5.9m Airport hill

Backing searing heat.  Like running through a soup of heavy air. Each patch of shade I sought out brought some relief as did the occasional breath of wind that blew.

I felt like perceived effort was very high, but with the heat I just managed the 8 min miles I did at the marathon. But the perceived effort matched the hrt. Garmin rated that as 4.8 out of 5.0, so did I. Thanks Garmin!

6m Airport hill again, fairly easy

In spite of the rain overnight and this morning the grass was dry in the botanic gardens so I got the bottom field done for the first time in ages.

By now it was sweltering and I struggled up the hill try in shake a lady who had tucked in sly-ly  behind me at the bottom of the hill. Dropped her before the top field.

Major road resurfacing at the plateau which blocked the road for cars, but just passable on foot.

Got some decent speed on the last mile, which I enjoyed, but this was cut short by the underpass to co-op being closed.

8:20 ave pace. Lap two up the hill was a shocking 10 minutes!

Garmin

9m Easy Sunday long run

Been feeling very much like I needed to get out for a 'long' run lately. Post marathon sluggishness, injury and lack of motivation were getting me down a bit. So I was determined to get out this morning.

Hit the trail to Perroy at 8:45 and the night before caught up with me straight away. A killer combo of beer, malakofs, assiette valaisane, ham and cheese crepes and a late night and a coffee at 10pm meant this run was going to be easy.

Took the high road beyond Perroy - took Steve's tip - and avoided the detour to the centre.

Went over the cement factory bridge and was then thinking about some friends in Etoy (Abbie and Seth) which meant I missed the trail by the Aubonne river and only realised as I started crossing the road bridge.

Came back along the two beaches route.

Very slow, but first run of any distance since April.

Garmin

5.8m lake side

Another hot day today.

Highlight of the run was the spray in Jardin Anglais which I managed to run through - very refreshing indeed.

There was also a beach volley ball pitch with grand stand and stalls around it set up out side the Kempinski. Quite a buzz around there and I caught a glimpse of the match....

Garmin

2.5m Tour de la Dole

It was la mini foulee glandoise's last outing of the season, so something special was planned. Run in the mountains followed by a fondue.

On the way up to the buvette de la Barillette the rain turned to hail that was being blown horizontally. Scary drive up with bits of tree landing on the road and the waves of hail battering the car.

Paul lept out the car and ran up a close by hill while I sorted my kit out. He came back and excitedly annouced it was just like Scotland - zero visability, driving wind and horizontal hail!

We parked up and the phone rang. The rest of the group had decided to go back down the hill and run at the bottom then come up after their jog. So Paul and I were the only ones to have made it to the top. We decided to go for it and went out anyway. It looked nothing like this picture.



Paul spotted a cave so we went truly wild to check out the cave, where we sheltered for a bit. On the way there we saw two chamois.

We battled on to the top, past the giant golf ball (really it is the sky guide radar center for the airport at geneva), just after this point we stumbled across another chamois right in front of us. It jumped over the dry stone wall in front of us and vanished into France. It looked a lot like the one in this picture, but ours had bigger horns.

We took the steep path down and made it back to the buvette where by this time everyone else was nice and cosy by the fire. We got changed and had a great fondue and chat with the lovely people who run the club.

On they way down, we saw a magnificent red deer at the side of the road.

Garmin

5.3 Airport hill

I set out thinking that a fast one might be on. But the rain had stopped and the sun had doubled the temperature.

There was still water on the ground so the bottom field was not on and that meant hitting the hill before being fully warmed up.

Over took a few on the hill and Garmin said 8:45 for the mile with the hill. Kicked at the top and felt like I flew down to the woods, but no I was still struggling to get below 7:30.

Thought about taking the longer little path in the woods but in the end decided not to get muddy and kept on the main route. Struggled back up the hill and realised although the perceived effort was high the speed was not there. Pushed to the top and enjoyed a splash of water at the restaurant du fontaine before the downhill.

Tried to get close to a sub 7 mile down the hill but could only get to 7:03 and even that only had my min mile ave at 7:56 which is the same as last week with half the effort. Turns out (o the joy of Garmin connect's compare activities) that the last mile was faster than the other recent airport hills but I am not going up hill as fast as I should me. More hills.....

