Un parcours excellent - à faire si tu habites à côté (comme moi), ou pas. Ca vaut le coup de venir découvrir le Luberon ! Le vin est pas mal aussi...
Tuesday 29 May 2012
TGXL - articles LP et DL
Deux articles sur le Trail du Grand Luberon qui a eu lieu ce weekend passé.
Un parcours excellent - à faire si tu habites à côté (comme moi), ou pas. Ca vaut le coup de venir découvrir le Luberon ! Le vin est pas mal aussi...
Un parcours excellent - à faire si tu habites à côté (comme moi), ou pas. Ca vaut le coup de venir découvrir le Luberon ! Le vin est pas mal aussi...
Thursday 24 May 2012
A look at my training ground / une sortie derrière chez nous
[EN] Sometimes when you head out for a long run on your tod, it's a shame to not share the experience, so voilà a few short vids of yesterday's outing. Setting off from behind our house, up the hill, down the other side, along yonder, back up, back down, in the fountain, and home for ice-creams.. This is why I like it where we live now.. without a doubt a major reason why I'm moving towards the running form of my life.. and why, for the moment, we're here to stay....
[FR] Parfois quand je cours seule (la plupart de mes sorties) je trouve ça dommage de ne pas partager cette expérience. Donc voilà cette fois-ci j'ai pris la camera pour montrer quelques images du paysage derrière chez nous. C'est grâce à cette multitude de sentiers magnifiques que je prends autant de plaisir dans la course à pied en ce moment, et c'est l'une des grandes raisons pour laquelle j'approche au mieux de ma forme en ce moment. Nous n'avons pas de baignoire chez nous, mais pas de soucis, la fontaine du village offre de toute façon une meilleure vue...
[EN] Pre-view warning: The following short films were taken by a complete amateur who's a long way from mastering his steady-cam optics. The images may make you feel queasy - grab a paper bag if you're unsure. Finally I recommend turning the volume OFF, as it goes along the lines of pppppffffffffffffffffffffffffff, repeatedly.
[FR] Avertissement : Les films suivants ont été pris par un camerman non-expérimenté Si vous êtes susceptible au mal de mer, ces images pourront entraîner une sensation nauséeuse - en cas de doute mettez un seau à porter de main. Finalement, je conseille fortement de mettre le volume à ZERO. J'ai pas le temps à rajouter mes chansons favorites encore...
[FR] Parfois quand je cours seule (la plupart de mes sorties) je trouve ça dommage de ne pas partager cette expérience. Donc voilà cette fois-ci j'ai pris la camera pour montrer quelques images du paysage derrière chez nous. C'est grâce à cette multitude de sentiers magnifiques que je prends autant de plaisir dans la course à pied en ce moment, et c'est l'une des grandes raisons pour laquelle j'approche au mieux de ma forme en ce moment. Nous n'avons pas de baignoire chez nous, mais pas de soucis, la fontaine du village offre de toute façon une meilleure vue...
[EN] Pre-view warning: The following short films were taken by a complete amateur who's a long way from mastering his steady-cam optics. The images may make you feel queasy - grab a paper bag if you're unsure. Finally I recommend turning the volume OFF, as it goes along the lines of pppppffffffffffffffffffffffffff, repeatedly.
[FR] Avertissement : Les films suivants ont été pris par un camerman non-expérimenté Si vous êtes susceptible au mal de mer, ces images pourront entraîner une sensation nauséeuse - en cas de doute mettez un seau à porter de main. Finalement, je conseille fortement de mettre le volume à ZERO. J'ai pas le temps à rajouter mes chansons favorites encore...
heading up from Camp Long (58s)
back down into Lagnes (57s)
... and recover ... (16s) - but 10minutes in the fountain
Pour info - le parcours / And the route stats :
33.2km / 1,350m climb / 3h15'
Sunday 13 May 2012
Les courses des volcans - étape 1 : la TransVulcania
[ENGLISH TEXT FURTHER BELOW, SEPARATE POSTING]
Je ne peux qu'être content avec une deuxième place hier, dans une course qui se voulait un peu au niveau 'championnats du monde' de ce genre de parcours. C'est à dire long et montagneux. Il s'agissait de la première étape de SkyRunning de 2012.
