Week 44: Finding my method.

Things are going much better.  Ten to fifteen minutes of core strength work and stretching every day seems to be paying off.  I am coupling this with two short runs of 4-5 kilometres per week followed by a longer run in the mountains.  The original plan has gone out the window and I am going on what feels good to me.  I hope it will be enough to pull me through the 47 kilometres.
I am also still doing a lot of long walks to prepare for my guide exam.  This week I took the kids to the Grand Colombier.  Quite an easy walk as you drive most of the way up and then walk along the ridge.  Last week the Tour de France went through, and one of my ex- students, Romain Bardet, won the stage.  As we drove up the steep winding road, I marvelled again at the prowess of these cyclists.  The three-hour walk was very pleasant, mixing pasture and beech wood, with great views across the Rhone valley.  We were lucky with the weather, no clouds and little wind; apparently this ridge can be very windy at times.  The only thing that spoilt the walk was the huge electricity pylon at the top.
The next day I attacked a very long, ten and half hour walk to the Croix de Belledonne at 2900m.  I started from Chamrousse Recoin at 1650m, so a long climb.  The weather was perfect and the views magnificent.  There weren't too many other walkers, as it was a weekday.  The last hour to the summit was a hard slog, with some patches of snow to wade through and the summit hidden from view until the last fifteen minutes or so.  At the top there were great views of Alps d'Huez, the Vercors and the Chartreuse.  Unfortunately the splendour was spoilt by the strong odour of urine, it seems that some, probably male climbers feel the need to mark their achievement.  After a short, smelly lunch break I descended for the long walk home.  The path rose and fell steeply and I was unable to admire the view because I was worried about getting home before dark. I finally staggered into the car park at 7pm.  My legs felt very stiff and I was sure I would be hurting in the morning, but I did plenty of stretching before going to bed and felt pretty good the next day.  Maybe I have found the best preparation for me.

Week 43: Walking on Volcanos

A bit of a gap since my last post, things have been a bit busy on the work and home fronts.  On the work front I was testing students English level for entry to the local business school.  On the home front school broke up, so I found myself looking after kids.  I did manage to gets some runs in though.  Just short 5 or 10 kilometres, while I break in my new insoles.
My first 5 kilometre run with the went fairly well.  Unfortunately the longer 10 kilometre run left me with pain in my tibia.  After some research on the internet, I discovered that this is quite normal, even logical.  My tibia is being turned in a different direction to that which it has been used to for the last 44 years.  The doctor had said results in one month so I will soldier on. 
Also during this period my family headed to the Auvergne region for three days of walking on volcanos, as part of my preparation for the mountain guide qualification.  The first walk was on the Puy de Sancy, in very overcast conditions with a cold North wind.  The footpath was badly eroded and the last leg was on 800 wooden steps formed from railway sleepers.  There was no view from the 1800 metre summit and we retreated to the cable car restaurant as the hail blew in.  It was amazing to watch the ill equipped tourists arriving in the cable car to tackle such a dangerous terrain.  Once the hail clouds had blown over we followed the ski piste back down.  Both my knee and tibia were giving me problems as I hobbled into the town of Mont Dore.  Happily after some serious stretching the pain eased and almost disappeared.  The next day we had another long walk but with less altitude.  The weather was sunnier but still with a cold North wind.  We did a circuit that took in the Puy de Dôme and a number of other extinct volcanos.  The lower slopes were covered by beach and hazel forests which, with the numerous poorly signposted paths, made navigation a real challenge.  The Puy de Dôme was a bit of a disappointment with its hoards of tourists transported to the summit by train.  Once again I finished the walking hobbling with knee and tibia pain, which eased after stretching.  The final day was much better both weather and pain wise.  However it was more frustrating navigation wise as we were never totaly sure where we were.  We crossed a number of people who seemed to be in the same situation so maybe this is a feature of walks in this region.

Week 42: An alpine interlude.

This week started with my first experience of Alpinism.  My wife and I had decided to hire a guide to take us on a trip to 4000m.  The chosen mountain was the Dom des Ecrins.  The first day involved a tough 1000m climb.  The first section zig zagged up a steep slope to the foot of the glacier.  The path was well maintained and easily accessible.  Heavily equipped mountaineers mixed with elderly ramblers.  At the top of the slope the path levelled off as the foot of the glacier rose above us.  After crossing the stream, racing away from the glacier, the path rose again, past a first refuge and then on to the side of the glacier.  We geared up, helmet, climbing belts, crampons and rope before moving into the snow.  Then a hard slog with numerous crests before we sighted our goal the refuge des Ecrins.  Magnificent scenery as we moved along the edge of the glacier, past menacing crevasses.   At the head of the glacier we could see our goal the Dom des Ecrins, a blade of rock, ice and snow cutting into the sky.  The final approach to our refuge for the night was a steep switchback path that led up to the rocky outcrop of the refuge.  As I struggled back and forth, I began to wonder whether we had been too ambitious.  We finally arrived at the refuge, just in time for dinner.  As we would be starting at 4am the next morning, and because of a headache, I hit the sack early.  
The night was short and disturbed.  I finally woke at 3:30 and headed for the outside toilets.  I was surprised at how warm it was even at 2100m of altitude.  The sky was clear and a full moon hung over the mountains, making my torch unnecessary.  After a quick breakfast, we kitted up again and headed back onto the glacier.  Over dinner our guide had suggested we rethought or goal.  He suggested a lower and more accessible peak.  There had been a lot of snow recently and we would have to trace our own path up the Dom.   After listening to ice tumbling down the slopes we bowed to his advice and headed up another peak, called Roche Faurio at 3700m.  It was still a hard slog, but a large group had passed before us and made a path to follow.  After a brief stop to admire the 360° view of the mountains, we headed down for the long slog back to the car.  The sky was blue and the sun beat down on us.  It was somewhat unreal to descend back to civilization after a night and a day on a glacier.  I was quite pleased the next day to find that my legs were not too sore.

Later in the week I paid a trip to a podologist on the recommendation of a friend and I was pleased that I did.  After various tests he showed me that I was walking, and therefore running, on the outer edge of my foot not using my big toe at all.  This causes my tibia to rotate putting undue pressure on my knee joint.  A week later I returned to collect my custom made insoles.  According to the doctor I should see the results in a month or so.  I hope I have finally found the solution to my knee pain.

The week ended with a 12km run where I experimented running for 20 minutes and walking for 10 minutes.  I seemed able to continue for longer but I did find starting to run again tough after the third bout of walking.