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.