Posted By: sandybryant on
Oooh. I'm being bad about training this week.
I should have walked on Monday but bagged it. Now it's 90 outside and humid. I guess I'll wait 'til tomorrow night, when at least the temps will be cooling.
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Posted By: mellers on
Yesterday, having completed my 30 minutes running in the morning, (after the abortive attempt of 4 days previously) we were feeling energised and raring to go. We planned a 17-mile round-trip ride to the incredibly pretty hilltop village of Venasque. http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2028607
Self-styled as “one of the most beautiful villages in France”, with its narrow cobbled streets, pretty houses, ancient church and stunning views over the valley from its ramparted situation, it was like stepping back in time. And of course, being at the top of a VERY steep climb, again something of an achievement to reach by bike in the first place!
The ride to Venasque was pleasant enough and in the cool of the early morning, not at all strenuous. Not the same could be said for the final climb in to the town however. 1.5k of about 1 in 10 again, took all our remaining strength and stamina to manage. We celebrated with a slap-up 4 course lunch at the Restaurant des Remparts http://www.hotellesremparts.com/. It had the most beautiful balcony and “terrasse” overlooking the stunning surrounding countryside and watching the swallows swooping over the vineyards and cheery orchards was quite lovely.
The ride home wasn’t quite so easy. At 2 p.m. and after half a litre of rose, I was considerably worse for wear! Thank heavens for the pretty village of Malemort on the way home and its fountain and shaded, communal water troughs! In days gone by these would have been used for the local townswomen to wash clothes and for travellers to tie up and water their horses. Yesterday it was used for me to have a paddle in to try to cool down!
Finally got home after a long and hot ride, and got straight in to the pool and downed about a litre of chilled water! Just in time for a wine tasting session organised by the campsite owners and a lovely relaxing evening.
Tags:
cycling, venasque, malemort, heat
Posted By: mellers on
This was scheduled for Sunday 22nd June – our first day in Provence and 2 days since my previous run. I had mapped a handy route covering the last 3 miles of our 900-mile road journey from the outskirts of Carpentras to the campsite itself: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1970679 , thinking I would be itching to get some exercise after 2 days of driving and sitting.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t bargained for the hills and the HEAT!
We arrived at my starting point at approximately 4 p.m. French time and partner dropped me off and drove on to the campsite. The temp was pushing 40°C but I spotted a sprinkler watering a horticultural roundabout display & stopped and soaked myself to cool down! If there had been a bit of shade – and a flat road I might have made it, but unfortunately, while g-mpas is a fantastic tool to plan routes in flat terrain, unless you know the areas really well, hills don’t show up from an aerial photo!
I had driven down this road a few times before but of course you don’t really notice gradients when you are driving. You DO however feel them when you are running in blistering heat and sunshine!
The first 1k was pretty much all uphill with a fairly steep gradient (I’m guessing 5%-8%) and after 10 mins of running I was getting pretty hot. After 15 mins of it, I was thinking I’m not going to make 30 mins and after 16 mins I had almost lost the will to live!
I stopped running then and returned to a brisk walk – still in blazing sun (I couldn’t cross to the shady side of the road as there were no pavements and needed to make sure I could see the oncoming traffic in front of me. Walking on the right with traffic approaching from behind would have been far too dangerous – French drivers take no prisoners!
I hoped 4 mins walk would give me back the muscle power I needed to carry on, but sadly I could only manage a further 2 mins running before thinking I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion. At that point my brain went to a VERY black place indeed and I got really quite scared. I felt like I wasn’t even going to be able to walk the rest of the way (only about 1.5k) let alone run it. I had visions of myself passing out in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country with no way of contacting partner to tell him what had happened! The heat was so intense that I couldn’t even think straight and had already cancelled my planned cycle ride up Mont Ventoux on the Tuesday and any thoughts of any more running while on holiday.
I managed 4 more minutes of running over the next 1.5k to the campsite and the site of my lovely camper van nestling next to the beautiful vineyard next door and the swimming pool behind it was never so welcome. I was shaken, scared and my self-belief in my own fitness had taken a severe psychological battering. The pool and cooling down was all I could think of.
A couple of days later I was thinking more rationally and restored some of my own self-belief by cycling up Mt Ventoux – a notoriously difficult pro-cycling climb, which even killed poor Tom Simpson in the 60’s.
Resolving only ever to do ANY running or cycling in the cool of the morning, I set my alarm for 6:30 this morning (26th June), chose a different and slightly flatter route and even though I was still a bit achy from having climbed the mountain 2 days ago, completed the 30 mins running without the horror story of 4 days ago! No sweat! Well, LOTS of sweat actually - but my faith in myself is slightly restored and now I face the next challenge of 40-45 mins in 2 days time. I’m not particularly looking forward to it though, as I still feel a bit stiff!
Tags:
running, heat, 10k, training
Posted By: yoschmitty on
The question "When it's hot oustide, what's the best way to beat the heat?" is best answered by the fact that I live in an apartment by the beach, and not in a nice house inland. I'm not advocating everyone move to the beach! Please.. no! But since I'm jealous of all the people who get to enjoy a nice house inland, I just want to make sure all you.. for a few days of the year.. are jealous of my apartment by the beach. And if you're gonna stop by and visit, make sure you call ahead :)
The best way to beat the heat.
Tags:
heat