Cycling

I got the mountain bike out this morning and cycled over to the club to accompany everyone on their Sunday run.

Weather was lousy this morning and the rain fell almost constantly. I was pleased to see that cycling didn't impact my calf at all and this will have to be the exercise of choice for the next couple of weeks now. Small turnout at the club due to the holidays and the weather. Nico, Ylies and Wilfried were out for the men while Laurence was running with Stephanie and Muriel.

23 km all up but in pretty atrocious conditions.

Nice photo of me taken at the end:

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.

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.

Rest day

No running yesterday after the race on Sunday. Cycling with Laurence instead.

We signed up for some road cycling at the centre yesterday. This was the first time that I'd been on a road bike for some years so it was with pleasure that we were given some good lightweight bikes (Vitus Stalion I believe) for a morning ride with Claude and Vincent, our guide.

It was a beautiful, sunny day as we set off past Megevette and up to the Col de Jambaz. It felt really good to be on the bike again but most peculiar to get out of the saddle and to push up the hills, having been used to a mountain bike. The old sensations returned quickly and I was soon finding a comfortable rhythm with the pedals and following Claude up the climb. At the top we turned left and climbed up to the next col at Les Mouilles to a height of 1100m, some 300m higher than the start. A long descent into Lullin followed and then a climb back up past Bellevaux and back up to the Col de Jambaz. Claude and Vincent left me behind on the long climb but I kept a steady pace and enjoyed myself, taking time to enjoy the scenery.

A rapid descent back to Onnion to finish the 35 km in 1:42:00 for an average of 20.5 km/h including 600m of ascent. Both Laurence and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Bikes were extremely comfortable to ride and felt great quality.

Hill training

Encouraged by my brother's comments, I got up early (well just after 8:00 am when you're on holiday feels pretty early to me) and ran the route that the boys and I did on the bikes the other day.

The route involves running up the crest road, "la route de crêtes" from Aurillac towards St Jean de Dône. Once you're on the top you carry on until the next crossroads and then drop down back into the Jordanne valley to run back in along the main road from St Simon.

I Gmapped the route just to get an idea of the profile. You can see it here : http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2086880.
So just over 220m of uphill between 1.5 km to 6 km so over 4.5km. This makes an average gradient of 5%; so not really steep but a long slog. I managed the total 12.8km in 1:01:46 so I'm fairly pleased considering the height gain and the slow pace at which I set out this morning.

When I got back, I had a quick bite to eat and then went out with the boys and Roger on the bikes. We cycled along the old road to St Simon and then up the long hill to Boussac. Henry showed us again his hill-climbing prowess and I stayed behind with Paul to encourage him up to the top. They really enjoyed it along the top once the height had been gained and before too long it was a fantastic descent into Velzic and then back along the main road to St Simon and then Aurillac. Route was gmapped for a total of 28km . The hills on this side of the valley are higher than on the North side, so we actually climbed for over 300m. I'm tempted to run this route before the end of the week.

Off to play golf now with the boys before going to the restaurant this evening. What sport packed days these are !

Duathlon

No running today but a bike and swimming duathlon instead.

I took the boys out on the mountain bikes today to give them some exercise and to get them away from the television. I decided that it would be good if we got some height in order to admire the views on another fantastically sunny day here in Aurillac. So, despite my fears about the moans that would inevitably be caused by this announcement, we kitted the boys out and got on the bikes. Laurence stayed at home since she was lending her bike to Henry, and so it was with some trepidation that I set out up the route des crêtes with Henry and Paul.

Henry has discovered a talent for cycling now that he gets to use a full-size MTB and after 5 minutes of uphill, he was already some distance in front. I stayed behind with Paul encouraging him to stay constant in his efforts, not to burn all his energy immediately and to enjoy the views as he went. Anyway, I had a problem with an excess of pressure in the rear brake system and the brake was creating an extra drag on the rear wheel.

We cycled up to St Jean de Done which is over 3.5 kilometres of uphill, so I was extremely pleased with both boys performance. They were happy with what they had achieved too and we carried on the road along the ridge until we reached the St Simon sign to descend. This was the road that the tour de France took to go up, right at the end of the Aurillac stage, and we went down at top speed today. Paul loved the downhill but Henry declared that he preferred cycling uphill to down. Along the road from st Simon to finish and the boys both left me as by now the extra heat had caused the rear brake system to grip even harder making every turn of the pedal feel like going up a 20% gradient. Nice ride doing about 13 km in total.

Swim this afternoon in Aurillac pool. Did 70 lengths and then played with the boys going down the slides.