So my game face is
finally on. Recently I have had some brilliant days off touring with
friends and I have also been doing my usual skinning up Les Houches
for fitness on lunches and evenings and on top of that I have been
out running in the evenings.
My runs have not been
very long. Usually about an hour and half maximum. As usual I have no
set days for getting out but I just go when I feel like it and
recently I have been feeling great and excited to get back out for a
little jog. The running psyche comes and goes for me all winter
season but it doesn't bother me too much that I am not running 5 or 6
days a week over winter as I am getting out ski touring or just
skiing which also helps keep the legs strong. Okay it doesn't use the
same muscle groups but in my view it ain't to bad to just keep the
legs strong and it seems to work for me.
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| Skinning up to Loriaz chalets |
I am loving my skiing
again as I went through a short period of not really being bothered
about getting out on my skis but recently I have been loving seeing
new areas and touring around different places. Most notably myself
Lorne and Sandy went for a rather long ski tour last week up to the
Refuge Anterne and then skied the Couloir Chourde. Now this didn't
really involve too much ascent(600m) but we(meaning I) were breaking
trail for a good 6 hours through powder to get to a couloir we wanted
to ski. It was a brilliant day for the fitness. The ski however
wasn't up to much(crap snow) but I was happy to have worked my legs
for so long that day. I have also been on little tours up to the
Chalet Loriaz(good snow) and also to the Col Grand Saint
Bernard(great snow) Very short skiing summaries I know but I like to
keep the ski blogging to a minimal amount as there are a million
blogs on Chamonix Skiing you can find on the web. Almost as many as
Ultra Running!
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| Best view this season |
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| Great long skinning day |
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| Hours and hours of breaking trail is good for the legs but a little help would have been nice! |
So back to fitness and
I am feeling good. The skinning track up Les Houches is in great
shape at the moment and I have been up it quite a lot recently. I am
not sure exactly how much ascent it is from bottom to top but it is
around 900m. I am usually around 1hr-1hr30mins on this depending how
I am feeling and how much I want to beast myself but I cracked out
just under 55 minutes recently so I was happy with that and I am now
just hoping to keep getting that time down. I love my skinning for
fitness but do not think I will ever enter into the Skimo(ski
mountaineering) races. Yeah they are awesome for fitness but I think
they will just be too high a tempo for me plus I cannot afford to buy
the proper lightweight gear so my own little jaunts will need to do.
On the running side of things the ski du fond(my running track) is
also in great shape in the evenings and is hard packed but not icy so
no spikes are needed. I am on the hunt for some runnable longer
trails at the moment as Lauren arrives next week for a bit of skiing
and running and since she has the Mont Blanc marathon and the Lake
District 80k to look forward to this year I am sure she will want to
hit the trails with me.
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| Me skiing some awesome snow in Switzerland |
I think that for
getting ultras finished then time on your feet is vital. You don't
have to be a great runner to get them done but you do have to be able
to grit your teeth and get on with it. Just being on the go for hours
and hours helps so much whether it be running , hiking , skiing , ski
touring etc.. Just being super active goes a long way but yeah at the
end of the day the best way to train for a running race is to run ,
like training for a bike race you need to bike and so on... Varying
it up a little just makes me more excited every time I go back to
running but yeah time away from running is good also. That might all
sound very confusing but I hope you know what I am getting at. If you
loose a little bit of the hunger for your main sport then try other
things for a while as that hunger and love for it will return. That's
why I love my winters as I know that come summer and I hit the trails
again I will be smiling every time I go out a run.
Through a friend of a
friend I have offered my sofa to a fairly well known Scottish hill
runner , Finlay Wild. He is currently crashing at my place for a few
weeks as he is here to try his hand at Skimo Races and is here to
train. For those of you who do not know Finlay he is the current Ben
Nevis hill race champion and holds the record for the fastest Cuillin
Ridge traverse on the Isle Of Skye and has many other race wins to
his name so to say he is a pretty handy runner would be a massive
understatement. It will be interesting when we start touring together
and running as his running pace is going to be ridiculously fast as
his races are all about speed whereas mine are about pacing slow. He
is light years ahead of my fitness level but I am super keen to get
out running with him and have him push me a bit and hopefully improve
my flat running speed.
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| Fin , Sandy and Lorne at Col Grand St Bernard |
Finally some more great
news for the summer ahead. Colorado based company LARABAR who make
amazing 100% fruit and nut food bars have offered to help me out with
some bars to fuel me during my training and races over the summer.
Just check out the ridiculous amounts of amazing flavours they do. I
now have them to thank for my food supplies on trail and also NECTAR
and FOR GOODNESS SHAKES who are helping me out with Gels(Orange
tested today and worked a treat) , Hydro Tabs(Blackcurrant is my go
to drink now on ski tours) and Recovery Shakes(Banana amazing)
Absolutely delighted that these companies have taken time to reply to
my emails and show a bit of support. I will continue to comment as
honestly as I can on how I get on with all of these products once I
use them for a bit longer.
In the mean time I am
off for a run.
