Paavo Nurmi

When the third person in a row told me the snow and general yucky weather conditions were making them feel irritable, I realised it wasn't just me being afflicted with grumpy old man disease.

But then I cam across a magic tip for getting the most out of bad weather -- while feeling irritable -- from a runner who knew a thing or two about bad weather: Paavo Nurmi, the "Flying Finn", winner of nine Olympic titles.

Famous for training and racing with a stopwatch and dominating every event he entered, he trained lightly in the harsh Finnish winter, it is true. The accepted protocol at the time was to ease into running via long walks. Nurmi later admitted that was a mistake, as it tended to make him stiff as well as taking up too muich training time.