Wednesday 29 May 2013

Gran Paradiso

The past week has been a pretty good one. The weather in Chamonix has again been pretty dire but I have still been getting out on the trails and also on skis!

On Saturday evening Graham came up with the idea of going to Italy on Sunday evening and doing Gran Paradiso overnight , with a great forecast over there for Sunday and Monday myself , Sandy and James all agreed it was a good option. Normally Gran Paradiso is done in 2 days , Day 1 a 800m hike to the Refuge and Day 2 a 1300m hike up to the summit and then all the way back down. I had done it before a few summers ago over 2 days but did think it could easily be done in a day with a good forecast and since we were skinning up and skiing down I knew time would not be a problem.

Setting Off
It is all uphill from here
3am

We left the car at 12am Monday and began hiking up the trail , we hiked with skis on back all the way to the refuge , there was snow most of the way up but it was very icy in places so we thought we were moving quicker on foot than we would have been on skis. From the hut we began skinning. It was a really mellow pace with Sandy and Graham leading on up front and myself and James plodding on at the back. It was a amazing clear evening sky with the Moon lighting up the snow and head torches weren’t needed for much of the way up. At around 3000m we had to come off skis for a very short distance and make a track on foot as the snow was too rock solid to skin on at an awkward angle. Once off the skis however it was pretty horrible plunging through to about knee depth trying to make tracks. Great effort out front from Sandy and James for making the track. At this point I was suffering pretty bad from the cold. As usual my hands and feet were bad but also my entire body was just cold and I was shivering a lot even when moving(-15 we think). I had by this stage stuck on my extra emergency layer but it was not keeping me as warm as I would have liked. Anyway onwards we went and as we started to get a glimpse of the sun and the summit I knew we were not far away from a little bit of warmth. I must admit the final 200-300m were pretty rotten. None of us were acclimatised at all and the whole groups pace slowed right down. My legs felt fairly strong but I just could not seem to get enough air each time I took a breath , and this was only 3800m. I stopped loads on this last section. Graham got to the top first (just before 7am) followed by James then myself and Sandy not far behind. It was an awesome view from the top with the sun now in the sky and slightly warming us but still a little bit of a cold breeze. It was a few photos from the very exposed summit then time to start skiing down.

James on Summit and Sandy just behind
Cold!
Graham looking happy
The ski down was good fun with a mixture of horrible snow , okay snow and some very nice snow. We made a few stops on the descent to just lay in the sun which was now beginning to properly warm us up. Graham managed to ski pretty much all the way back to the car but I opted to walk the last 15 mins down the trail as I was on Dorians skis and did not really want to hand them back to him with some nice new core shots. We were back at the car around 10.30am and treated ourselves to coffee and ice cream. It was a long trip considering I had been working on Sunday until 7pm , to say I was tired would be an understatement. My legs however were in pretty good shape after climbing 2100m and then skiing the same. A truly brilliant evening/morning adventure.

One of the good bits
Nearly Down
9am - Not a bad Breakfast spot
After a very long sleep on Monday night I managed to get out for a 15km run in the afternoon up to the Merlet park. I felt pretty good on the flats and downs but was feeling it a little on the thighs on the up hills and again today I was out for only 12kms which is more than I expected. AT the beginning of my run today I felt awful , I had really bad shakes after just 2km! I was not even going hard but I have no idea what was wrong , my body just did not want to run. I managed to fight on with it and eventually it turned out okay. A turbo trainer session is now on the cards for later this evening.

Heading up to Merlet
Always an awesome Trail after these signs!
Training at the moment is going alright but I do need to start doing some more distance stuff very soon. My heart rate varies from 130-180bpm when out depending on ups and downs etc.. and I can keep it steady around the 140-150bpm range for a fairly long time on flat sections so that is a good sign. Also my resting rate is down to 45 bpm. My biggest concern at the moment is Altitude. I have been worrying a little at just how slow and hard I was going at 3700m the other day. I know Leadville is max 3800m but I really do not want to be breathing that hard in August. On the plus side , I wont have to do a continuous climb of 2000m during the race and I hope I will not be as freezing cold in Colorado either.


