Horses of the wind Written on September 25, 2011, by andys.
After a seriously lengthy break from the mountain trails, it’s time to return…
A year ago I had a shot at my first Ultra race, Cavalls del Vent. It nearly killed me. So, after 2 months of running (my knee’s been fine since mid-July) I thought the (un)sensible thing to do would be to return to the hills behind Bagà and do the race again. It’s a combination of the stunning course, the challenge of getting the pacing right for the distance, and the smell of those Sunday morning breakfast Bocadillos shared with Miguel last year, all tempting me back again for a second shot…
Training wise, what have I done? Prior to mid-July I ran zero or close to zero miles for a period of many months. A cortisone jab late last year made a complete mess of my tendon and meant that any more than a couple of minutes of exercise, of any form whatsoever, would find me keeled over in agony. Not a pleasant period. Thankfully the in-soles seem to have finally sorted that out. So for the comeback I’ve adopted a conservative approach to building up the training and have not rushed back into speed work. I’ve now had several weeks at around 60-70 miles, usually including one fairly lengthy hill run and most of the rest made up of the flat 8 miles I run to work (I usually run one way and bike the other). I’ve taken the approach that speed is not yet of the essence, and instead got out for some nice long, but slow, hill runs. I have recently started integrating some fartlek and in the last week or so added the odd session of 800m or 1km ‘reps’ into my run to work. Whilst at only about 5.5min/miling equivalent pace these are not yet exactly what I’d describe as fast, but it’s some progress on the effort it felt to even get up to 7 min-miling just 2 months ago. Running is starting to feel natural again, which is great. I’m sure all runners would agree – the sensation of ‘floating’ – running fast whilst applying little or no effort is hard to beat, especially if you’ve got a nice view!
Having recently moved to Avignon in the south of France, there’s obviously been a few trips to the base of Ventoux – a great place to get a solid 1.5 hour climb in. Also with the relocation to a new part of the world, getting back into running has been especially exciting as it’s allowed me to explore the abundance of local hill ranges, the Luberon, Alpilles, Vaucluse, Ventoux, to name just the closest. I have to say that blue skies and warm air are also fairly coherent with mountain running and I’m not sure we’ll be relocating to Scotland in any immediate hurry…
(click on all images to enlarge)
As a test run, mainly to gauge whether my knee would really hold up for any meaningful distance, at the end of August I ran round the Husky Guillestre Trail. An absolutely cracking course in the Queyras (Hautes Alpes) and it was great to find that my knee held up 100% over a 5+ hour course. My legs however were completely mushed for several days after that.
So, what’s the plan for Cavalls? I have to say – I seriously hesitated about the wisdom of tackling such a distance (85km) so soon after returning from injury, so I came to a comprised plan. The objective is to treat this 9, 10 or 11 hour (???) race as a ‘training run’, in as much as that’s possible. I’m going to run round at a steady/easy pace with Thomas Lorblachet. We’re both competing in the French classic Les Templiers just three weeks after Cavalls and if we don’t shred our legs to pieces (as I did this time last year) then it could be the perfect training run to go into the Templiers with superb leg strength. This year, no matter how good I feel at the half way point, I won’t be putting the hammer down, racing off into the lead, only to have a nasty encounter with the industrial quadricep-shredder some Spaniard had left in my path at the top of that climb half-way ’round…
(Post race report to follow…)
Andy Symonds
