Roasting!

Well the past week or so has consisted of lots of running. I have been getting out on the trails nearly everyday. On work days I am doing around 10-15km on lunch then on days off I am managing to fit in one mountain day at altitude climbing and the other days running more trails.

Lunchtime Trail

One of the best runs so far was a 35km loop I ran over to Les Houches (an area I haven’t really ever explored in summer) I ran from Chamonix by the river to Les Houches then found a very steep trail up to the Bellevue cable car station , dropped down to Col de Voza then up to Prarion lift station then it was up and along a brilliant ridge line and down to the Col Forclaz , from there it was back to Les Houches and retrace my run back to Chamonix. The ridge line run was great and I will be going back soon to run it on a clear day as this time it was wet , windy and no visibility at all.

Great ridge run at Les Houches

All the lifts are open now so it is great on lunch to get up to 1900m and do my usual traverse to Flegere then down onto the balcon sud and back to my house. Dependent on some different variations on the route it can be anything from 11-15km so great training.

Planpraz - Flegere

The skis still haven’t gone away either! On Monday , myself , Dorian and Ally went up the Midi and managed to do the Traverse of Point Lachanel then climbed up Contamine Grisolle which had some awesome little mixed sections and a cool little ice runnel. From the top of the climb we stuck on the skis and skied the face of Mont Blanc du Tacul and back to the midi. An awesome training day at altitude as I was always above 3600m and got to a maximum of 4100m. Was great to get the axes out again. Myself and Dorian were roped but no belaying needed as we just moved together on all of it placing the odd bit of gear here and there. Ally soloed up ahead being cameraman for the day. It was smiles all around as the ski off of Tacul was great spring snow. I hate the Tacul face and generally avoid it in summer as accidents always occur on it from avalanches and serac collapses but being on skis makes it so much faster to descend and a lot safer. I have still never ever gone up the face. Only descended it due to descending being faster , especially on skis. We got down to Chamonix around 2pm and I got home had lunch then managed to get out for a 15k. The thighs were a little sore that evening.

Red Climb - Blue Ski

High Point on Lachanel

Fun on Tacul

Great shot from Ally. Me in front of Dorian as we finish the climb

Ski Time on June 17th!

The next day was a running day and although it wasn’t very long it was worth it. Again blue skies but a sweltering 35 degrees in Chamonix. Again I got the Planpraz lift up to 1900m and ran for 15km along the Aiguille Rouge over Tete Aux Vents and down to the village of Montroc and got a bus home. A great great run but my legs were not as fresh as I would have liked. The temperature up high was hot but not scorching until I got down nearer Montroc at the end. There was still a lot of snow on this trail especially past Tete Aux Vents and some sections I had to be very careful not to fall through the softer stuff and get a pretty nasty injury. All in all a great afternoon to be running at 2000m and in pretty hot conditions.

Tete Aux Vents - Roasting

Tricky Traversing

News of the new Mont Blanc 80km route will be posted tomorrow. Due to all the snow the route will definitely be changed at some stages. Only 9 days until this race and I am still not sure if I am properly ready for it. I raced 57km in May and my longest run here this summer so far is only 35km. I have been up high a lot recently though which I think will help but I am well aware there could be some pain to come on this course and I hope it is not going to be as hot as the past week has been.

Hello Summer

Summer has finally arrived in Chamonix but that hasn't stopped the skis coming out again. Paul I decided to go for a wee tour up Mont Buet. It was a 6am start from the car in Buet. We walked for around 45 mins until we managed to put on our skis and start skinning up. It was a cracking morning and even at 8am it was getting hot. The skin up was fine and we went at a pretty steady pace. At the top though I was a bit slower than I thought I would be but I blame the heat. I was pouring with sweat as the sun was by this point belting down on us at 10am. We were greeted at the top with amazing blue skies. We didn't hang around on the top too long as it was getting so warm and I didn't want to be skiing down when the snow was too wet and heavy so we blasted off and for the first few hundred metres the skiing was just amazing. It was perfect spring snow and I was loving every second of it. Lower down it got a bit heavier and we managed to set off some slides , one of which was quite considerable but we got down in one piece with no major incident. It was a cracking morning out and again great uphill leg training as it is pretty long at 1800m vertical ascent from the hamlet of Buet to the summit of Mont Buet which lies at 3000m in altitude.

Summit of Mont Buet , Mont Blanc Massif Behind. Awesome

Sweaty!

Fresh Spring Turns

Since then though I have been focused on running and must admit I really really want to climb up in the high mountain. I managed a pretty good time on the zigzags under the Planpraz Gondola doing the ascent and descent in 1hr 15mins. I am never really one for bothering about speed any more. I have done my time at beasting myself of 10ks and half marathons and team events so now I prefer to just be able to plod on and on and just see how far I can go but sometimes I go out and I do get an urge to just go for it , this doesn’t happen often now but is fun when it does.

