I took our older son and his girlfriend back to Geneva airport on Monday 21st January (after skiing in the day) and collected our younger son, Alex, who arrived a couple of hours later. The three of us skied on Tuesday (still terrific conditions) but I had to drop out on Wednesday and Thursday feeling very rough with a cold/flu bug. On Thursday Alex and I went for a long walk around the village in the snow – he missed skiing last year so was pleased to catch up with developments in a place he’s known for most of his life.
Friday and Saturday were spent skiing again, before taking Alex back to the airport for a Saturday afternoon flight back to the UK.
Both our sons ski extremely well. We started them at 4 and they cannot remember not being able to ski. I started just before I was 30 and I think that the later you start caps how good you can get (or, at least that’s my excuse).
I get by reasonably well but tend to do ‘proper’ English skiing: stylish on blue runs, competent on red runs, significant collapse of technique on black runs. I put that to good effect skiing with Alex on the Friday.
There is a black run in the resort which used to be beneath a chairlift so it was possible to see how difficult it looked before deciding whether to tackle it. In recent years that chairlift has been replaced with another starting from a different place so now only the top part of the run is visible.
Foolishly I agreed to ski it with him – the top bit was tough, as expected, but the bulk of it that had been out of sight was just a large and steep mogul field – very much at the extreme edge of my abilities. I only fell once which I regard as a minor victory but it was tough and I was happy to escape intact.
Sadly, we could not fit in a run during the week because the pavements were not clear enough of snow to provide a safe footing. That was a particular shame as Alex is the son with whom I’ll be running the marathon in April.
After a great time with our sons (and a girlfriend), and having dispatched them back to the UK, we took Sunday off skiing – not a bad decision as it snowed heavily. That is one of the great things about going skiing for a couple of weeks – you don’t feel guilty at taking a day off like you would if you were just out there for a week.
So, half way through the training for Rotterdam and three compromised weeks because of the trips to the Lakes and the Alps. On the plus side, I’ve still been physically active and have got in the long runs in all except the one for this week.
People say that if you cannot train for three weeks because of illness or injury, you should consider postponing the marathon. As my weeks have not been complete failures, I don’t intend to take that route but I’d better get back to the programme soon.
But (Sunday 27 January) I’m still in the Alps as I write this …
| Week | Run | Cycle | X-train |
| 1 | 16.1m (25.9km) | 9.8m (15.8 km) | 2:00 |
| 2 | 18.5m (29.8km) | 13.3m (21.5km) | 2:00 |
| 3 | 20.7m (33.25km) | 65.8m (105.9km) | 1:00 |
| 4 | 22.2m (35.8km) | 13.7m (22.07km) | 1:00 |
| 5 | 24m (38.6km) | 13m (21km) | 1:00 |
| 6 (Christmas) | 13.2m (21.3km) | ||
| 7 | 25.56m (41.14km) | 62.68m (100.86km) | 3:00 |
| 8 | 14.63m (23.55km) | 13.2m (21.2km) | 7.00 |
| 9 (Skiing) | 15.51m (24.97km) | 12.00 | |
| 10 (skiing) | 14.00 | ||
| ‘Running’ totals | 130.2m (209.7km) | 178.2m (286.3km) | 43:00 |
(an Old Man in Lycra) 