1.7m Trelex Par Cours Vita

Too late for the mini-foulee glandoise, but ran the par cours vita with Paul then run up the trail to the lake and back. Neither of us particularly in the mood, but did some of the workouts on the way around.

Garmin

8.5km / 5.3m Chavornay TPV 2012

Two sets of TPV this year, May for Chavornay and Yens then another set of 5 etapes in August and September.

Having not trained much since London and having had a bit of an issue with my big toe tendon on the right foot I was not expecting much tonight.

However, things went rather well. Richard was waiting for me at the train station in Rolle ahead of time. We left on time and in spite of the dire warning on traffic we were through Lausanne and up to Chavornay in less than 25 minutes, where we had 50. Top parking spot and we even managed to purchase our meal vouchers before the race collect our gift (a nice drinks belt) and go for a rekkie along the last and first few km. 3 mins to go we rock up to the start line, shuffle through the super elite and settle about 5 from the back.

At 2 mins to go Garmin is still looking for satellites so I risk a  reboot and it works with 20 seconds to spare. Barely time to press the start button and I'm over the line. Richard is off like a rocket, acceleration and agility displayed to the full as he drives hard pulling away from me as he goes through the crowd, while I can't get through. I relax and think it's fine I'll catch him soon enough. Then the niggle in my right foot releases and it goes away completely.

The first km is fine and fast. Soon enough the field disperses a little and I see Richard just ahead. Catch him and ease past with some words of encouragement. First km is 3:45, fine as race plan is to muller through the 1st three and see what happens on the hill. Two was fine too and then at 3 you could feel the anticipation spread through the runners as most of us knew that in a very short time the vast majority of us would be walking. As soon as the hill became steep I walked. It seemed to go on forever. Took a few more steps than most walking to make sure and finally started running again. By now my head was swimming and I numbers in French and English failing to make any sense at all. I could not produce a four times table and tried adding up but got lost so gave up on that an focus on getting back to 4 minute kms. Another mile beeped by and I tried (and failed) to calculate the distance left in miles. The hill had won. I'd lost 4 minutes walking and was stuffed.

Then I noticed the girl in front pulling away and decided to close in on the guy in front of me. He responded and closed the gap on the girl, which again pulled me closer to red line. 165 on the hrt and I decided not to look at that any more. The girl kick 1km before I planned to, ie at the top and not on the final down. I went with her and held my place. One challenge was seen of and Garmin confirmed the 6min mile pace was achieved and there was no hope of me getting anywhere near last year's time.

At around km 7 I miss-calculated the distance to the finish and had rather optimistically forgotten about the last field to go around. Anyway, I was going pretty much as fast as I could so no change - just keep going. Dug deep and tried to enjoy myself. Big finish to the line and caught the one guy just in front of me 50m out with enough in the tank to accelerate beyond him to the line.

As I handed my dossard to the dossard collecting lady, she said - hey they need you over at the control tent. Oh no I thought, what trouble have I gotten myself into now. I was told to take my dossard with me which I did and on presentation of this dossard I discovered I had won the lucky dip and was presented with a prize! Guess what, I won free entry to all five etapes for this year's main TPV. Worth 100 fancs, result!

Top meal spent with Richard and Jason. Thanks guys! Meal and shower tactics worked a treat. I was 12 in my age group and 51 over all - but the field was much reduced. 39mins is a full 3mins behind the performance last year so some speed work with Pierro and Tenke beckons over the summer to get ready for my 5 etapes.

If Tenke has been there she would have won by miles, fastest lady was 39mins! The one in front of me was third.

Results

Garmin

Last year
Last year's scores on the doors
Max overblog - each step photographed - awesome blogging

5m roughly easy lake side

With Chavornay tomorrow, I wanted to simply get out and loosen up. Not been running for ages, but plenty of walking and swimming.

Lovely hot day and the lake side beckoned. Noted the group of guys swimming in the lake. 

I was suitably over heating by the time I got to the point where I needed to turn. Then I had the great idea to run out on the jetty and get a refreshing shower from the Jet d'eau. That was fun and I enjoyed the fine cool spray from the rushing torrent and I now feature in several tourists' photos! Very careful on the narrow wet rocks as I did not fancy falling onto the breakwater.

On the way back I did three sets of strides, 30 60 and 90 one and a half pace counts. Felt ok.

Now not so concerned about tomorrow, which I am looking at as a benchmarking race.

Easy 9 km

I was going to swim today, but on the way out of the building I noticed it was peak swim time at the pool and the rain had stopped. I had just enough kit for a run so I went for it.

Did the airport hill, leaving out the bottom field (too muddy) and free of all electronics.

Up the hill was ok and I focused on NOT overtaking the bloke in front. Tried to focus on form and running out the walking niggles. 

Hill back to Pregny was a bind, but ok. Felt fit enough just lacking motivation.

No issues with the tendon so a couple more like that and the Garmin can come along again.

Lac Noir

The Lac Noir (black lake) became black when a giant who'd been walking in the mountains decided to stop and wash his feet in the lake, turning it black.

I set off at an easy trott and was glad of that as I felt the altitude as soon as I hit the first climb.

The evening sun shimmered and glistened on the surface of the lake as a light wind refreshed me and gently pushed some ripples across the lake.

The dappelled shade cast by the forest canopy was a welcome  relief from the warm sun.

At the far end of the lake I was reminded this was the witch's trail as massive metal dragon glared down at me from the cliff above.

Back to the start point without incident and another step back to normal training achieved. 

4m Gully run

I fancied testing the tendon after 11 days of not running, but in order not to over do it I needed to go out with someone who would help keep me slower than I might otherwise be.

Gully fitted the bill and was free, so off we went. I showed him the bottom field and talked him into having a go at the airport hill. In the park a blond girl in a blue top and five finger shoes on overtook us at least once if not twice as she did loops of the park taking care to run on the grass as much as possible.

Just after the top, Gully's knee gave out and so we had to walk for a bit for it to recover. I hope there was no lasting damage done. Then we jogged down to the co-op. As we crossed the place des nations where the broken leg chair is and the water fountains leap out of the ground he took me through the water jets which was rather fun!

Perceived effort, none. Electronics none. Distance about 4 miles, time no idea. A no sweat run and the tendon on the right foot is fine as I write this.

Merci Gully.

6.6m 2x 3km reps with Pierro

Out with uber elite Pierro today who was going for 12kms in about 43.

I decided to see if I could hold that pace for 3km recover then do another 3km at around the same pace.

Why?

And who did I think I was kidding. After a km or so I was ordered to run behind as we were on the narrow between the trees and the road. I tried so hard to stay there, but by Geneve plage there was already daylight between us and Pierro got to the turn a good minute before I did. Hi 5s as we went past each other for the first time.

I was seriously pleased to get to the half way point.

I recovered and had a look around. A very angry bloke was gobbing off down a mobile.  I waited for 4 people to go through thinking they'd do as targets.

First guy was done in seconds then a couple of minutes to catch the two guys running together. Last guy had pulled away, but then stopped. He was doing reps. I caught him on his recovery and after about one mile into the return rep he nearly caught me. 6:35 goes to 6:10 and it was enough. That pushed me back in 30 seconds faster than the out leg. Saw Pieorro again before shouting at one of the two ladies in front of me to get out of the way, just before we past each other for the final time.

Out leg was 12:19  Garmin

Back leg was  11:52 Garmin yippee that's sub 4m kms.....

Nackered at the end, easy jog home.

Niggle on the front of the right ankle, lingering marathon issue where I think the laces on the right shoe were a shade too tight.