Sunday run

When I was a child, Sunday represented the worst day of the week for me. Sunday was boring, nothing ever happened and everybody was focused on going back to work the following day. Since I started running regularly here in France about 5 or 6 years ago with a group of friends, Sunday has become most enjoyable.

I wondered a few days ago what motivated me to go out and run regularly. Why do I bother with putting so much effort into improving my time, when I'm the only one who really cares about this ? Tom said exactly the same thing in his blog today: http://pommytom.blogspot.com/2008/08/not-long-sunday-run.html
One of the reasons for me is to meet up with everybody on a regular basis and chat about work, life, running, holidays etc. It's really something that I look forward to and I enjoy running with others as it takes my mind off the pain and effort when you run by yourself. It's satisfying to see the same regular faces and some others, slightly less regular but who we welcome with pleasure.

Today's turnout was a sign of the return to work next week and the regulars were back from holiday: Pierre-Henri, Sophie, Nick were all there and we had a surprise visit from Emmanuel who we haven't seen in running shoes for a while. Ralf and Louise were surprisingly absent.

We set off slowly and Nick and I soon left the group which split up into those wishing to do a shorter run (P-H and Emmanuel) and those who just wished to go slower (Laurence and Sophie). As we got closer to the half-way point, we began to speed up and I ran the last kilometre to the barrier in just over 3:30. I was feeling really good and happy to build up the speed, knowing that I could recover for a while waiting for the others.

The second-half of the usual Sunday course was slower but more consistent and I finished the 10.4km in 47:49.

Now the usual Sunday afternoon depression begins ...

Long run

With the intention of running another marathon at the end of October, I decided that I had better "up the ante" and get a few more kilometres under my belt before I take part.

I set off, intending to run 2 loops of the Sunday run, but at the end of the first loop I bumped into Nick running up the hill towards St Germain. We stopped and had a quick chat and stupidly, I didn't even think to ask to join him to the terrasse rather than carrying on my run. I did the first loop in 50:25 for 11.4 km and then carried on for the second. I toyed with the idea of extending the run to go through St Germain and down to the river and back along the Seine, but abandoned this because: firstly, I didn't have enough time; and secondly, wasn't too sure of my level of fitness to push past 30km without water or food.

I felt fairly comfortable the whole way around and stopped the lap timer on the Garmin as I went through the half-marathon distance: just under 1:33:00. Pushed on down the hill to home to do 23 km in 1:40:10 - most pleased.


This shows that my general endurance is pretty good and that I'm able to keep up a 4:20 pace over a half-marathon distance in training. Bodes well for end October.


A few more photos of last weekend's raid that I found on the web for your viewing pleasure:



Last photo doesn't show our team but the hardest part of the course for the canoeing. Thanks to "normandie course à pied" for the photos: http://www.normandiecourseapied.com/externe/raid_pays_d_auge_2008/index.html.

Back to business

It is almost "La Rentrée". The special time of the year here in France when you are bombarded with adverts for buying your precious little cherubins all they need to go back to school and more. The government gets back to work and tries to resolve the issues of the day and thousands of employees return to work, sad faces all round as they quickly forget the happy times they have just had on holiday.

No sad face for me this morning, as my running "rentrée" was a confirmation of my return to shape after the efforts of last weekend. It was the standard rendition of the 11.1 km course around the town but as soon as I set off, I knew that my legs, my body, in fact everything felt so much easier than Tuesday. The strides were fluid, I wasn't pushing too hard, yet I felt great.

2 km in 8:35 in front of the POBS. The sun was just rising but unfortunately there were far too many clouds around for it to be visible. The weathermen having been getting it wrong regularly recently, since they been promising sunshine and a rise in temperatures for some days now. I maintained this pace into the park and felt so much better than recently. No aching legs, no sore shins, no swollen left ankle, so I increased my stride and carried on. I left the park in 27:55 and then thought that I saw Andy in front running towards the swimming pool. I put on a real burst to catch him up only to find that it wasn't him after all ! This helped me finish quickly over the last part of the run - 46:46 for the total course, so around 4:14 per km.