Finally a big thank you to everyone in Colorado who replied to my email about pacers and crew for Leadville. I was quite shocked to find so many replies from so many nice people just wanting to help me out. I now have a huge list of pacers and now I just need to decide who will run with me as I only need 4 but do wish I could just have everyone. It looks like I will just pick the first 4 replies but thank you so much to everyone for your interest.


So at the moment it is still raining and snowing here in France. I really really just want summer to arrive!

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Back Home (after being home)

Now I am back in Chamonix after a short trip home. Scotland was good but not the greatest trip back I have had over the years. Was good to see family and friends. The Kintyre race was a good one to get done and I also managed a couple of fantastic runs around Largs but the weather just wasn’t playing ball so there was no trip to the Ben or the Coe which was a bit disappointing.

Last Scottish run for a while
To be honest Cham at the moment ain’t much better. There is still a hell of a lot of snow around and its pretty rubbish weather and forecast to be for at least another week but hopefully summer will hit us soon. I hadn’t really rested at all after the Kintyre Ultra so took a couple of days off running when I got back here and went out yesterday for 30km. All in all it was pretty good although I snapped one of my poles in deep snow and then had a bit of a nightmare descent on steep snow and then boulders trying to find a trail which eventually I did. I must admit I was pretty sore after the run. It is just so different running here than Scotland. The trails are way more technical with loads of ups and downs and when you need to do long climbs they are generally pretty steep going. So it will take me a week or two to get back into running here again. As I said I was out for 4hrs and covered 30km. 30mins of that was being lost.
 
The traversing wasn't actually that fun.
Kind of the way down
Today I was feeling feeling the effects of the previous days effort but knew I had to get out again so out I went. This time I started with the zigzags behind my house that rise steeply from pretty much my door to the top of the Planpraz gondola at just short of 2000m. I just set a reasonable pace and was at the top in 55 mins which I was quite happy with considering I wasn’t really fresh at all. It began snowing at the top so after a quick photo I started the descent. I love descending this trail , its really steep and at the top very technical with some pretty narrow passages now due to mudslides after the winter so there was one leap of faith moment where the path had almost been wiped out. This section doesn’t last long and once past that then it is just an awesome steep series of switchbacks all the way back down for about 600m. About 150m from the bottom I bailed out right onto the Balcon Sud trail and followed it until the climbing area of Gaillands and then it was a short road plod home. The end of this run wasn’t very good for me and it was even very long at 13km although it did have 1000m of climbing , my thighs were pretty sore and I think it was the day before catching up with me but I need to keep doing back to back days and much longer than these ones if I want a chance at Leadville.

55 mins and still time to get pics
At Planpraz and yup it is snowing
I was hoping to go up high tomorrow and climb but the forecast is again rubbish so it will be trail shoes on again and I think it is going to be a painful one.

Oh how I wish I was good enough to be sponsored , running ain't cheap
I have pulled out of running the Chamonix Vertical KM at the end of June as places became available on the 80km race and I managed to bag one. Both are on the same day but the 80km is way better training for me for Colorado than a fun Vertical KM climb. I say this 80km is training but the more I look at it the harder it appears. It really is going to be hard and dare I say it harder than the CCC last year. It has a whopping 6000m of ascent over 80km and the climbs never really have much space between them. It also starts with a steep uphill for 1500m. The cut-off time is 24 hours and as I always say all I want to do is get around it in that time. It is certainly going to be hard but it will be treated as training and if any stage I feel injury coming on then I will pull out. I am not risking anything before Colorado. The Mont Blanc 80km is only half of the distance of Leadville but a much more technical course and has 1000m more climbing so it does (on paper) look like the perfect warm up and will give me a good idea of where my training is at.

Monday 13 May 2013

Kintyre Way Ultra

First race of Summer out of the way and all in all it went not too bad. I arrived at Tayinloan village hall at 8.30am. It was pouring outside but thankfully by the time we started at 9.45am it had calmed down so the first section of the race was rather pleasant.

