We were back out on the slopes Monday and Tuesday – then it was packing up on Wednesday to drive back to the UK on Thursday.
It snowed solidly and, clearly, it was snow chains for the trip down the mountain. That wasn’t too bad as I could put them on in the underground garage – taking them off in the snow in the valley was another matter entirely.
We had about 550 miles to drive through France – and nearly all of it with a good covering of snow either side of the road. Despite that, the roads were excellent and clear. It began to snow as we got west of London and driving along the M4 at about 9pm it started to settle.
We saw one gritting lorry near Ashford (Kent) and not another for the whole 166 mile journey, despite constant claims that gritting was in process. At one point it seemed that we might be using the snow chains again but the snow eased and only started more heavily again as we got home.
A great holiday – 16 days, 1780 miles, a lot of skiing and the advantage of having both sons join us.
Three falls: one while standing still and tripping over my own ski pole (very cool); one on a black mogul field (very expected); and one entirely by surprise (but my wife says someone skied over the back of my skis which might explain it). I went over onto my left shoulder – after 5 days I don’t yet have full movement back.
Three falls is probably OK – too many falls would be depressing: no falls would suggest I’m not pushing hard enough.
In normal life I tend to shy away from potatoes, bread and cheese but those are the main staples of the Haute Savoie diet. Indeed, the wonderful dish ‘Tartiflette’ was actually created to promote sales of the local reblochon cheese. We ate and drank well but I came back still under 70kg which I will treat as a victory.
Some very enjoyable reading too – I managed to finish
- ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (good but a bit weird in places, almost cartoonish). The cover quoted Salman Rushdie calling it ‘The greatest novel in any language of the last 50 years’ (I certainly couldn’t agree with that)
- ‘Red Azalea’ by Anchee Min (very interesting, set in the time of the cultural revolution and well worth a read)
- ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ by Amor Towles (generally excellent but, to a pedantic Brit, having a Russian Count in the 1930s use the word ‘gotten’ sticks out like a sore thumb).
We were supposed to be up to London for a Snow Patrol concert at the Wembley Arena on Saturday and that looked a bit unlikely to be happening as the snow fell for much of Friday – something like 8 inches of the stuff.
If we’d had to head to London then, I doubt we’d have gone, as the UK was again proving incapable of dealing with fairly modest snowfalls. Luckily, by Saturday things had settled a bit and we were just on the edge of the worst of the snow, which was mainly south and west of us.
We decided to give London a go so took the front wheel drive car. The biggest issue was (as ever) getting out of the village but we made it – just – and the rest of the trip was OK, taken cautiously. The rear wheel drive car would not have got out of the village.
Snow Patrol were excellent, but they had set the bar supremely high at the more ‘intimate’ concert we went to last November.
Luckily, in snow terms, London was much clearer than Oxfordshire so I took my running kit but only just managed to force myself out on Sunday morning – my first run for three weeks because of the skiing.
It was hovering just above freezing but was bright and clear I ran from West Kensington around the Serpentine (the lake in Hyde Park) and back. Altogether 11.4 km in under 1 hour 3 minutes at 5.30 min/km (7.1 miles @ about 8:52 per mile), despite the road junctions and the sore left shoulder. To my surprise, inside 4 hour marathon pace and it felt pretty good. Clearly, I should be doing more skiing and less running in my training ….
It will be interesting to see how the Achilles tendons react – they had better behave as there is a lot of running to be done between now and the Rotterdam marathon on 7th April (once the snow clears).
So, the training week ended with some skiing but only one run – a fairly dismal effort over the last 4 weeks as life has got in the way of the training. If someone were paying me to do the running perhaps I’d adjust the priorities but I can’t help but think that life first and running second is the right way round for a – very – amateur runner like me.
| 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) | 12.00 | ||
| 11 (Skiing) | 7.1m (11.4km) | 6.00 | |
| ‘Running’ totals | 137.3m (221.1km) | 178.2m (286.3km) | 47:00 |
(an Old Man in Lycra) 