A few races coming up now in September, including 10km in Conflans, the Paris-Versailles and not forgetting the St Germain sprint triathlon. I think I'm ready for them now.

Camembert

I weighed myself this morning after having been for my run and I now weigh 77.7 kg. This is almost 3 kg more than last week. How has this happened ?

I only have one explanation: camembert (and especially Lanquetot, sponsors of the raid this weekend).

This can be the only reason why my morning run today was so laborious. I ran the usual 11.1 km route around Maisons Laffitte in a total time of 49:02 or 4:25 per km. This was almost 3 minutes slower than a few days ago. I knew it was going to be hard from the outset when I felt how tired my whole body was. I ran by the Seine to the 2 km mark in 9:05, some 45 seconds slower than my usual pace at this point.

I picked up the pace slightly running through Maisons Laffitte park, but it was never going to be a fast time so I concentrated on enjoying myself as much as possible. Even this was hard, as the effort was permanent. It was with much relief that I ran up the last hill to arrive back at the house.

The extra weight has slowed me down and I'm going to have to cut back on my cheese consumption if I'm going to run faster again.

Normandy raid - Sunday (over and out)

The final morning of the raid and 3 more events to determine the winners of this year's edition. How would we do ?

We enjoyed slightly more sleep on Saturday night than the previous night, but as Laurence and I emerged from the tent, it was obvious that we were both suffering from "puffy eye" syndrome !! A clean of the bikes; some oiling of the chains; the replacement of Anne's rear tyre and we were as ready as we ever would be for the first event of the morning: the bike and run. This course started about 5km from Orbec and so all the teams cycled slowly to the start point to listen to the instructions. The teams were set off in reverse order of their overall position in the raid at this point with around 30 seconds intervals between teams and so team n° 105 set off about 8 teams back from the start.

We had decided on a simple strategy for the bike and run: the women would cycle and the blokes would run. We were given a roadbook for the course and told to start. It was a 10 km course over some varied terrain through the woods and fields with some fairly steep uphill and downhill sections. We set off at a good pace (I was running in my cycling shoes which wasn't easy) with Nick reading the instructions while I measured the distances on the Garmin. We set a good time and caught the teams in front of us one by one, despite their head-start. A small mistake in direction at the final corner which we soon rectified and we finished in 53:27. This was no mean feat since we had to push the bikes up the hardest hills too. We realised the 6th best time for this event of the 24 teams still participating (one team having pulled out on the first night following a sprained ankle). Admittedly, the fastest team managed a time of 46:40 over the same course but with a slightly better strategy on the bike management, I'm sure that we could get close to this.

Next event involved memorising a map showing where the next CP was situated. At this checkpoint, another map was present showing the situation of the next CP and so on ...

This was our best event as it involved map reading and running as a team. Apart from an unbelievable mistake where we missed a cardpunch (no idea how this happened), we ran well together and set a good time over the 4.5 km course. In fact, the error cost us 20 minutes as a time penalty, without which we would have been 4th team over this event.

Back on the bikes for the last event and a 9 km ride home, map-reading as we went. Plenty of confusion around the last CP with all of the teams missing a small turning indicated on the map. Lack of communication on my part meant that we lost a few minutes, but some of the other teams attitudes were pretty galling. You can be too competitive sometimes ...

Back to Orbec where we washed the bikes in the river and then a hot shower before lunch and the final results. Officially we finished in 18th position but there was a cock-up in the calculation of the points for the Bike and Run where they give us 15 points instead of the 6 we should have received. So all in all, we finished about half-way down the field, which was good for a first attempt. A brush-up in our map-reading skills and some canoe training and we'll be in the top 10 next year.

The organisation was fantastic. The whole event was exhausting with Saturday's combination of events particularly gruelling. But we all enjoyed it and Laurence and I are already planning next year's holidays around this !!

Over 80 km in 2 and a half days running, cycling and canoeing. Some amazing endurance training.