Getting ready
We headed along the shorefront for a short time and then over the main road and then it was a long climb of 9.5km uphill on a forestry commission road. It was not a steep climb but a climb spread over 9.5km is going to take its toll on your legs and as everyone else was running it then I thought I had better. It was difficult to know placings during the race as some people were doing the Ultra as a relay so it was not wise to try and keep up with those who were obviously going for it. On the climb up to the windfarm I was in 3rd place but no idea if this was 3rd in the Ultra or Relay! After the windfarm it was a long decent that was quite easy going and then some more forestry roads and finally we turned off onto a single track trail as the sun popped out and it was excellent this section , it only lasted about 6km but it was great running on very narrow single track. At this point I was running with a guy from Arbroath(never did get his name) he had also ran the CCC last year so it was good to run with him and have a chat. We ran together for around 10km and then at the 25km checkpoint at Carradale I stopped to refill food and water and he battered on , to be honest he was a stronger runner than me anyway so I couldnt have kept his pace up but it was a good 10k we blasted out together.

Coming into 25k Checkpoint
Refueling
After the checkpoint it was then onto the shorefront , this time the East Coast of Kintyre as we had started the morning running over from the West Coast. It was again a great little section albeit a tad confusing. It was running along the shore but actually sometimes in the water and over the rocks and through the seaweed(which aint that grippy) I overshot my turn off here missing a marker but luckily appeared out on the road just in time to see a direction arrow for the race. Very lucky as if I missed that then I would have got hell of a lost. At the end I did discover I wasnt the only one who made this mistake. After the shorefront it was then another climb and a steep one at that for around 20 mins then it was through a very confusing forest that somehow I got my directions correct.

Trying to watch feet and run and look for marker flags was a bit tricky
Apparently the winner got lost here and did an extra 5kms trying to find his way back and still won the race! It was then a great descent down another awesome single track to the next checkpoint at Ifferdale at 34.5km.

East Coast , just before I almost got terribly lost.
After Ifferdale it was again a long long climb on a crap Forestry road for 5km. Once I topped out on the climb it was a flat section for a 5km (a long 5km) and the weather came in. A strong strong headwind , rain and hail! It was truly horrendous for about 45 mins , sometimes I had to actually turn around and slowly jog backwards to stop the hail smacking me in the face.

Horrendous
Once the flat section was out of the way I hit the Loch , Loch Lussa. It was again  a pretty horrible 4.2km for me alongside the Loch. I was pretty sore at this stage and my hip was really giving me bother. This was around the 48km stage and my head was a bit mince by now so I had to stop and have a good word with myself (Colin stop f***ing moaning and get on with it) Then as soon as I cleard the Loch my adrenaline was buzzing. I stuck on the Ipod and I felt so fresh , I really did. It didnt last too long but I had a great pace going and felt unstoppable. After a few km my friend Rob was waiting to run in the last 8km with me to Campbeltown. This section was hard , I assumed it was all downhill from here for 8km but it was far from it. I was now back on tarmac and the road went on and on and on and I was passed by someone at this stage. Again it was pouring down but once I started to see houses I knew I wasnt far. I still had the guy who passed me in my sights ahead but as I entered the town I only had 2 miles to go. I apologised to Rob as I had to stick my headphones back on and get into Biffy Gear. So Ipod on again and Biffy up full , I then started to crank up my pace and said to Rob "right come on" and I took off. I was gaining on the guy ahead but I just didnt have enough in my legs to pass him , I could push so hard but I could feel my legs cramping and knew they were not far from just giving way. The finish line was a bit disappointing as it was a guy standing at a lampost with a piece of paper taking your number. I finished about 15 seconds behind the guy who passed me.

Rob helping me out
I finished in 5th Place out of the 20 doing the Ultra and also managed to beat some Relay teams but not sure how many yet. My time was 6hrs 42mins. For anyone interested my Forerunner watch was awesome. Not wanting to bore anyone but some of my stats - 36 miles (58km) , Avg Moving time 10 min miles, elevation gain 4117ft , avg HR 157 , max HR 186. My final 2 miles were both 6 min miles.

