Mixing it up a bit....

Things have been a bit slow lately. The main reason is due to me feeling slightly exhausted! I miss my races, and I miss the excitement, anticipation and agony of wondering whether or not I have improved my time. Most of all I miss running in the cold wintery mornings with the rest of the New England running tribe.
There is something quite special about running in a proper winter. When I was running in Italy, it seemed so absurd the first time I bought a pair of running tights. They were black, with light blue stripes at the bottom, and silver florescent lines running down. The novelty of the item when I first wore them! This was about 12 years ago, and the winters in Tuscany were so mild, that it seemed almost ludicrous to wear them. In fact, I can almost count on my fingers and toes the number of outings these tights had in total. It was far better to run in shorts and a singlet - even in winter.
In Geneva the tights were relegated to a downstairs wardrobe. The sous-sol or basement is where we kept all our clothes, and I had a wardrobe dedicated to unused compression shorts, old university college wear, rugby jerseys, feather boas and evening bags. Yes, a weird collection of stuff, including a t-shirt that I have worn since I was 10 (it still fits me) and which explains what a "NewYorkasauras" is on the front. Mixed in with all this were the tights. Then too I had no reason to wear them, as I had stopped running by then.
When we moved here, I held out for as long as I could, and ran in shorts up until the end of December, when finally I was forced to hunt out these tights. It was so cold here, it was painful just breathing! I felt a bit strange wearing them, as I had never had the "right" weather for them, but half way through my run, I realised that finally the tights were coming into their own - they were being used in the "right" weather.
Indeed, they have come in very useful, and are currently being used on cycle outings. I really should get a decent pair of biking shorts, but I have been just too tired to do anything. So in the spirit of mixing things up a bit, and getting going again, I gave myself and my blog a little makeover: my blog got some flowers and champagne, and I am going shopping with Pata for bike accessories. The second part of my makeover is that I hope to move past this tiredness and start enjoying the swimming and cycliing as much as I do running.
I suppose at the moment it is bit difficult given the fact that I spend large amounts of time feeling terrified! I suppose that does rather drain one of energy, but this feeling will not last forever....that I know for sure!