Normandy raid - Saturday

After a hesitant start on Friday, our team "Les Genoux Mouxx" got down to action on Saturday and showed the others what we were made of. Well almost ...

After breakfast at 7:00am and following what amounted to just over 5 hours sleep, we were on top form for a full day of events. Not.

First off was mountain biking using a map to guide us over the 12 km course. Anne's chain snapped before we set off, so it was my turn to impress everybody with my cycle repair skills and a new course record of 10 minutes to refit the chain. The MTB course was over fairly quickly thanks to Nick's map reading skills and it was down to the river for the next activity: canoeing.

Laurence and I got in our 2 man canoe following Nick and Anne down the river. We very quickly realised that we wouldn't be finishing first in this event. I sat at the front paddling for all my might and Laurence sat behind with responsibility for steering and keeping the back end in line. This role proved a little too much for Laurence whose boat skills are on a par with my knitting skills. After our fifth time of heading down the river backwards, I'd had enough and was ready for a divorce. Laurence had had enough too. My frantic paddling had sent waves of water over her and her lips had turned blue with the cold. One last stretch of white water and we'd finished the course and just had to drag the canoe out of the water. We'll need to practise our canoeing skills for next year.

It was with much relief that we were handed a map with 3 checkpoints on that had to be found back to the canoe start point. A nice run by all of the team and apart from a minor map reading error by yours truly, we made it back to the start in good time, overtaking another team along the way.

Lunch was a long affair, since we had to wait almost 2 hours before the last 2 teams made it back, having got seriously lost on the way. Back on the bikes again and a 10 km ride through some of the muddiest paths ever encountered. Morale in the team was low now, through lack of sleep and general exhaustion. We arrived at the final checkpoint to be given a list of instructions to find the next 3 checkpoints over a 1 km course.

Here precision was the name of the game: good compass bearings and measurement of the distances meant that the CP's could be found easily. However, after a first false start in our measuring skills, we quickly got the hang of this and posted a good time.

Back on the bikes and a final 7 km ride back to Orbec. We had all had enough by now but Laurence particularly was struggling both up and down the hills. A complaint from her that I wasn't doing enough to help almost provoked the second divorce of the day but our patience had grown thin by then and the outburst was understandable. We struggled down the final hill and checked in, finishing for the day.

The final test was still to come though as when we got back to the campsite, the hot water had run out and we had to take a cold shower.

Normandy raid - Friday night

This weekend will go down in the annals as one of the most tiring that I've experienced in years.

Friday afternoon saw us arrive in Orbec, a small town in the South of Normandy. As we arrived in the area from the motorway, I had a few misgivings since the land was completely flat. However, all of this was quickly forgotten as we descended a 15% slope into the town, nestled in the bottom of the valley, to find the school grounds that were to be our base for the weekend.

We set up our little "2 man" tent up for the first time in 16 years and waited for the rest of the team, Anne and Nick, to arrive for the challenge. 25 teams in total were entered for the 3 day event involving shooting, orienteering, mountain biking, canoeing and running. The winner would be decided on the basis of total points after all the events, with the team scoring the fewest points (1 for first place, 15 for 15th place, etc.) being announced as the overall winner.

First disappointment was that we had initially planned to have an evening meal in a local restaurant before starting the event but were told that we were expected at the shooting for 19:55. So instead, we purchased a few sandwiches which we gulped down and then headed towards the town hall where the event was to take place.

So what did the shooting event involve ? Previous raids had involved archery, pistols, etc. but this year we were handed competition air rifles and told to shoot a target the size of a mug end on from 10 metres. I had been watching the Olympics shooting events and was now an expert on concentrating hard; holding the rifle steady and firing in between 2 successive heart beats - well almost. I picked the rifle up and barely brushed the trigger before the shot rang out, surprising me in the process. The others were experiencing the same phenomena but since it was only the 3 best shots of the 5 we were allowed, we still had time to improve. The rifle is heavy though and hard to keep steady and just when you've aligned the sights with the target, your left arm would tire, the rifle would move and you had to start again. 5 minutes later, it was all over: 16th - slightly disappointing but this was not considered seriously by the other teams who were here for the physical events. The real competition was to start at 9:00pm with some orienteering, in the dark.