Chamonix from above Lavancher

The day after I went out for a 25km loop from home up to Lavancher then up to the view point over the Mer de Glace Glacier , down an amazing little trail to Les Bois then up to Montenvers and along to the Cascade Du Dard then home. This was just over 2 hours and I was happy with this time as I didn't think I was going that fast but just managed to keep a good pace. I was speed walking the steep uphill sections though. Personally I think this is a vital skill to have for Ultra running. A lot of newbies have great ideas of running the full distance of their chosen Ultra but in reality this isn't going to happen , not even for the pros. It is quite a hard thing to practice and get right , being able to know when to start walking uphill and not gas out trying to keep running it when 99% of the time walking is actually faster even if the incline is only short. Also being able to change between walking and running over a long period of time is something that sounds easy but is difficult to get right. The change in momentum all the time is something I work on a lot when out for longer runs. It's amazing how on some races I am at a walking pace at say mile 30 then at mile 40 I start running and feel great again for another 5 or so miles then it is back to a slow jog/walk and so on. In my view it is vital to practice this when out training.

 

Finally Summer

Heading to Les Bois

I have also been out for 10ks and some 13-15ks. I am taking one day off a week at the moment. Doing mostly things between 10-15k each day and one day a week do a 25k +. This week looks like it is going to be a 35k on Monday. I am plodding along at 1 hour 10km pace at moment , which yes isn't particularly fast for a 10km race but that's not what I am training for. I need to find a pace I can do for a long long time and I seem to be able to run at a 1hr 10km pace for a good while. There is no way I will do Leadville at 1hr 10km pace for 165kms but I think 1hr 10ks is a good pace for my Ultra training.

The Chamonix 80km race is not far away and as expected the route is going to be changed due to snow. There is still a crazy amount of snow above 2000m and some of this race goes to 2600m so no chance it will clear for June 28^th. They have said it will stay 80km and 6000m+ but they haven’t revealed the course yet. I will just have to wait and see but I know this is going to be a very tough race , one I am afraid I am overlooking a little bit.

 

On the Leadville side of things it is all going great. I am all booked up now with Flights , Accommodation etc... and best of all I have my pacers all sorted for the race which is a big relief. For the first 50 miles of the race I am on my own then at mile 50 Anna is going to come into play and get me back over Hope Pass(3800m) to Twin Lakes which is 13 miles then Todd will see me for 17 miles to Fish Hatchery where Ben will take over for 10 miles to Mayqueen and then at Mayqueen Anna will be back on the course to hopefully see me the 13 miles back to Leadville. I am more than happy with my pacing crew. Anna is a super keen runner doing Half Marathons , Marathons and is going for 50kms as well , Ben is into running 50kms also and is going to scope out his section of the race a few times over the summer and Todd has completed Leadville before and also paced on it before so having him with me will be a big big help. A great little team. I still have to sort out time estimates for stages of the race to give to my pacers and crew (Stacey and Jennifer) but I will do that over July.

I have been thinking a lot about Leadville and my biggest fear is still the distance. The altitude I think I will be ok with by the time August arrives and also the 5000m of ascent doesn't frighten me , of course it is still a fair bit of ascent but I have done that before and also the biggest climb in one go is about 800m(followed 10 miles after by the same 800m climb) which really isn't that big when you consider this years CCC will start with a 1400m climb! Don't get me wrong I am not saying 5000m is easy at all but I know I can manage that. Managing 100 miles is going to hard and within what I consider tight cut off times. It doesn't matter what way you look at 100 milers as they all have different terrain and elevation gains etc.. and yes some are harder than others but at the end of the day it is still 100 miles to cover in one go.


There are a huge number of 100 milers(and 100+ , google Spartathlon) all over the world to have a go at (some easier to get in that others) but Leadville just seems the correct one for me for a number of reasons. It is in Colorado and I have always wanted to go to Colorado and I love being in America. It is a relatively small field being around 800 runners. It really does seem like a small-scale community event , obviously there are sponsors and media involved but it seems to have some kind of small town charm to it when you speak to other runners who have ran it or read other blogs on it the support from locals and other runners family and friends is meant to be immense. The CCC did have great support last year from everyone around and I loved the whole race even if the weather was rotten I still enjoyed myself , the only thing I didn't like was the number of runners on tiny narrow trails , it is way too busy for me or maybe I just didn't run fast enough to find space! Anyway it is a trip away for me to somewhere completely new , who knows I might enjoy the trails there so much I won't come back.

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!

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.

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