This World Cross Country championships have been a long time coming and now that they're here, well it's a little strange for obvious reasons. We are in Ostend, not in Dublin. The atmosphere is different to what anyone had planned for.

Still there is work to be done. We came by train and car, driving the last leg down here. It's odd. In Dublin there was so much expected to be going on around the races. Now we're just off to another race, there's not so much of a festival atmosphere as Dublin would have had. Still it's great news that the race will be in Dublin next year, it gives us all something to aim for. During the winter it will give me a target: be fit again for March.

It could work out well. I'm hoping that maybe Catherina will be fit to race next March. That would be great for the team.

I've been looking forward to this Cross Country race for quite a while. I'd be more excited if it were still in Dublin, but it's still a big race, the change of venue doesn't alter that, and it's still very important to me. If you win the World Cross Country, it's the same no matter where it takes place.

Over the winter this is what I've been getting ready for and planning for. I feel fit, even though I've been taking it easy for a week or so now.

I've decided on just running the one race this time. I decided that as far back as last October, in fact. I won both races the first year they separated them and I tried to do that again last year. It's gotten harder.

Marrakesh in 1998, when I won both, was the first year that they split the races and I think that people didn't arrive so well prepared for the shorter race. Now both of them are really big races and both are as difficult to win. For two years or so, the short race was a bit weaker. Now neither race is harder than the other.

I decided, therefore, to concentrate on the shorter race. It fits in with my plans for this season. I intend to run the 5,000 metres this year, so the short race fits in nicely with the training I've been doing. Also I think that if we all pull together, run the best race we can, we have a chance at a team medal.

I'll try the 10,000m again, but I'm hoping I can stick with the 5,000m for another while. I think I can run faster at the 5,000m and 1,500m and I'll work on them both this year.

This weekend is a little different, though. Great, unique atmosphere that you only get at cross country and great races. My main rivals are the Kenyans and Ethiopians. I rate them as teams rather than individuals this weekend because they place such a high priority on beating each other for the team prize and they always produce a few surprises. People you have never heard of before suddenly come out of nowhere in a Kenyan or Ethiopian singlet and challenge for gold.

I also have to respect Paula Radcliffe if she doubles back from the long race. She's an incredibly tough runner and always runs well at the World Cross Country.

As for me? I'm happy to find that the hunger for running hasn't gone away since Sydney. In Australia, during training this winter, I was into it as much as ever. I feel that I had a similar winter to 1998. Last year I had a couple of injuries and things didn't go so smoothly, but this year everything has gone really well.

I could have trained forever. We did a lot of altitude work at Falls Creek and then came back down to Melbourne, and we'd bring Ciara to the track and she'd dawdle off on her own doing laps while I'd work through a session. It was the perfect way to train.

We got back to Europe and the foot-and-mouth panic a few weeks ago. We had three days or so in London before we headed to Lisbon for the Indoor Championships. Everything is so strange. We can't train on parkland at the moment and won't be allowed to until two weeks after the last outbreak here. I run on a tow path along the Thames these days, which is fine, but it's out and back along the same path, towards Teddington in the morning, towards Walton in the evening. I miss being able to head out in a big loop through the park.

Otherwise things are fine. If you were putting words to pictures, as some people were, you'd have thought the Indoor Championships were the end of the world. They weren't. I'm still alive and training away and I haven't lost too much sleep over it.

Foot-and-mouth has a little bit to do with it, I think. The sports pages didn't have a lot to carry on the Monday morning and the indoors were a good story. I didn't realise that it was any sort of big deal until I flew into Dublin on that day. I hadn't seen that much coverage, but being on the plane I couldn't avoid the papers. It seemed like my picture was all over them. There must have been nothing else going on at home. It was like I was looking for attention. I decided there and then that the only thing to do was go well the next time out.

As for Lisbon, people have been wondering if I was head-strong, daft or finished. Well, it's early in the season, so take your pick. I've nobody else to blame for it but myself and around me I see nobody else taking the blame! Madness is one word that was used, but for me it was just one of those things, I made a quick decision without thinking it through. I made a quick decision and it was the wrong one. I never discussed it with anyone. It was just that the indoors were something that were on along the way and I decided to go there. I don't really know why I was there, but when I got there instead of taking the time to decide between the two races I just decided to do both.

There was no discussion with (coach) Alan Storey. Sadly! I was fit enough to run really well in one or other race and just screwed it up a bit. All I can say is that doubling up seemed like a good idea at the time. The indoors aren't a big deal and I thought I'd do something a bit different. If that works out you look like a genius. When it doesn't work out you look like an idiot.

It didn't work out. We didn't discuss it much afterwards. It was a disastrous weekend so it didn't warrant any discussion, we just moved on to the next thing.

Funny thing is, I reckon I ran three good races out of four down there. I'm never too comfortable in those indoor arenas where the atmosphere is a lot different. The crowd is really close, it's probably good to be at, but it feels like you are in a dog and pony show rather than a sporting event.

It's a bit artificial. It just feels a little manufactured. If I was doing it all again, I'd come and run some indoor meets beforehand. It's so cramped and there is no space to move around during the race. In the heat where I beat (Gabriela) Szabo, I felt fantastic, though. It was too late then to change my mind anyway, so I just went with it.

In the 3,000m final, a gap opened up and I lost touch before I got my focus back. I still felt fine, I wasn't hurting, and it didn't set any alarm bells going for the rest of the year. I would say I had three relatively good races out of four and the last one just killed me.

By then I had too many things going on in my head, I was starting to ask questions like "what am I doing here?" It was a little bit of a chore and it's difficult to overcome that.

I wish I'd thought it through more. It was the first time I've raced against Szabo since the Olympics. If I'd got that into my head beforehand and thought about it enough, well I might have been able to do something a little different and focus a little better. But I didn't go there thinking about what I was going to be doing. It was like taking an exam without studying. I was just winging it.

Szabo was a little more friendly to me than normal. I talked to her after the heats. She was asking what I was doing after the cross country, where we were staying, etc. We just stood and asked each other logistical stuff, where we were training and staying. Not best pals, but warmer.

I was disappointed more at looking a bit foolish than not winning. After the races I was in a bad mood about it for a while on Sunday and I'd say I wasn't too good to be around until some time on Monday when I figured out it was time to move on. I read some things in the papers and they were painting such a dark picture of it all that it amused me. I decided I'd better move on quickly to the next event.

At least it's only March. I have nine months to make people forget about it.

I'm sorted for the rest of the year by the way. I have all my decisions made. I've known since October about running the shorter distance in the cross country and the World Championships are sorted out too.

Starting with this weekend, it should be a good year. I haven't been in a World Championships since 1997 in Athens, so it will be great to get to Edmonton for that. Hopefully along the way we'll pick all the right races and do the right training and get there, spot-on perfect.

We haven't sat down to plan it, but I won't be going everywhere. Even in terms of bringing Ciara, it's not as easy as it was to move around. The packing and organising has got harder and watching mammy run 5,000m isn't her idea of fun anymore. I'll pick a few races here and there and go by myself occasionally.

It's nice to have reached the spring and to be looking forward again. The Olympics seem years ago now. We were up in Homebush Bay for a track meet a while ago. It was held in the Olympic warm-up stadium and the whole thing was a bit of a shock. Homebush is a ghost-town now, just these massive structures with the breeze blowing through them and hardly anyone around. Only about 2,000 people came to our meet, so soon after the Olympics. It made you realise that nothing lasts forever.

Running is always about getting on to the next place.