We lined up at the town hall kitted out with our running gear, headlamps, camelbaks and safety gear. 3 orienteering courses to be completed: 2 in the town and then out into the forest to complete the third. We got off to a bad start by misinterpreting the aerial photograph immediately. We lost about 15 minutes searching for a control point on a bridge in the completely wrong area of town. Once we figured out how to read the photo correctly we were off running around the town energetically trying to pass all of the control points in the shortest time by planning the routes carefully. 2 routes completed in 44 minutes and just the final route to do. This was over a far larger distance, heading into the forest above the school where we were camping.

The map detailed the control points and we also had a list of clues for each one, such as "South side of ditch" or "63m at a bearing of 25° from path intersection". Easy in theory, but when you're in the pitch black, sliding around on muddy paths, getting cut to pieces by brambles, the whole exercise becomes a lot harder. We spent minutes trying to find control points that had been hidden in holes, and then trying not to advantage other teams by telling them exactly where they were. We finished in 15th place after 2 hours 20 minutes and 15 kilometres of running later. After our initial poor start, we had done very well only to struggle with a couple of control points in the forest that need more precise bearings and measurements. Nick was bleeding from both legs from having been torn to pieces by brambles when we sent him off alone to a control point. We were all exhausted and it was 12:30am. A quick shower in the school gym facilities and then bed ready for the 7:00am start.

I'll post some photos when I download them later.

Tapering

The habitual Thursday morning run was downsized today in order to taper the efforts this week so that I can take part with Laurence, Nick and Anne in the Normandy Raid this weekend.

I decided to fall back on my previous route around Maisons Laffitte and run 7.6km at a gentler pace than usual.

I set off at 7:00am (making sure that I adjusted the alarm this time and not the time) and ran down to the Seine. The sun was only just rising and the orange sky above the river was quite a treat. It was very quiet with only a couple of cockerels screaming their heads off for company. Quite where these cockerels are kept is a mystery to me as we don't exactly live in the middle of farmlands, but anyway ...

The first 2km went by in 8:35 so pace was average and I then speeded slightly up through the park to get through 4km in 17:05. Carried on around the course at this speed with my legs warming up as I went. By the time I finished, I was just beginning to feel good. All up in 32:16 at an average speed of 4:12 per km. A little more distance training and I need to keep this up for the marathon in order to finish under 3 hours - fairly confident that this is achiveable.

Let's hope that we do well this weekend. I'll keep you posted.

The meaning of life

Standard fare for a Tuesday morning: 7:00 am alarm, slip running gear on, 5 minutes later out of the house and off for the morning run.

Well that's the plan. I omitted the fact that I have to reset the alarm for 45 minutes later in order to wake up Laurence so that she can open the gate for me when I return. And the delay caused by me waiting for the Garmin to synchronise with the number of satellites necessary to position me on this planet. But apart from that, the plan is simple.

The run was fairly uneventful. 2 km in 8:35 so slower than last week. The mornings are cooler at the moment and there was only a slight breeze. No excuses on the weather front for not achieving a good time. The legs weren't convinced by these arguments though and it was one of those days where I ran and spent a lot of time thinking about why I really bothered.

Conversation in my head went something like this:
"You could be lying in bed now, catching a few minutes more precious sleep"
"All this running and training: what good does it actually do you ? It hurts running at this speed"
"So, you're fitter than you were last year, but what good does this actually do ?"
"So you can run a 10k in under 40 minutes. So what ? And you've lost a few kilos in weight, if you ate a little less then you could have achieved this anyway" ... and so it went on.

I don't remember any point in the run today where it was actually a pleasure to be out. My legs were tired, I was slower than last week, and mentally it was tough.

And the result ? 11.1 km in 47:15.

I rang the bell and then waited 5 minutes for Laurence to wake up and the gate to finally open. I hadn't reset the alarm after all, I'd only advanced the clock time by 45 minutes instead.

