Born to Run

Yesterday was a "running" day, while the body was still very much in recovery mode from the tough Vercors cycle race a couple of days before.  Last week I'd managed over 30 minutes running with a forefoot strike and there was no traumatic effect on the calves. I'd put that mostly down to improved technique on how to control and modulate the landing of the foot. This time I stepped up the run to over 40 minutes and felt perfectly fine throughout the run which was over a combination of trail and tarmac. Immediately on stopping though I could feel my calves - so this is obviously my current limit. There is definite progress though and the DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) today are not as bad as I could previously experience from even a 15 minute run like this. The damage done over a lifetime of running and walking with heels and soft shoes is pretty clearly going to take a while to correct in my case.

This was also a day for testing out new technology - the photo of my leathery looking neighbour below was taken on a new smartphone though a protective polythene waterproof bag. Amazingly the touch screen also works though the toughened polythene and the GPS signal is clear.

I really like snails in garlic/persil sauce but apparently they are protected so you can't just scoop them up. They also have to be boiled alive and they really stink - a process which definitively puts me off. If I was starving though then my nomadic neighbour would be in the pot - mobile home and all.

The telephone tracked me accurately with the GPS and dumped the workout over to the internet automatically. I can see that this little device will soon take over as my main piece of training equipment. It even gives audio feedback and coaching with split times on set distances. Taking photographs/HD video or listening to music or incoming telephone calls doesn't interrupt the training. The device even has a built in ANT+ chip that picks up low power digital transmission from sensors - so I collected heart rate from the chest strap and cadence from the foot pod (accelerometer). Google maps are used for tracking in real time and even 3D satellite views can be used. Everything was visible straight away on the internet at home after the workout - including altitude data. Only thing so far I couldn't find was the cadence data. This is all so new though (and free) that I'm sure the programs will evolve rapidly. The telephone can do all of this and it still isn't even active on the telephone network - my new subscription starts in 3 days time. I'm just using wifi at home to set things up - that's all. 3G internet will really bring this thing to life in a few days time.

Just about finished "Born to Run". It's the most entertaining and informative book I've read in a very long time. This is destined to become a real classic. No one interested in endurance sport should fail to read this.

Persistence in training is finally starting to bring its rewards - my body weight just over a week ago was over 73kg and today had dropped to 71.4kg for the first time this year. Early May saw the depressing figure of 74.7kg on the scales - at least 10kg (22lb) over my ideal fighting weight. It's taken a big effort to reverse this upward trend. Interestingly, in the Born to Run book the author is dealing with the same issue and is assured by his coach that increased running distance will take care of his eating habits automatically. This is pretty much what I'm finding. When you do more serious endurance work then your desire to eat completely changes. I don't know why this is so, but you just don't feel the need to fill your face all the time any more. Should note also at this point that my resting heart rate is 40bpm - that should drop considerably as training steps up in the summer.

Woke up this morning (June 1st) to the extraordinary sight of snow dumping down and collecting everywhere on the ground. Yesterday the thermometer was over 30°C outside and this morning it's 3°C. Luckily this didn't happen on Sunday because I don't think I'd have survived racing over the mountains for 100 miles in those sort of conditions

View from home (Aime 700m altitude) this morning around 10:30am ...