Training Log Archive: Craney

Good day out at the Girose glacier with both (sets of) grandparents. Nipped our for a gentle loosener late afternoon from our chalet. Felt a bit jaded but not too bad. Found a nice path winding up through the meadows, then a fun contouring path along a super steep shale slope.

Chasing start at Risoul. Started 2nd, 4:06 behind. Finished 2nd,1:36 behind. Started well and enjoyed finally getting a chance to stride out on a long diagonally downhill leg to #2. Picked a low route to #4, but unfortunately dropped down off the map! Recovered but then ran too far along the path. Terrible concentration! Still, got the control ok and was very surprised to look behind and see Havard the leader coming in behind me. Race on! We ran together for a few legs but coming out of #8 I decided (no idea why) to take a different line which was contouring along a terribly steep slope. Recovered ok but he was nowhere to be seen by then. Some huge climbs from then on which I felt ok on, and was wishfully hoping that maybe I was ahead, but I knew it was a long shot. Cruised round the final few open controls on the ski slope (very slowly and tired) and sure enough came in for 2nd. Fastest time on the day was nice, but a bit frustrating to blow it - particularly missing the chance to sneak past early on if I hadn’t messed #4. Tough hilly day but easily the most fun course technically. Missed the prize giving as it happened early and I was on the luge with Florence :)

At Risoul Station, came 6th. Early start didn’t help today as it was quite grassy, but it was also more interesting orienteering with plenty of forest and marshes. Had an ok first half but made a silly mistake dropping too low midway through, and was pretty wrecked over the last few controls. Still 2nd overall though.

At Vars Les Claux, got the W. Bus up to the col at 2100m for the start was pretty cool. Views go without saying. The course was fun and I could really feel the altitude. Steep goes without saying. High point of the course was 2330m. First few controls were runnable open moorland. Then we got into some massive boulder screes which forced me to walk/rockhop a lot. Hard to read the map under the screen symbol too. I was reasonably clean through to #13, but came a cropper a bit in the scree at #14 and #15 loosing a couple of mins. Struck me on the way to #16 that I was feeling good, mainly because it hadn’t been possible to run very much. Pushed on a bit from then, but lost another minute or so at #21 (similar thing, rock in a boulder field). Had no idea how I’d got on nearing the finish, so was pleasantly surprised to hear the good news. Shape was good today, coped well with the sun and climb - magnesium tablets probably helped.

C • don't leave us guessing? 1

Great warm-up jog on moors above the col. Token warm down.

Today’s long was postponed to tomorrow because of the threat of storms (fair enough). Unfortunately (sort of), the storms didn’t materialise. But it made for a nice rest day hanging out with the Rothmans, then later doing a jog mainly with Grace from Guillestre. Followed a path beneath some big cliffs down to the river, then climbed back up for some flatter jogging through very French fields and houses.

At Peyrol-Vars, 2100m asl! Hot day and a super steep “middle” race. Amazing views of the alps again and beautiful larch and meadows terrain. Altitude, vegetation and general steepness made it a pretty brutal race though. First bit was downhill and I lost nearly 1.30mins on a tree on the edge of the map (hmm). Then some tough steep contouring which went ok. Then some big climbs which felt soooo slow. But I kept running sort of and figured that everyone would be struggling too. Proved to be about right as I got 5th, about 3mins behind the winner from Norway. Frustrated with the mistake early on but good otherwise. Ominous for the two long races that the sprint and middle were overplanned...

Hard to find anywhere flat! But all very picturesque.

Event: O'France 2019
 

“Sprint” race at Mont Dauphin - an old fort with some cool massive ramparts and earthworks etc. Super fun, and very spectacular views. Course was reasonably straightforward once you’d picked a route, and I think I got most of those about right. Pretty hot day but I felt ok running and had a clean run. Happy to get 3rd, within a minute of a French guy and Yannick.

Nice to have the time to do a decent warm-up, which was very enjoyable running through an old French village with more spectacular views.

Late arvo run from Guillestre to stretch the legs out after registering. Great to explore some of the many amazing single tracks in the Alps. This was meant to be a flat one but it wasn’t really that flat. Tried to do a few 1min efforts but I was feeling quite heavy and the path was very windy.