Thank God for breakfast - the highlight of the morning !

Sunday run

Impressive tally from GB on the medal table whereas France are stuck on 3 golds and despite collecting a large number of silver and bronze are no longer in the top ten.

It was with thoughts of the ladies marathon in my head that I set off this morning on the Sunday run. I wondered how Paula would be doing, coming back from injury and trying to run in the heat and pollution of Beijing.

My own run was fairly straight-forward. The usual route through the forest with Ralf and Laurence for the Summer turnout. An easy run but I could feel that my legs were still tired from the last few days efforts. 11.9km in 54:49. I'm running better than ever but I stil have days when it all feels a lot harder than others - today was one of those.

I imagine that it felt the same for Paula. 23 in 2:32 - a good time for a female athlete but 15 minutes off her own record. She'll be ready in 4 years time in London.

Long session

Agreed with Laurence that we'd do a long run around a new route this morning through 6 villages. This course has now been christened, most orginally, the 6 village route !

Having run fast yesterday, I thought I would take it easy this morning and run with Laurence. She wasn't too keen on this idea as she finds that I stress her out too much. I ended up running ahead and then returning to her and running on again.

The route was lovely as we left Le Mesnil and ran towards Maisons Laffitte to begin with alongside the Seine. We crossed over the Seine in front of Maisons Laffitte castle and into Sartrouville. Back along the Seine in the other direction along the cycle paths towards Montesson and Le Pecq and then back over the Seine at Le Pecq. After this bridge is the long pull uphill into St Germain and then along the terrasse and back through the forest home.

I ran steadily and then left Laurence at St Germain having run up the hill twice: first by myself and then back down to run up again with Laurence.

The end result was 19.4 km in 1:31:37. So an average of 12.7 km/h - just sufficient having run a fast session yesterday but good to get some extra kilometres under the belt. Good week with a total of 61 km in 5 sessions.

Friday stroll

Celebrated the annual bank holiday here in France by sending the kids packing and by having a fantastic day relaxing with Laurence.

Apart from watching the Olympics and doing a little work on the front patio, it was such a lovely evening that I decided to go for a quick run around 8:00 pm.

"Just a slow easy run to Chateau du Val love"
"How long will you be gone"
"Oh. I'll just take it easy so around 33 minutes"

The Chateau du Val route is a 7.2 km run through the forest and one of my favourites. I set out on this lovely evening with just the thought of taking it easy and enjoying myself, not having worked all day and looking forward to a quiet meal with Laurence afterwards.

Up the streets towards the forest at a gentle pace, making sure that I didn't get knocked down by a car as I crossed the village centre like last time. As I entered the forest, I was feeling so good that I just lengthened my stride and enjoyed the peace of the forest. I felt good so I carried on pushing the pace until I was in full flow. I hit half-way point and looked at the Garmin: 15:04. This was a record and from then on, all thoughts of an easy run flew out of my head and I set into record breaking mode.

The second half was relentless. I pushed the pace permanently and stretched on all the uphills, enjoying the feeling after the recent training in Onnion and Aurillac. I didn't look at the watch again until I hit the finish line: 28:59 a new record by almost a minute. I knew I was running fast but this time thrilled me. I've never been so elated after such a brilliant run. 4:04 per km in training. Roll over Usain Bolt - I could take you anyday !!

Sprint finish

The alarm went off at 7:00am and the radio came on. It took a while for me to realise where I was and what I was supposed to be doing at this time in the morning. The radio commentator was going wild in the meantime: Alain Bernard had taken gold in front of Eamon Sullivan for the 100m swimming freestyle final. I was really pleased for this medal as the competition between the two was intense with Sullivan reclaiming the world record 3 minutes after Bernard had taken it from him during the semis.

So, finally realising what I was supposed to be doing, I slipped on my running kit and set off on the usual course around town. I ran down to the Seine and was happy with my speed down by the river. I didn't have any excuses to go slowly though as the day had started sunny, but cool and completely still. My legs had a will of their own and were turning over without any apparent control from my brain. I just turned my brain off and enjoyed the ride !

