Altitude training

We arrived at Onnion safely for the start of the holidays early afternoon on Saturday.

I felt very guilty not having been for a run on Friday and for having had an easy week last week. So having unpacked all the luggage from the car, I slipped on my running gear and headed up to Megevette for an easy run along the valley. So why pollute the environment by using the car to go for a run and not start directly from Onnion ? Well, the only problem with Onnion is that it is set high in the valley and the only routes are either up or down. As the intention was to go for an easy run, a short car ride to Megevette it was.

Last year, we used to run a short 6 km route from the church in Megevette and to head up 3 km along the valley and then run the same route back. My target for this run was 27:00 then, 4:30 per km, so I used this base to compare with this year's performance.

I set off easily and found that I wasn't as short as breath as last year, despite having just arrived. This may have been due to the training in Aurillac, but whatever the reason, running was comfortable. I reached the half-way point in 13:13 so well under the target and the downhill was yet to come. A good stretch out on the downhill sections and I got back to the car in 25:51 for 6.18km. Average speed of 4:10 per kilometre at altitude (1620m).