faultering. Once it was -42 C in the valley and the car just stopped working (frozen cooling system), then when we came up (by taxi) to the house on the mountain, the electricty in the whole area had been knocked out and stayed like that for almost 18 hours. Then it was nice to have a fireplace, a bottle of whiskey and a woman ;-) It created some good memories though.

My total kilometer tally on the skis during this trip was just 55 km's, so it's been lots of resting instead of training. That's OK, I will soon get back into some proper training again. Important to be free from sickness first. My motivation is still on a high level and that is much more important than quantity and quality, but sooner or later I have to get some mileage in my body. Hopefully, the winter weather will remain also down here in the Gothenburg area. Now it's very nice and cold. The ice on our lake is solid and we went across the lake today. Misia on skates and me pushing the babies in the stroller. A new and very nice experience for Misia. I hope for a heavy snowfall soon, so we can ski on the ice or on the golf course. Easy to collect miles and also good type of skiing for Vasaloppet.