2 km went by in 8:15 and I was feeling really good; so unlike Tuesday's run when moving my legs had been really hard work. As the day wasn't as hot as previous mornings, maintaining this rhythm wasn't too much of an effort and I was still runing well when I left the park after 6.5km in 27:12. Admittedly, when I glanced at my watch at this point, I was a little disappointed as I had expected to see 26:5x but I was having so much fun at this point that even this didn't slow me down.

I didn't fade in the second half of the course either and every time I felt myself relaxing too much, I pushed my stride length to pick up the pace and relaunch my running rhythm. I didn't look at my watch until the final sprint for home. When I pressed the stop button, I had managed the 11.1km course in 46:05 a new PB at an average pace of 4:10 per km. Extremely pleased.

Tartiflette running

Tartiflette, for the non-afficionados, is a dish from the Savoie region made from potatoes, lardons, onions and most importantly reblochon cheese. It is high in taste and calories and, when ingested the night before a training run, has a serious impact on the quality of your running.

Well, that's my excuse anyway. Laurence made the most fantastic tartiflette yesterday which I duly ate with much gusto. For the run this morning, it was a different story entirely. I set out early and felt quite good for the first 2km which I covered in 8:27. From then on, the run became a struggle. I could feel myself tiring and slowing down and despite several efforts to pick the pace up again, nothing worked. It was like running through tartiflette: my legs were heavy and every stride could be felt in the thigh muscles. Such a contrast to my run on Sunday when I felt full of energy.

I tried to concentrate on just enjoying myself and not pushing the pace, but that didn't work either. I was too focused on the speed and having the Garmin didn't help either as you can't help but look at your distance, pace, calories burnt, altitude (!) etc. ... I came through the 6.5km mark, at the end of the park in 27:50 and just forced myself to keep going. There are days when everything clicks and goes right and then there are days when it's not easy. This was definitely the latter.

I picked up as I ran down the hill just before home and finished at a reasonable speed. 11.1 km around the town in 48:11. Not one of my better runs, as I've run this course in 46:24 just over a month ago. But if this is the price to pay for tartiflette, then I'm willing to accept the cost !

Sunday run

Having come back from the holidays, I thought that I would get back into my old routine as quickly as possible and so headed out to the church at Le Mesnil le Roi for 9:15 am for the usual run with the group.

Laurence stayed in bed, feeling under the weather, and due to it being mid- August, it was no surprise that no-one else was there so I set off on my own.

Whether it was the result of the exercise at altitude, or the rest from running that I'd had over the last few days, I felt really strong at the beginning of the run today. My legs felt very good and the breathing wasn't too laboured despite the fairly fast pace that I was achieving. I reached the half-way point in 25:16 for 5.9 km so an average of 4:18 per km. This was good for a run through the forest.

The second half, I slowed slightly as I tired around the 9km mark. This was done at an average of 4:25 per km pace and then a sprint finish along the road to complete the run in 54:04 or an average of 4:20 per km over the whole route of 12.5 km.

The weather was perfect with a nice drizzle falling as I ran through the trees and a temperature of around 20°C. What a change from last week with the blazing sun and temperatures in the high 20°s to 30°C. Welcome home !

Ps. Tom - here's a recent photo of Dad just to prove that you look far more like him than I do. It's all in the shoulders !!

Busy week

So much for holidays as a time for relaxing and taking it easy. I haven't had a chance to update the blog since the beginning of the week as I've been so occupied with the walks organised by the holiday centre. In running terms, it has been a quiet week with only one run, but to justify my silence, I'll explain some of the other activities that I've done during the week.

Monday

A long walk was planned with Benoist up to the Tête Nord des Fours in the massif du Mont Blanc. Dad and I decided that we would do this walk: 1500 metres of climb with a start at 1200 metres to arrive at the summit of 2756 metres. This was the first time that Benoist had taken a group up this summit and some of the group never made it to the top, stopping at the Croix du Col de Bonhomme on the way. The walk was long but most enjoyable with Dad and I both making it to the top and getting back down in front of the others. The Garmin indicated that the total climb amounted to 2100 metres (this included my mistake of around 100 metres when I went up the Tête Sud by myself !). I ran down most of the mountain and waited for the others and then Dad and I ran the last 2 km to the car.

