Cham ya bam; UTMB prep, taperitis and spending too much cash

Well here I am sitting in an internet cafe in Chamonix (or Cham) with some overcast skies and a nice 18C or so at 10:45am. Tapering is well in progress and luckily no signs of taperitis (when completely made up pains pop up to worry you). I am also on a beer taper which is helped hugely by the price here (4.5o - 6 euros a pint aaagh!).

Drew Sheffield and I made our 06:30 flight on Saturday despite having to haul ourselves out of bed at 3:30am and the ChamExpress connection from Geneva worked great. We stepped out of the van and I nearly fell over having never been here before. All around are the most unbelievable towering serrated, pointed peaks, sheer rock faces and tumbling glaciers. What a place to be, and what a massif to run around. Excitement set in straight away.

Other than an erratic hot water supply and the Dire Straits played outside at 08:00 on tannoys our flat is great and will only require 200m of walking from the finish, which, after the race will be very very appreciated.

We met up with Richie Cunningham, Andy Cole and his wife and took the free train to Vallorcine on Sunday. Andy and his wife took an easy walk whilst the rest of us took a slow jog / hike up to Col de Montet (puffing due to altitude for sure) then on to Tete aux Tet and Flegere before taking the Kinlochleven on acid descent to La Floria and back to Cham. This is the last 18km + 1000m or s of ascent of the race which we wanted to recce and just enjoy for it affords the most magnificent views of the Mont Blanc massif in all its jagged and glaciated glory. I took a fall on the technical, rooty and rocky trail just before La Floria but other than a skint hand and knee no damage was done (phewft).

Monday was spent at > 2500m with Drew and Richie as we took the cable car up Brevent, the mountain facing Mont Blanc. The first section was in little pod cars to seat 4 or so with a 30' or so drop beneath. The second section was in a 60 person car with a 500' drop beneath as it travelled up the sheer cliffs that lie beneath the summit. I held a pole in the car and looked at the floor, not being the best with heights. Gibber gibber. We basically sat down and let our bodies get used to altitude but also made the time to hike down 500m or so to Lac Brevent to swim in our undies after a few shrieks getting in. We then hiked back up in the glorious sun which shone upon us both Sunday and Monday. I wasn't puffed on the hike back up at all so reckon I should be fine during the race.

Yesterday was a lazier day with a short 4.5 mile walk to Les Houches with Richie along the 'Milngavie to Drymen' section of the UTMB, and last night we cheered on the Petit Trot de Leon (PTL) runners as they left the town at 22:00 fr a 114 hou max. 260km adventure in teams of 3. The music was going, and the race has definitely began to feel imminent. Bring it on! George Reid also arrived in so our flat is now complete.

Today is registration day, tomorrow a lazing around day and Friday the last minute prep day as we will kick off at 18:30 local time. Time to relax, gather strength and prepare. I'm feeling good and focussing on staying that way, particularly psychologically.

My race number is 3570 and this is my planned maximum schedule (40 hours) if anyone wants to follow me on the UTMB website mobile phone text update service. The weather is forecast to be 23C on Saturday, much better than 29C so touch wood it looks good.

Here we go! Waaahooo!

A debate about competitiveness and ultra running

I'm glad to see that John Kynaston has taken my comment on his blog in the spirit with which it was meant, and that some interesting debate has taken place since then. John had posted some reflections on his blog about feeling negative during races when he became aware he was behind particular people. I commented this in response:

To be honest, I think you are too competitive John. Although you are chasing times I think you partly measure yourself in terms of whether you beat other folk or not. This is evidenced by the negative thoughts you have when you find out where you are in relation to others.

Run the race to enjoy yourself. If the only way you can truly enjoy or motivate yourself is by knowing that you have beaten other folk I'd take some time to reflect on why you are ultra running in the first place. I mean this with all due respect and with constructive intent.

To my mind there should be joy simply in the process and what you as an individual (without reference to others) achieve at the end.

A variety of responses (here and here) debating the merits of competition in training and racing have appeared in the following posts from John creating quite a good debate. I've nothing extra to add to the debate just now except my last comment, which provides a summary of my views on competition:

Thanks for taking my comment in the spirit with which it was intended. I prefer open honesty as a basic strategy in life.

I think you are making the right decision to back off from organising group runs. You have very specific goals and are training for them. I think this kind of training is best done on one's own, or with someone with very similar goals. Not in a wider social grouping, where the banter and company should be more important than the time.

As for competition I agree with various commenters that it is omnipresent and useful. I fully appreciate and indeed indulge in the use of competition during a race between the person in front of or chasing me. It is an excellent way to motivate one to perform during a race. However beyond a race I do not seek to define myself in terms of beating or being better than others. I feel this side of competition is negative and potentially quite corrupting.

I'm not casting aspersions here (honest guv, I'd say if I was), just articulating my views on competition, which I recognise as something of double edged sword. All the best with your training.

I'd welcome any views on my views if they are more appropriate to post here rather than John's blog where the main debate lies.

Back to blogging about preparation for the UTMB next ...