Garmin

10x 100m reps, 1 min recovery

Finally manage to drag myself to the track for the first time in ages and I decided to go for 100m reps with one minute recovery.

Stefan lives right by the track to I warmed up by swinging by to see if he fancied it. No chance, as I had blisters from 11km of mountain running in Aubonne yesterday, well done mate!

Although I was very glad of the water he provided for me at the end of the session.

It was far too hot, mid day on a scorcher was not the best plan, but I felt the need and this was the only window of opportunity to get out so I took it.

In spite of the searing heat and slight snivels, I was a shade faster than the last time I did this session in Geneva back in Oct 2011 with Aurelien.

Garmin

5.5m Bois des Chenes, La Cezille, Bassins valley

With the mini foulee Glandoise - it took a while to get going.

There were lots of people and many had great excuses for not going up hill. As usual Paul shot off with the young guns and I muddled along in the middle looking out for the hills and fixing my bearings. At each turn there was a lengthy debate about which way to go.

The switch back was fine and finally the 6 broke off with a lead young gun and up we went. A farmer put a baby rabbit back in the woods which was very sweet and as we climbed the views back down to the lake were fantastic and the farmland and woods were majestic in the early evening light.

Paul was right there with the two teenagers the whole way. When we waited for the ladies to catch up he lay down to recover and got plants thrown at him by the big boys.

The top path on the other side of the sawmill was very muddy and wet, which was fun to run through.

At the end I've never seen Paul look so tired, but he held the pace all the way and we got back to the cars together - agreeing 500m out that neither of us fancied a sprint finish much!

Fantastic running from the wee man, well done Paul I am a very proud dad.

Garmin

5.5m Airport hill

So another wet and almost cold day in Geneva.

Did the airport hill again and caught two sets of two runners during the Penthaz climb.

At the top I decided to go for the big loop again but do it backwards, to get the still hill on the way back to the fountain restaurant.  It seems much harder and I had to work at it to keep going. Came across the same two ladies that I overtook the last time I was up here at the top.

On the way back a mad police type siren sounded at the US mission. It was coming from a big black sedan with the blue diplomatic plates on it. The purpose seemed to be to encourage the very ordinary looking car in front of it to budge up so they could both fit in the bomb blast gate and raise the barrier behind them. It worked and the security team seemed to find this hysterically amusing - I guess they have a pretty uneventful life. 

Got back and felt like I had really worked out hard. Was gutted to find I was one second per mile slower than yesterday. Grey zone? Could be. Next up easy run and some reps, I really need some reps. 

Garmin

6m Airport hill

Cold and wet june day today.

Headed out with a mind to catch the two guys going out of the changing rooms as I went in.

Failed as the routes did not match.

Stupidly forgot to start the garmin until already down in the botanic gardens.  Avoided the bottom field given the days of heavy rain we've had. Pushed up the hill with conviction today thinking the two guys 100m ahead were my buddies from work. Nope. Oh well that dragged me up the hill in under 9 mins which is a first for a long time.

Went on the wide loop and seemed to be mainly serious runners out today, all of whom smiled or waved. 

The bus at the top of the Pregny climb kindly waited to avoid squashing on the super narrow turn. Tried, and managed, to hold sub 8 min miles and reached the dizzy heights of 7:30s on the way down the hill.

Detour to the UBS cash machine to get some money to buy lunch. 

Trending faster, finally. A full 20s per mile faster today. Time for some planning and some workouts with Tenke.

Garmin

5.3m with Tenke, lower field loops

Tenke wanted soft surface for a shin issue, so we met lake side and then backtracked to the lower field which we did 4 time.

Tenke turned right to go down on loop one as I went left to go up first. Funny how we have different traditions.....

Funny how the pace reverted to that of a snail when tenke heady home.....

Garmin

5.8m Rhone trails with Tenke

Old running trails revisited with Tenke.


Neither of us feeling very fast so easy does it out to the bottom Rhone trail and back. Hippy commune camped out at the end of the Rhone trails, Tenke wins comment of the day "Occupy Geneve". Classic.

Garmin