Donc comment s'est-elle déroulée? Je suis parti, comme d'hab, à un rythme relativement tranquille, normalement soutenable pour 7 ou 8 heures de course. Dans la montée j'ai discuté un peu, tout d'abord avec Manu Gault, puis avec Joe Grant, d'origine britannique, qui a passé son enfance en Françe mais qui se considère maintenant américain. Il est capable de bien parler les trois langues / accents, selon avec qui il parle! Après j'ai rattrapé François (D'Haene) qui aussi faisait un départ cool et qui a du être à peu près dans les dix premiers lorsque j’étais avec lui. Après un peu plus d'une heure de course je retrouve le groupe de tête qui suit de deux minutes les deux échappés, Dakota Jones et Kilian. Avec Thomas (Lorblanchet) et Iker (Karera) pas loin derrière nous nous suivons ce groupe et courrons ensemble jusqu'au 27ème km. Au deuxième ravitaillement l'organisation a donné une énorme montre GPS à tous les tops 15. Merci, vous venez de doubler le poids de ma main droite! Je décide de suivre Kilian et Dakota jusqu'a la crête et tout au long du sentier super sympathique qui contourne le cratère. J'ai bien profité de ce super paysage. J'avais un peu plus qu'une minute de retard au sommet. Parfait - j'étais assez confiant de pouvoir les rattraper dans la descente. Mais en effet ce n'était pas si facile que ça. Les jambes commençaient à sentir les kilomètres et le temps que je rattrape et ensuite double Dakota et Kilian, les cuisses commençaient à bien sentir les 2500m de sable, poussière volcanique, cailloux et roche. La descente était très dure. Pas difficile, juste dure pour les cuisses. En bas, on avait distancé Kilian. 6km de sprint joyeux alors entre Dakota et moi-même. Excellent! Bien sûre que j'aurais voulu la gagner cette course, mais Dakota était tout simplement plus frais. Il lui restait un peu plus de jus pour grimper le mur de 340m qui nous séparait de la ville d'arrivée. Il était costaud. Moi j'étais un peu épuisé! Dakota finit du coup avec une minute quarante d'avance sur moi. Kilian arrive 10 minutes après et s'écroule sur la ligne d'arrivée. La chaleur l'avait abattu à la fin. C'est pas tout à fait normal, mais en fait je pense qu'en tant qu'anglais qui habite depuis presque un an en Provence maintenant, je suis plus habitué à courir sous un gros soleil qu'un Catalan qui passe la plupart de son temps en montagne, à l'air plus frais.
Au niveau des résultats, Dakota (21 ans !) était super fort et un résultat impressionnant pour Kilian qui reprend tout juste la course à pied après la saison de ski. A noter les bons résultats des français et du Team Salomon France, je pense particulièrement à la quatrième place de François. Je pense aussi à Thomas qui a fait un très bon résultat compte tenu d'une blessure a mi-parcours. J’ai apprécié le bout de parcours que nous avons fait ensemble. Dommage qu'il n'y avait pas plus de Britanniques par contre!
Donc, une grosse partie des concurrents remettra ses baskets pour Zegama le week-end prochain. Ca va encore être une course intéressante à suivre. Comment cette course va-t-elle se dérouler pour eux avec une semaine de récup ? Comment le parcours va-t-il plaire à l'américain speed-King Max? Est-ce que Kilian se remettra bien à temps? En tout cas, moi je suivrai ça avec intérêt, de loin, avec une grosse glace dans la main!..
De mon côté, les prochaines étapes seront une course Provençale dans deux semaines, suivie en juin par un retour sur les volcans, c'est fois-ci en Guadeloupe, pour le Volcano Trail.
Quelques images plus résultats de la TransVulcania sur le site iRunFar :http://www.irunfar.com/2012/05/2012-transvulcania-ultramarathon-results.html
Volcanic running - round one. A roundup.
Well, I've got to be happy with second place in this field of ultra runners. Some say the best field ever gathered over this kind of distance??...
How did it go? - I went out fairly steady, keen to get to the top of the crater rim feeling fresh enough to let loose once it got scenic and a little technical. And that's about what happened. Leaving the lighthouse, we ran up for the first hour in the dark, and I got to know one of the Americans, Joe Grant. It turns out that if you speak to him in a British accent he replies with one, but amongst the Americans he's got the proper western twang. He also speaks French, so that makes three languages.. I then worked my way through the group of runners ahead and found myself in third chasing Kilian and Dakota by the top. I did at one point catch and run with Kilian briefly, but after a few minutes he accelerated and got back onto Dakota's heels.
