It's a quiet month, February.

[Riazor Blue]

Apart from Carnival, which was noisy as hell.

Speaking of Carnival, I have been trying to work off the excesses ever since. I think I have described the traditional Carnival lunch before. But just to add a couple of centimeters to the waistline and a but of fur to the arteries, I'll list Sunday lunch from start to finish:

1er Plato: Run 18.5 km.

2º Plato: Boiled Galician beef (because the salted ham wasn't up to much this year), chorizos, iberian pork ribs, boiled potatoes, chick peas, turnip tops, cabbage. (There was also pigs ears, nose and trotters, but I just couldn't bring myself to....)

3er Plato: Same as above, but a little less of everything, gotta keep in the in-law's good books.

1er Postre: A whopping chocolate gateau because it was my birthday the week before.

2º Postre: Galician pancakes.

3er Postre: Orejas, traditional fried pastries shaped like an ear.

Bread, wine and coffee.

At around 7pm I waddled out the door disguised as a luminous orange skeleton to jog 6km along the seafront to see if it would aid digestion.

The Monday before Carnival was much the same, as we were issued with a pot each, full to the brim with the aforementioned 2º plato, plus a tray full of pancakes and orejas.

Carnival itself was a quiet affair, suffering the excesses of the night before, too much beer, and the raciones in the bars between Plaza Maria Pita and the Old Town... but I did manage 13km in my skeleton suit before lunch. We made Orejas in the afternoon, even though we had a platefull from the in-laws sitting in the oven.

So the rest of the month has been a sort of recovery from that weekend. The running is going well, nothing drastic, mind. As I'm now decided that this year's marathon will be Toral again, I don't need to up the kilometers just yet. I was however, nearly injured by trying out a pair of shoes given to me by a nameless supplier - 5km and my feet were screaming in agony, I had never tried a shoe with so little cushioning (and it was a 'cushioned trainer' not a stripped down racer or anything).

There are a few races on the horizon for me, Ordenes is 9.4 undulating kilometers on 13th March, followed the weekend after by a half marathon in Porriño. April sees Vigo-Baiona half marathon, which is a goodie, then in May there will be Ferreirua half marathon at the beginning of the month and Betanzos at the end.

My plan of action (you can sense that it has changed since my last plan of action was announced) is to slowly increase the kilometers during March, throwing in one session of series and a 'quicker' run each week before starting on a 12 week plan for Toral. Such enthusiasm have I for this plan that I started this week with my first serious set of intervals since this time last year.

[El Gordo]

Nice one RB, good to hear from you again. Did you really go for a run after all that? All I'll say is that our physiologies evidently operate in different ways...

Fantastic (in the true sense of the word) meal by the sounds of it. I'm quite keen to suggest/organise a trip to your neck of the woods sometime, but I'll do so only if your mum-in-law will accept the role of Catering Manager. God knows how you manage to reconcile your excellent running with your eating regime.

[Riazor Blue]

Everyone here thinks that I run 20-odd kilometers on Sunday mornings as part of a strict training regime. The truth is that I do so only to make space for the huge Sunday lunches that are served up at the in-laws.

As for that extra run.. it actually done the trick and helped with the digestion, I think. It certainly didn't do me any harm, although normally 2 sessions on one day is a bit excessive for me.

I'm not saying that Carnival lunch was excessive or anything, but we needed two tables to accommodate all the pots (there were only 8 of us).

Regarding trips here, Vigo-Baiona is a good race, although there are no such things as pasta parties, runner's fairs and such like up here. Everything else is smaller, but usually free to enter.