Since moving to France, and despite now living in a trail running Mecca, I’ve completely neglected to get out recently. So after working three 18 hour days in a row, and the weather being beautiful, warm and sunny all week I forced myself to get out for a lunchtime run.
It had been a few weeks since I last ran the trails at the end of the valley, and back then the weather was below freezing, and we’d had a lot of snow so the cross-country ski trails were hard packed and made for good, consistent running. However, we’ve had 3 weeks of sunny days, and temperatures up into the 20s, so the snow has been melting fast.
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| XC Ski Trail through the forest |
After a slushy start at start of the ski trails, once I got off the main road I found that the shade from the trees had protected a lot of the snow. A bit icy in places but generally good to run on.
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| Warm and Sunny |
After getting to the end of my normal trail at the Cascade de Mougious, I felt a bit ambitious and climbed up the start of the trail up the Grand Ferrand. I was on the wrong side of the river, but a partial snow bridge was still intact so I was able to jump across and head up the trail. South-facing, it was mostly clear of snow apart from patches on the left, but on the right, lizards were basking in the afternoon sun.
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| Heading up the Grand Ferrand |
A couple of hundred metres of vertical height gain, on rocky, technical terrain was about all I could manage. Especially since my heart rate monitor was telling me I was hitting 95%. Probably time to turn around and call it a day.