It stayed that way for the next twenty odd miles, as I trailed the two of them by about a minute or two. I was confident that I'd reel them in on the mega descent of 2500m off the last peak and down to the sea. I did, but not quite as easily as I'd have liked. Maybe I need to nip back to the uk to touch up my downhilling, perhaps do a race or two with Tom, that or it could be that the 40 odd miles had taken there toll on my quads, in any case I wasn't feeling as nimble as usual on the down. Dakota and I reached the beach together, Kilian having blown with a couple of k left to drop.
The organisers thought it would be nice to add a six km run-in to finish the race in the town above the sea. It was very thoughtful of them as it involves a killer of a steep cobbled road, winding up the cliffs for about a thousand vertical feet. Just what you would hope for at the end of a fifty miler. Not. Dakota still looked strong and his legs apparently had a little more spring left in them than mine. I wanted to win the race as well, but I just couldn't go with him, and he slowly pulled a minute and a half out of me over these last few miles up and along through town to the finish banner. Kilian crossed the line ten minutes later, in a bad way, was stretchered into the medical tent, but quickly recovered. The heat had got to him. I'm from Cumbria and Kilian's a native Catalan, but it would seem that living in Provence and spending a large part of the year running in glorious sun-shine probably makes me the more used to dealing with high temperatures than Kilian's high mountain lifestyle. In any case, serious respect to Kilian. He's hardly run this year, only just properly finishing the ski season last week. I think if there's ever a time of year that he's slightly more beatable it's May, when he's fresh off he's his skis and has very few running miles in his legs.
So, I'm 31 and still consider myself fairly young for this kind of long-distance racing. Apparently not. 21 in front of me and 24 behind!
It's a shame there weren't a few more Brits over on La Palma, the race really being dominated at the elite end by large contingencies from both the States and France, as well as a few speedy Spaniards. Team Salomon France had a really successful day in the end, with Francois (D'Haene) adopting similar 'steady away' tactics to myself, pulling through to finish forth. Thomas (Lorblanchet), who I'd run with between kilometres 15 and 27 had some issues with his knee, but still managed a solid eighth. It's good to be helping put French trail running on the global map!
Most of the runners over here will be heading off to Zegama in northern Spain later this week. I think that's pretty crazy. There's no way I could contemplate racing a rough mountainous marathon in just six day's time. It will certainly be an interesting one to follow. How many of the TransVulcania runners will finish? How will Kilian recover? How will the American speedster Max King enjoy the Basque rocks? Other than Max there won't be too many fresh legs on the start line. Hopefully Tom (Owens) will be bringing one pair of them.
Today then, a day of recovery ice-cream and swimming pool, with some more photo shoots on the lava flows, then it's back home tomorrow. I'll probably do one more local race later in May (Provence trail running champs) before round two of my volcanic series, the Volcano Trail in Guadeloupe at the end of June.
Right, must hit the hotel breakfast buffet feast. One large plate of everything please...
Results and a few piccies here: http://www.irunfar.com/2012/05/2012-transvulcania-ultramarathon
How did it go? - I went out fairly steady, keen to get to the top of the crater rim feeling fresh enough to let loose once it got scenic and a little technical. And that's about what happened. Leaving the lighthouse, we ran up for the first hour in the dark, and I got to know one of the Americans, Joe Grant. It turns out that if you speak to him in a British accent he replies with one, but amongst the Americans he's got the proper western twang. He also speaks French, so that makes three languages.. I then worked my way through the group of runners ahead and found myself in third chasing Kilian and Dakota by the top. I did at one point catch and run with Kilian briefly, but after a few minutes he accelerated and got back onto Dakota's heels.
It stayed that way for the next twenty odd miles, as I trailed the two of them by about a minute or two. I was confident that I'd reel them in on the mega descent of 2500m off the last peak and down to the sea. I did, but not quite as easily as I'd have liked. Maybe I need to nip back to the uk to touch up my downhilling, perhaps do a race or two with Tom, that or it could be that the 40 odd miles had taken there toll on my quads, in any case I wasn't feeling as nimble as usual on the down. Dakota and I reached the beach together, Kilian having blown with a couple of k left to drop.
