Thursday 25 April 2013

A Bit Of Everything



It's been a pretty eventful couple of weeks. The training head is back on now as Kintyre is not far away so I have been out on the trails loads. I have been doing varying distances of 5km , 10km and 20kms and getting out twice a day a couple of times a week. I am feeling pretty good and ready to up to a 30km run this week , maybe at the weekend. The lighter nights are helping and the lower trails are now snow clear. My 5ks are just cool down runs the day after a big one but I am still running 21min 5ks without a problem and not really pushing it , my 10ks are going well at just under 50 mins. I am feeling good with a good pace and feel I can go on and on when I am out for these runs so all good so far. I managed a good 20km run with 1200m of ascent the other day and it took me 2hrs 25mins. Again felt good after.
Just below park Merlet on my 20km
I have finally invested in a new watch , the Garmin Forerunner 110. I really wanted a watch to track distances and height gain and this ticked all the boxes, So far I am very impressed , it picks up a satellite signal within 2 mins of stepping out of my house and never looses it even when running through dense forests. It has the usual Heart Rate and Calories stuff as well but the distance is what I wanted and it has been great so far.

A little late season powder
I had a friend over staying for a week so we did a little bit of skiing and a little short tour which was a good workout. It is getting pretty warm here now in the valley and there is still some excellent skiing up high to be had but now I am focused on my running. I will still head up for some turns but my cardio work is what I need to do.

Up at Loriaz again
Today I went up the Midi to do a couple of laps of the Cosmiques Arete on my own. Great training as I am always above 3500m. I took my skis so it was faster and safer to traverse to the start. My first lap I got stuck a couple of times behind some groups so was slower than hoped for but the second lap I had to myself. On my first lap I passed a Norwegian couple just after the second abseil then I wondered if I could lap them , unfortunately not but I very very was close as when I got to the end of lap 2 they were just crossing the barrier at the top back to the station. I did receive a strange look and a “where the hell did you come from?” as I replied “lap 2”. I really wanted to go for a 3rd but I had to be in work to cover for Laurent.
On the Cosmiques
The last section on Cosmiques , over looking Cham on the North Side
All going pretty well at the moment but I am still a little concerned I have started training a little too late for Kintyre. I aim to complete the course and feel fresh at the end but I have a feeling in my mind that will not be the case. Apologies for the txt , computer problems , should be fixed soon.

Wednesday 3 April 2013

Going Well

It has been a good week for skiing and running. I finally skied the Classic Cosmiques Couloir which is an awesome long ski line down from the Midi. I am not really into skiing super steep stuff purely for the fact I would prefer not be somewhere if I fall I die and plus I ain't good enough to ski super steep. To be honest I expected this to be steeper given all the hype around it but once in it after a 60m abseil it was actually totally fine. A small side slip on hard pack snow that was I guess 45-50° it was then just great skiing all the way down to the Bossons Glacier at an angle of between 40-45° , after some epic turns further down we battled through the trees that required 2 further abseils and we were out at the Mont Blanc Tunnel and only a car ride from home. Awesome day and glad to have finally skied it.

In the Cosmiques
Lower Down before the tree battle
So there has been plenty of running and a little bit of skinning up as well. I managed a great little skin up to the Chalet Loriaz in glorious sunny and hot weather and had the whole place to myself. It is only a 700m skin up from the car but goes up an ace little track through the trees before breaking out into the open mountainside. The ski down wasn't the greatest on a tiny narrow and extremely fast path but I got down in one piece.

Loriaz
I got home and decided on a run so headed off down to Servoz. I got to Les Houches on snow free trails but then I was on road down to Servoz , I even felt good on the road but my hamstring tightened up a bit about 15 mins from my turnaround point so I decided not to run back and opted to get the bus back to Chamonix. I am not really sure how far it is but it is about 15-18km I reckon and I was 1hr 45mins. By no means fast at all but at moment it is all about getting miles in and feeling as fresh as possible afterwards.

En Route to Servoz , It's kinda hard taking running photos of yourself!
Today my hamstring feels fine and I feel fresh to go out again tonight. I will try to keep upping the mileage bit by bit as it is 5 weeks until Kintyre and if I can get a 30km in before then I should be ok so next week I will probably get a 25km and then a 30km the week after when I go to Italy.