Best shower ever
Overall I am super happy with that. My pace at the start was way too fast for what I will be doing at Leadville but it was a good race for me. It was a good run and I would recommend it to anyone however there is very little in the way of trails on it. It was mainly forestry roads. The short sections on single track were excellent but just not enough of them and the final 8km road was awful. Some guys did moan at the end about the signage during the race. Apart from almost getting lost once I thought the course was pretty straight forward to follow however the end section once in Campbeltown was a complete joke. If Rob had not been with me to show me the way then I would have had no idea where to go , there were no signs at all directing you through the town and like I said before the finish was a joke aswell. Just a guy in a waterproof jacket standing next to a lampost with a piece of paper and pen taking your time and number. They then had 3 different places for you to go to get a shower , get a coffee and get food! why it could'nt all have been done in the swimming pool near the finish confuses me. Also the checkpoints were ridiculous aswell and apart from a van which was strangely at the 10km point which had bananas and water and oranges the other checkpoints were pretty rubbish and had hardly anything , at Ifferdale I was offered some oranges but then asked for water and was then given a 150ml glass of water! Now this wasnt too bad for me as I like to carry my own stuff but for those doing the full 107km without their own support it was pretty terrible. Still it was a good race and all the runners were super friendly and chatty.

The climb out of Carradale
One final thing though that was quite funny. When I finished I ran into the Leisure Centre on the road opposite to get out of the rain and find out where to go next. I then noticed the race organiser so I went up to say hello and apologise that Laurent couldnt make it and blah blah blah. When I introduced myself he shook my hand and said "Congratulations Colin! Great time. Thats a new mens record , you won and you smashed the old record of 11hrs! Amazing" I looked at him rather confused and said "eh I ran the 57km race NOT the 107km" The plonker thought I had just ran and won the full 107km race in 6hrs 41mins! Now not even Killian could do that. After realising his mistake he then said "oh well you must have won the 57km" to my reply of "ehh no , I know for a fact there were 4 guys infront of me doing my race" Now this was the race organiser and he didnt have a clue what was going on so that kind of sums up how badly some of it was. He was a nice guy but seemed a bit confused.

Yup that lampost was the finish line , the race was still going when I took this.
After enjoying a post race curry it was then bed. The following day me and Rob decided on a little leg stretch and went a hike up the Cobbler in Arrochar. Cant say it was fun for me but my legs kept going and we plodded car to car in 2hr 40mins. Today however is rest day.

Cobbler












Thursday 9 May 2013

Winter Over - Race Time

Well that's the end of winter for me. The past 6 months were awesome with some truly amazing skiing(plus an epic 2 days climbing back on Nevis) with great folk and the odd insane night out. Roll on Winter 13/14!

Cosmiques Couloir - One of my Fave days of the season
I left Chamonix late afternoon on Sunday and arrived home in Largs on Tuesday morning. As usual the French auto route was great and a clear drive all the way up to Calais however once hitting the UK as always the roads were a joke and it was constant queueing for much of the journey until I cleared Manchester so wasn't the greatest drive up.

Last Cham run of winter
I was greeted to some lovely sunshine in Largs as soon as I got home so stuck on my running gear and went on my usual wee jaunt. As I always say , Scotland is just great when the suns out and this run was one of the best I have done for months. Only around 13km but takes me along the shore front (passing way too many very very overweight folk wearing very little , not a great sight) and then raise the heart rate a little with a run up Douglas Park to the viewpoint(passing a few lads enjoying the Scottish sunshine whilst drinking Buckie) and then over the hills at the back and round to my house. All in all a great run with a good mix of road , trails and bogs. I repeated the same run the following day but this time it was rather wet and windy.

So it is race time and its the Kintyre 57km on Saturday. I am really looking forward to this. I am feeling in pretty decent shape considering the winter has just ended. My main goal on this is to stay injury free and with any luck be in good shape at the finish line but of course that could all change if I get to 30km and I am doing pretty decent. I could then push a little bit and bring on some pain and suffering but I will see how it goes. I will most likely be in some pain regardless of my pace. Forecast not great with more rain but as long as it doesn't get super windy then I don't mind the rain at all.

After the race I have a few days left here before going back to France so I am going to head up to Fort William and Glencoe and do a bit of easy running (and maybe a ski on the Ben) Once back in Chamonix though it is going to just be train train train.