The organisers thought it would be nice to add a six km run-in to finish the race in the town above the sea. It was very thoughtful of them as it involves a killer of a steep cobbled road, winding up the cliffs for about a thousand vertical feet. Just what you would hope for at the end of a fifty miler. Not. Dakota still looked strong and his legs apparently had a little more spring left in them than mine. I wanted to win the race as well, but I just couldn't go with him, and he slowly pulled a minute and a half out of me over these last few miles up and along through town to the finish banner. Kilian crossed the line ten minutes later, in a bad way, was stretchered into the medical tent, but quickly recovered. The heat had got to him. I'm from Cumbria and Kilian's a native Catalan, but it would seem that living in Provence and spending a large part of the year running in glorious sun-shine probably makes me the more used to dealing with high temperatures than Kilian's high mountain lifestyle. In any case, serious respect to Kilian. He's hardly run this year, only just properly finishing the ski season last week. I think if there's ever a time of year that he's slightly more beatable it's May, when he's fresh off he's his skis and has very few running miles in his legs.
So, I'm 31 and still consider myself fairly young for this kind of long-distance racing. Apparently not. 21 in front of me and 24 behind!
It's a shame there weren't a few more Brits over on La Palma, the race really being dominated at the elite end by large contingencies from both the States and France, as well as a few speedy Spaniards. Team Salomon France had a really successful day in the end, with Francois (D'Haene) adopting similar 'steady away' tactics to myself, pulling through to finish forth. Thomas (Lorblanchet), who I'd run with between kilometres 15 and 27 had some issues with his knee, but still managed a solid eighth. It's good to be helping put French trail running on the global map!
Most of the runners over here will be heading off to Zegama in northern Spain later this week. I think that's pretty crazy. There's no way I could contemplate racing a rough mountainous marathon in just six day's time. It will certainly be an interesting one to follow. How many of the TransVulcania runners will finish? How will Kilian recover? How will the American speedster Max King enjoy the Basque rocks? Other than Max there won't be too many fresh legs on the start line. Hopefully Tom (Owens) will be bringing one pair of them.
Today then, a day of recovery ice-cream and swimming pool, with some more photo shoots on the lava flows, then it's back home tomorrow. I'll probably do one more local race later in May (Provence trail running champs) before round two of my volcanic series, the Volcano Trail in Guadeloupe at the end of June.
Right, must hit the hotel breakfast buffet feast. One large plate of everything please...
Results and a few piccies here: http://www.irunfar.com/2012/05/2012-transvulcania-ultramarathon
Wednesday 9 May 2012
Running with dinosaurs
So, the next two races on the agenda will be on hot soil. Ancient lands of ancient creatures, isolated completely from what's become my new 'norm'. Two long runs along, around, over and hopefully not into volcanoes. Neither of these two races were initially part of the 2012 plan, but both were quickly integrated into the scheme once put on the table. First up, it's the TransVulcania this weekend, followed by the Volcano Trail later next month. True, having just moved to France (June last year), the aim of the game this year was, and still is, mainly, to focus on my new 'local' territory, la France. Having hardly raced here before the logic was to stay en France, explore the country's wide open spaces and incredible network of footpaths, and... to win as much cheese, wine, saucisson and honey as possible in this, the land of gigantic race-winning hampers. The idea was also, I have to admit, to focus on 40-50km races as a maximum, however I seem to have deviated from that slightly... Not sure why, it's just the way things are going in this world...
Quite early on it became apparent that the TransVulcania was going to be pretty hot competition and I'm going there really because I'm quite interested to see how I fair against some of the best Americans, Spaniards and the rest of that well-publicised list of ultra stars. I've had a packed calendar already this year, with seven races under the belt and a fair few pretty long ones in that list. The competition has been good, but it's not often that you get the gathering that's taking place this weekend on the island of La Palma. It would be a shame not to be a part of the action, even if it is a bit of a long one, off French soil, and dangerously may not even have a hamper of terrines and pâtés offered as recovery rewards... Oh the thought... I guess there may be chorizo and cerveza to compensate?...
So, after the Canaries excursion, I'll be gearing up for another far-off land and another very long race, this time on the island of Guadeloupe. A race that appears to be a real mix of terrain. Jungle, beaches, road, volcanoes and waterfall climbing??.. Again, should be a lot of fun.
Time to board for Madrid.
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