Snow has finally fallen in the village! But this means that my training runs are going to be a bit more tricky now - still I like a challenge, heck I wouldn’t of entered the UTMB CCC if i didn’t !Set out this afternoon at about 4:10pm and headed out on the trails that I normally run - there is a fair amount of light powdery snow about, probably 5 inches or so. The first gently uphills weren’t too bad as a few other folks had walked out along this way and so the snow was fairly well flattened, but it was certainly using up more energy. The sun was low and there was a lovely light on the Aravis and the Fiz as the peaked through the atmospheric low wispy clouds.The steep uphill was *really* hard, the snow dragging at my feet, and struggling to keep grip on the soft powdery snow. I’m usually at about 24mins on a good day or 27 on a bad day at the top of this climb and today was 30mins, which was what I expected given the conditions so I was quite pleased.It was a great adventure - slipping and slidding on the down hills, running across the ski piste (It wasn’t officially open but there where people skiing it!). Temperature down at -12 centigrade, my water bottle was freezing even with all the jiggling about it was getting. And finally running the last bit as the last light faded from the sky. Now this is definitely the sort of running I like !Todays figures are 12.7 Km, 530m Ascent, 1hr:45 (ish) as the cold got to my watch which stopped working half way round!
Monthly Archive for January, 2007
The weather has been so mild recently, and I have done so little exercise in the last month that I really needed to restart my training routine ! Mentally I’ve really been waiting for winter arrive when I’d be skiing and cross country skiing, but no more, got to get back to it.
So today started with a 4k run with about 160m of ascent, and it hurt. Another mental note to self - don’t stop the training for any length of time because it seriously difficult to get going again. Anyway, pace overall was reasonable and at least it’s a start. The run was superb with beautiful morning light filtering through the winter foliage of the trees on the run down towards Le Fayet, all snow free.
Inscriptions for the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc opened today at 8am, and I was up an on the internet to sign up as soon as it opened.
So as far as I can tell I am now signed up, and all I need to do now is send in a special medical certificate before the end of May. This was a little confusing on the site, as it seemed to suggest after signing up that I may miss out if I don’t get my certificate in before others do ? I don’t like contradictory information (I’m going to take it as a miss-translation as the French Reglement seem fairly clear ?!). Still I’d better get my medical done and sent off soon just to make sure ! This is the second one I’ve had to do as the one I got for the Mont Blanc Marathon isn’t accepted for the UTMB - you need a special one unique to this event !
**EDIT**
It looks like a few other people have also got worried by what it says after you sign up, regarding the medical certificate, and there has been a confirmation of the rules on the [news][] page.
>vous vous êtes inscrits par internet ET vous avez payé par Carte Bancaire : votre inscription est OK. Il suffit désormais de nous envoyer l’original du certificat 2007, par courrier uniquement, avant le 31 mai 2007. Ce n’est qu’en cas de non présentation dans ce délais de votre certificat que votre inscription peut être remise en cause,
So roughly if you have signed up via the internet, AND payed by credit card then your registration is fine, as long as you send your medical cretificate before the 31 May.
So i am registered, which is fantastic, now I have to make sure I get fit!
[news]: http://www.ultratrailmb.com/news.php “UTMB News Page”
