Andrew Lemoncello hopes his stoic regime will help carry him into the Great Britain team for the World Cross-country Championships in Edinburgh next month.

The snow in Flagstaff is several feet deep. The temperature is well below freezing. Andrew Lemoncello goes into the garage and fills a bath. With cold water. He throws in ice from the freezer, then opens the garage door and shovels in copious amounts of snow. It dissolves ever more slowly as the water temperature drops. Then he strips off and climbs in.

Readers may indulge in a sharp intake of breath, but it's nothing to the gasp from Scotland's leading distance runner. He's just completed a brutal work-out, but this will aid recovery.

"It takes a minute or two with just my calves in before I can muster the courage to go right under," he says. "Afterwards, it's into a hot shower for 20 minutes to thaw out."

This DIY cryotherapy is how he recovers from training sessions at 7000 feet in Arizona, and he hopes his stoic regime will help carry him into the Great Britain team for the World Cross-country Championships in Edinburgh next month.

"I find it really good, especially after training on the track," he said. "My track sessions are usually very high quality. It stops any kind of swelling. It's cold, but once you've had a hot shower, your legs feel like they haven't done a session at all."

Lemoncello has sacrificed what even his keenest rivals would almost certainly concede would have been a near-certain Scottish cross-country title today at Falkirk's Callendar Park.

However, travelling home to run it would have meant coming down from altitude too early for the window of benefit to remain open until the world championships. Today's race will not influence GB team selection, but will indicate which other Scots may have a chance of making the team. The trial is at Nottingham three weeks today.

"It's disappointing to miss the Scottish. My coach, Ron Morrison, feels my career won't be complete unless I win it. I've been wanting to run for the last few years, but college obligations on a US athletics scholarship meant I wasn't able to do so."

Lemoncello was in the 2003 European championship team on the Holyrood course which will be used for the world event on March 30, and is desperate to qualify for these cham-pionships on home soil. The last one here was 30 years ago and it's unlikely to happen again in his competitive lifetime.

"Every time I train, it's the only thing I can think about," he said Best known as a steeplechaser, his recent form has been spectacular. In only his second half-marathon he was second in Austin last month, with 63min 12sec. Only five Scots have gone quicker and the last was in 1993. Six Kenyans and Lemoncello were together with 5000m to go. The Scot covered that in just over 14 minutes, having led for most of the race. "The Kenyans didn't take it on. They were just there for the prize money. Second was worth $1000."

Flu struck soon after, but the Fifer is confident it won't compromise his chances. "I'm still confident I can make the team," he said. "I'm only back running 10 days after the flu. Everyone's been calling it the death flu, because you can't do anything for four days. Every movement is agony. So I'd eight days off running and I'm just building back into it. But I think by next week I'll be fine. I am back home on March 4 with 12 days before the trial, and I will be pretty fit by the world cross."

Lemoncello is aiming for the 'chase in Beijing, but though he fits the funding template, has been denied it. "I said I ultimately want to move to the marathon, so they won't consider me for Lottery funding now. I don't think that's fair. Others are going to move up in future. If you are making the times right now, it should be based on that. I'm making the standard. I'm clearly within them, but they have said there isn't even any point in appealing."

• Susan Scott broke her second Scottish record in five days in Stockholm on Thursday night. The City of Glasgow woman clocked 4:09.07, removing the 1500m record set by Yvonne Murray 21 years ago. She had beaten the national indoor 800m best in Birmingham on Saturday.

Chosen for the 1500m at the World Indoor Championships next month in Valencia, Scott was just behind Com-monwealth 1500m champion Lisa Dobriskey at the Swedish meeting.

The evening was marred by an injury to local heroine Carolina Kluft. The Olympic and World champion suffered a slight hamstring injury and yesterday withdrew from Valencia. This boosts the prospects of Britain's Kelly Sotherton, though she still must contend with Ukraine's reinstated doping cheat, Lyudmila Blonska.