Another weekend, another race

After my last post 3 weeks ago, the snow and the cold continued. Doing any running training up here was out of the question thanks to the conditions underfoot. Getting out of our road was challenge enough as it rapidly turned into an ice rink thanks to the lack of salting by the commune. When we did eventually make it out on a wonderful blue sky day, we headed up the road for an exploratory walk up to the Cabane des Roses. The majority of the track had fortunately been well trodden by the snow-shoeing fraternity which made the going quite straightforward. As always, it was stunningly beautiful up there

I have been very conscious of the passing of time and the need to keep up the training for the 40km Trail des Citadelles which is on the 8th April - it really isn't that far away! It was necessary to take myself over to the other side of the Col de Port and a lower altitude in order to get in any snow-free training but a run around part of the Trail de Dalou circuit was just the ticket. I felt really strong on the 11km/350m run and managed to run sections that I remember walking in the race last year .... a good sign.

The wintery weather was only really broken a week ago when a high pressure area plonked itself over us, treating us to clear blue skies and much much warmer daytime temperatures which gradually climbed to peak at a positively balmy 18 degrees ambient temperature. I was even wearing shorts & T-shirt on a couple of days and we enjoyed lunch on the terrasse for the first time this year.... just wonderful.

Yesterday, Saturday, I took part in the Trail des Pieds Cloutés near Foix which I ran last year. It's a hard race, with a nasty 2.5km long climb averaging 15% at the start which is an absolute killer followed by another, shorter climb at the half way point.

Conditions underfoot were a mudfest in parts, thanks to the snowmelt of the past week. But my super-grippy Salomon shoes ensured I had some fantastically fun descents on which I could just let fly, smiling inwardly as I passed others who slipped and slithered their way through the mud, often ending up on their backsides! Sweet! I finished the 18.5kms/1000m+ in 2h17m, 4th lady out of 16 in my age group, 10th lady out of 34 and 118th overall out of 192 finishers which is 34 places higher than last year - that'll do me! Full stats on the usual site. The legs felt great, although today, the day after, they are letting me know that they had been asked to work hard. Still, all good training and it is wonderful to finally feel that I am getting stronger and making progress. My next race is in 3 weeks time and then it will be time to take it easy in preparation for the Citadelles.

On the house front, although we have not yet found a place to buy, we have found somewhere to rent from the beginning of April over near Aspet, just a little bit further West along the chain. It is the area in which we are looking to buy, plonked in the middle of a some fantastic waymarked mountain biking circuits and with the high mountains just a half hour away. We finalise the sale of this house during the 3rd week of April and are then in a good position to buy when we do eventually find the right place. It is worth being patient to find the right place. It will be out there somewhere.

Winter

Our Spanish break seems like an age ago already. But we arrived home in the nick of time as Winter conditions really took a grip here on the Saturday, with a significant snowfall and extremely cold temperatures making the roads treacherous.

However, eventually the heavy snow clouds cleared and grey gave way to blue. After a few days of being cooped up, we were keen to get out for some fresh air, so we donned the snowshoes and left the house for an explore up the Peguere 'road'. It was stunning. We were the first to venture out and it was hard work breaking trail in the 50-70cm deep snow. But what a stunning afternoon it was.

We didn't make it all the way up to the col as the pooch was tiring, despite attempting to follow in our tracks. Still, it had been a very welcome breath of fresh air and stretch of the legs. The sun was weakening as we took the final track home and we were pleased to soon get back to the warmth of the house and a hot chocolate!

The arrival of the snow was actually good timing as I was due for an easy 'taper' week last week ahead of the Trail du Maquis trail race in Dun on Sunday. Although Dun is down at only 300m alt, there was still a decent covering of snow on the ground and the air temperature was a chilly -7C when I rocked up at 08.00 on Sunday morning after spending the night at Pat & Kev's just along the road. I had decided that I was not going to put any pressure on myself and would just treat the 27km/1100m+ race as a training run as the conditions underfoot would undoubtedly be 'tricky' and 27kms is the furthest that I have ever run! It would however be good training for the Citadelles in 8 weeks time. The course was hilly and indeed very challenging - the hills kept on coming.

