White Christmas? Not here in Falls Creek it isn't. We're up at altitude here in the Australian Alps laying down the groundwork for next season and the heat is unbelievable. It's shorts and singlets all the way, fighting off the flies and dreading the humidity.

These journeys to Falls Creek have become something of a ritual now and this year we're a little early up here. There's hardly anyone here just now, just the most dedicated nuts and me to keep them company.

I have three guys to run with: Julian Dwyer, Kim Gillard and Andrew Ledderby - three Aussies training for the marathon - as well as two girls and a physio who we've enticed up here for 10 days under false pretences. He's ended up doing his share of minding Ciara.

It's not for everyone up here. Sandy Richards, the Jamaican sprinter and Georgie Clarke the young Australian middle-distancer came up for a while, but they couldn't wait to get home.

Georgie is 16 and pulled her hair out the whole time up here. Bored silly! I must be getting old, the days fly by for me, I'm baking things or having people to dinner, there aren't many ingredients to be had up here so you have to be pretty inventive.

There was no track for Sandy, she needs to run fast and she wasn't too keen on the flies. Sprinters spend half their time walking around and the flies would descend on her in swarms. Us non-sprinters, we just keep moving.

The days have their own routine. Once a week we go to The Man, which is the pub around here, (must be short for snowman). We can get good pizza there and play pool for free.

I have my own routine with Ciara. There's a hill where I go to do exercises and this year she comes along and copies me. She tries to do the sit-ups and then she sits on me when I'm doing push ups.

Sometimes, she'll sit on the grass and move back and forwards just trying to copy me and I have to stop what I'm doing because I'm laughing too much. In the afternoon we walk to the shop which is five minutes away but takes an hour or so to get there as she dawdles along.

Other pieces of the days here: Langfords Gap, The Tower run, Mount McKay, spending time waiting for the big e-mail from Alan Storey telling me what my next session will be. Lying on the bed reading. Meeting at The Hill every evening for half hour run.

Then there is the war with the magpies. There's this hill outside the house and you have to pick flowers and wave them over your head as you run around. Just when you think they've gone and you put your guard down they come swooshing down. And people think it's the snakes and sharks that get people down here!

Christmas Day will be a little different of course. It'll be a run, but not a proper session, then we can relax. There's a couple of restaurants having Christmas dinner and I'm sure we'll be going to one of them.

It hardly seems a year ago since everything was in the melting pot as regards the Olympics. A year ago we came up here a little before Christmas and I went over on my ankle and had to go down to Melbourne again and get treatment.

It seemed back then that there were lots of little setbacks like that. We came back up in the New Year and things were better and I went over on the ankle again. Frustrating.

This year is more relaxed. Australia is generally in withdrawal from the Olympics. This time last year people were looking to get into races everywhere. Now people are pretty relaxed.

Most of the other athletes will come up here on the 26th for a two-week camp, it's nice being here on our own, when we can muster a few people to run every day, but I look forward to there being a big group and lots of activity and people killing each other in training.

There's always a lot of talk and gossip and people making plans and there'll be a few clinics and talks and stuff. I normally get talked into doing a couple of clinics.

One of the nice things about the busy time here is the kids. There's a lot of junior kids come up to train, and it's a fairly big deal for them. You see them coming up training as hard as anything and they are wrecked when they finish.

After the year I've had I needed the discipline of Falls Creek. If anything, down in Melbourne I was pretty unmotivated.

I competed down there at the beginning of December in Olympic Park. I volunteered to do it on then basis of getting my air ticket out here paid for. I was committed at the time, but when I got there I was wondering what I was doing there. 10,000 metres on the track and it was so hot and humid that all I wanted to do was sleep.

All my energy was gone, and what kept me chugging around was the Irish flags there. There was a party from Bord na gCon and quite a few Irish people on holidays, I met these three fellas who were down running around with an Irish flag.

They came down for a picture and autograph and then out the gate with them without watching anything else. That sort of thing keeps you going.

In Melbourne I was having some difficulty getting into training, It was just difficult to get doing things and then I lost my training diary which was a perfect excuse. I didn't have anything to write training sessions down in so naturally I couldn't train.

Eventually Nick printed me off a few calendar pages and I started writing in figures again. It's strange after all these years the comfort of habit.

I fill in the same diary every evening, the mileage and the circuits and all that stuff and then at the end of the week I have the spaces all filled in and feel good about it.

Once we came up here though there was nothing else to do. The easiest way to pass time is to get working and get into a routine of Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for the sessions.

You go different places for runs every day and start to feel the strength coming back. I've started doing a few drills to make myself a bit faster. I'm into it again and looking forward to getting really fit.

Australia is a bit flat sports-wise just now. Cricket is the big thing at the moment. I can't understand it. It was easier this time last year, people talked about nothing but the Olympics. Now it's almost as if they will never happen again.

Even I hardly think about Sydney these days. It was something I really wanted. It came, it went. It was brilliant while it lasted. But you move on. I get letters saying I should have taken six months off, but you can't help looking forward to next year moving onto the next thing.

Right now I'm looking at the World Indoors in Lisbon in early March and then the World Cross-Country in Dublin soon after that. Then we'll see. The World Championships are on in August in Canada, but there's too much happening in-between to think about that yet.

I've decided a few other things though. I think I can be faster at all the shorter distances and I'll run a few of them. The 1,500 in Oslo last summer felt great even though I didn't win. I'd like to experience a few more like that.

From last year I wouldn't change anything really, I have no regrets, but I'll approach things different this year. I'll decide earlier on what I'm going to do, make my mind up early about things and focus on them. It's not going to be a case of doing one or the other and keeping options open.

In the short term, I'm going to stay here in Falls Creek till the end of January and then do a cross-country on the 26th in Ballerat. I'd like to get a cross-country in and then do a couple of track races before heading back to Europe. It has really been a great year for me and it's a great feeling to have such happy memories of the Sydney Olympics. From the moment I entered Stadium Australia with the Irish flag, everything was like a dream.

I'm glad I never woke up, it was a dream come true. Thanks to all the people who shouted at the television sets, wherever you were, for all the flags and banners and the most memorable welcome home ever.

I hope I inspired people all over Ireland to reach out and chase your dreams, make them come true. Happy Christmas to all my loyal supporters and friends. Best wishes for 2001.