Tuesday

A quick work-out with Laureen for Laurence and myself at 9:00am and then an easy run around Onnion. I say easy, but with the altitude and the hills, nothing is easy around here. I managed the 7.5km in 36:09 for a total height gain of 350 metres. The heat and the humidity didn't help but I put in an interval of 1.2 km which I managed in 5:09. I was fairly pleased with the performance.

Tuesday was also the start of Laurence's and my expedition to the top of Le Buet, the highest summit in the area at 3096 metres. We walked up to the refuge at Le Grenairon on Tuesday afternoon in the heat. Luckily there were trees providing shade on the way up as the heat and the stillness was stifling. 1000 metres of climb up to the refuge at 1980 metres where we spent the night in relative luxury: hot shower; good food; nice pillows and a duvet !

Wednesday

We were woken at 5:30 to begin the walk and set off 50 minutes later. We had another 1100 metres of climb to do before lunch and then over 2000 metres of descent. Unfortunately, the group wasn't homogeneous and the pace between the fastest and the slowest was huge. We reached the summit shortly before lunchtime and then began one of the hairiest descents I've ever experienced. The descent proved to be decisive for the slowest and I ran ahead down around 10 km of hills to bring the car up the track to shorten the total walk by 4.5km for some.

Friday

An easy cycle ride this morning with Vincent, our guide. I pushed up the hills to try and work the muscles as hard as I could. Laurence has improved vastly over the 3 sessions we have done on the road bikes and she left the other 2 men far behind when we climbed the hills. A shorter ride today though, with a total of 27 kms in 90 minutes. Great training for our raid in Normandy at the end of the month.

Col de Jambaz

Since Saturday is the official Sabbath for Les Chavannes, a day of rest where holidaymakers leave and new groups arrive, we decided to go for an early morning run to make the most of the day.

As usual, we were woken at 7:00 am by the bells of Onnion church ringing out the hour. Slipped on my running gear and it was off, heading up the valley towards Megevette with the aim of reaching Col de Jambaz at the head of the valley. The sun was up, but it had not reached high enough in the sky to blaze down into the valley. The temperature was very comfortable and it was ideal for running.

The run up the valley was hard on the legs and I could feel the efforts that all the hill-walking had had on my leg muscles. I glanced at the Garmin and my worst fears were confirmed: my pace was just below 12 km/h. I turned off right above Lamion and headed up the other side of the valley from the main road. The hills were taking their toll and every corner seemed to throw a new challenge in my path. It was with much relief that I finally reached the plateau by Megevette and was able to speed up slightly along the flat. At the end of the plateau, I re-joined the main road and ran up the slope to the top of the Col de Jambaz for a distance of almost 3 km. I hit the "lap" button at the top and recorded my fairly dismal performance: 9.35 km in 47:30 or an average pace of 5:05 per km !!

Downhill now all the way back to Onnion, as I had decided that I would stick to the main road. I made the most of the slope and increased my stride length, hoping gravity would make it that much easy to gain in speed. I felt good as I enjoyed the fantastic countryside and the temperature as I was running. The distance went by quickly and before I knew it I was back at Les Chavannes, saving the final run up the hill to the centre. I managed this downhill in 36:31 for 8.9 km so a distinct improvement in the average at 4:05 per km.

A warm welcome by the "animatrices" at the centre, all very impressed by the distance I had run so early in the morning. I was pleased that I'd improved over the total run, doing the 18.3 km in 1:24:02 for an average of 4:36 per km. The total uphill over the first half of the run amounted to 250m so if I adopt the accepted conversion of 1km per 100m of height gain then that would be roughly the time of a half-marathon on the flat - something I'd be very happy with.

I'll be taking it easier next week, as trying to fit in the training runs with all of the other activities is pretty difficult. Another lovely day in perspective.