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.