6m Rhone trail with field

Tenke had to stop for a call of nature at Starbucks, 1m 22s into the run.


Very technical run requiring total concentration to avoid ending up in the Rhone. Snow, ice, mud, yuck! The worst was the far side of the river where we go under the bridge to get to the field, it was treacherous. There were even some firemen guys all kitted out in abseiling gear ready to leap down and pluck us from the Rhone should we slip and fall down the 200m sheer drop to the river gliding along, a cold blue below us.

The field was snowed over and there was plenty of construction work going on. We had to dodge a dumper truck full of dirt and then a digger filling another truck. We came out the field high looking for a route over the road to avoid the worst of the trails on the return.

On the way out of the field Tenke then performed a gazelle like leap over a bump in the road, full of poise, grace and elegance, except for the thud as she slammed into the ice - landing side first and then bouncing back into stride. I've never seen anything like it, I think she may actually be made of some kind of rubber materiel. 

Super cold. The snow started up again later on. Another 20cm in a few hours made life interesting on the way home.

Garmin

6.3m Rhone trails with field loop

This a tough trail run.

The drops are sheer, the climbs are steep and at times even the mighty Tenke has to walk.

Most of the time I could talk, which was great and an improvement on the early days of fighting my way up the hills when continuing was only just possible.

Hrt was high on the hills, but dropped quickly enough back to zone two.

Ave pace was meaningless at 8:40 min miles, but 57 mins on that terrain has to be good for something.

Garmin Details

8.5 miles on the Rhône trail - long tempo

This time I felt we ran well and reasonably hard.

Out for 72 minutes clearing 8.29 miles ave. 8:42.

On the surface poor. However, we only overtook. The Rhône trail will never be a fast run. It is a very difficult trail, narrow in places and you need to jump fallen trees try not to knock on coming runners into the river and so on.

Having read the bumf from the tourist info on the trail I pointed out the artificial reed beds and pools (ideal for pike and local terrapins) the sewage works (water goes back in better than it came out!) and was disapointed not to make it as far as the pipeline bridge, but at 35mins it was time to turn back. Tenke seemed to know every runner we met today.

With the garim powered and not skiing anymore I was delighted to review the statistics that confimed we had climbed (and decended) 1694ft on our 8.29 mile run. And those climbs are so steep that even Tenke was reduced to walking. Net result of these super steep climbs was that I spent 33:10 in Zone 4 and 27:20 in Zone 3 so I am claiming this as a long tempo run. While the speed was not there the sheer steep climbs and technical difficulty was. Where the trail flattened my hrt dropped and the speed increased. Slowest mile was 9:12 due to the massive climb from the river to the top of the bridge which is as near as can be to vertical.