I have to admit that my new superlightweight running poles were an absolute godsend on the ascents and helped me to avoid energy-sapping foot slippage. My un-insulated Camelbak pipe froze early on which blocked my supply of liquid fuel, but the slices of dried, sugared kiwi fruit that I carried with me did a fantastic job of keeping my energy levels up! I shall be stocking up on them for future races! When I reached the top of the particularly pointy hill that you can see in the elevation profile above, one of the volunteers shouted 'vous êtes la troisième fille.... allez!' What? I was in third place amongst the girls? Bloody hell! I'd better push on! I can't let that slip! So I did. I really started to tire over the last 7 kms but was still able to raise a smile for one of the photographers

I did indeed finish in 3rd place after 3h42m. I was well chuffed with that! On the podium again! It's true that only 11 out of the 99 starters were girls but 6 out of those were in my age group and I was 39 minutes ahead of the next V1F finisher ... not bad for an oldie ;-) But I was exhausted, not only because of the exertion but also because of my lack of fuel. However, I couldn't stomach the fantastic sausages and beefburgers that were being served up in the hall after the event. I felt queasy just thinking about it. I was only able to face proper food in the evening once I had got home. It had been quite a day! Full stats on the usual site.

Mixing it up

It's been busy busy here over the past 2 weeks. Things are progressing as they should with the house, the buyers having signed the compromis de vente, which is reassuring for us. The search for a new home continues, but nothing has yet jumped out at me as being 'the right' property. But we have time. Patience is required!

Meanwhile, apart from a couple of days when we had cold temperatures and some rain which left snow on the higher mountains above 1800m, the weather has been relatively dry. We managed to give the roadies an airing, with a 70km/900m+ very undulating circuit from Saint-Girons which proved to be much harder work than it should have been. I think I need to eat more! Here is the profile;

It took me a couple of days to recover from that exertion, but the legs felt well enough to have a quick trot down the Chemin des Diligences in Massat three days later and we clocked 24 minutes on the 4.7km circuit, which wasn't bad considering it wasn't totally flat and also pretty slippy underfoot. It was good to push the speed a bit for a change.

But then, I decided to see how the old pins felt if I ran solidly for 20kms, on the level, on hardpack. It's not something I have ever really done before, as my longer runs are offroad and generally tend to include a variety of ups and downs which means constant changes in the stride and pace which gives certain muscles a rest. I chose the voie verte (disused railway line) from Saint-Girons for the outing and managed to clock 1h53m for the run. The unchanging stride and the hardpack surface, however, took their toll and various bits of me were complaining by the time I got back to the car. But it was a good exercise to test my endurance and no real damage was done. It was once again good to push the speed on this distance.

Last Thursday we decided to give the mountain bikes an outing on the 40km/1000m+ forest track circuit on the other side of the Col de Peguere. The last time we tackled it was back in November 2007 when it was one monumental effort - we ended up pushing our bikes for the last ascent and it took us over 3h30m to complete the circuit! Last week it was a very different story. We cruised the circuit, easily managing the initial sustained ascent and subsequent shorter hill sections. I was however a tad concerned when we arrived at a notice advising us that the track up ahead was closed to the public because of forestry work! We had done 30kms by that point and turning around to retrace our steps simply wasn't an option!!! Fortunately, we were allowed through to continue on our way, much to my relief. We were back at the car within 2h45m - we had flown! The best bit is that the legs felt absolutely fine, a million miles from how they felt 4 years ago. We have come a long way fitness-wise since then. Full stats on the usual site.

Rest and lots of food was called for over the next couple of days, as I was competing in a trail race in the Languedoc on Sunday. All of the races that I have done to date have included sustained sections of steep ascent and plenty of runnable descents. This race was different. It was the Trail du Boer in Moussan, just to the north of Narbonne. This was 23kms, with 500m of ascent, on paths and tracks amongst the vineyards and 'garrigue' (scrubland) of the Corbière - a lovely part of the Languedoc and just 10 minutes from where my friends' Iz and Nick run their guest house at which I stayed. Anyway, easy peasey, I thought, no problem, I should cruise the circuit. Wrong! It was a cruelly undulating circuit, not dissimilar to the roadie circuit from Saint-Girons profile (see above), which really took it out of the legs. OK, so doing the long VTT circuit 3 days before wouldn't have helped.... in fact it was probably a pretty daft thing to do so close to the event.  Despite doing a good warm up and constantly fuelling as I ran, it felt like I was going backwards and everybody was overtaking me. That said, in hindsight, I covered the first very undulating 10kms in 58 mins which really isn't too shabby! I think I was actually pushing myself harder than I appreciated. The final 5kms were excruciatingly painful as my ITBs started to seize up. I made it back in 2h34mins which was in the top 2/3rds of the field of 233 runners. Here is the profile.

I was exhausted and aching all over. But I had done it. Full stats on the usual site. Time for a shower at Iz and Nick's before I tackled the 2 1/2hr drive home, safely loaded up with wine that I had bought on the way through. Two day's later and I am now able to walk down the stairs relatively pain free and the legs are recovering. Let's just call the race 'good training'! The next target is a 29km race at the end of January. That'll be interesting.