Running in France III - Nice Doggy . . .
Last Thursday morning was my wife’s parents’ French lesson, which we tagged along to. The teacher, Caroline, lives in Abeilhan, which is conveniently just under 8km from Gabian. So I went with my running shoes on, my shorts under my trousers, and a breathable / wicking top in the back of the car.
The weather was grey and overcast, with the beginnings of some rain in the air. So as well as important and useful stuff, like the health-care system, we talked about the weather in the lesson. Apparantly the French phrase of very light rain translates as “raining like cat’s pee”. The logic is that it’s wet enough to see, but not wet enough to actually water the plants. Lovely. And the English phrase “raining cats and dogs” (i.e. really tipping down) has a translation that’s literally “raining stair rods”.
Anyway . . . after the lesson, I got changed and headed off - into the wind and some light “cat’s pee”, heading off towards Pouzolles, and then up to Gabian. (I’ve found that Google Maps just gets better and better - you can see the route I took on this map - 7.9km). I’d never approached Pouzolles on foot from this direction (from which you can see the Chateau), and every house I passed seemed to have a dog in the garden.
The French have only two kinds of dog. Either small, yappy rat-like things, or hounds from the depths of hell itself, specially trained to recognise and attack the English. You can just guess which category these fell into . . . huge mouths, full of fangs and slaver, red eyes, and the ‘I’m going to jump right over this six foot high fence and chew your skinny white legs off‘ stare.
Just as I was about half way along Avenue Paul Doumer (way-point 11 on the map), I ran past a parked car . . . which had one of the hell hounds lurking the other side of it. The dog was quite surprised, and did what any good dog would do under the circumstances. I stopped dead, waited to see what would happen . . . . would my tactics devised for sangliers work? Would they provoke an attack . . . would I ever live down getting my knees chewed off while on holiday? It was a tense half a second (which felt like half an hour) before it became apparent to the dog that there wasn’t enough meat on me to make a decent meal, and it ambled off, leaving me to carry on, trying not to get lost through the rest of Pouzolles . . . .
These maps are great aren’t they! I have it downloaded onto my blackberry and it helped me out when i lost at Christmas. Anbd if you look at this map you can see where i am going tomorrow.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Geneva,+Switzerland&daddr=courmayeur,+italy&f=l&hl=en&sll=46.209999,6.139999&sspn=0.155143,0.4319&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=10&om=1
Oh -and it had a fresh dump of snow at the weekend - wooo wooo wooo skiing.
Sports related question. Do you find that trying different activities to your usual sport (e.g. pilates) helps or hinders your training because you are using different muscles to normal? Or is it better becuase it gives you a more all round workout?
I just love the thought of raining in “cat’s pee”!
To answer the question in the comment above, I tend to enjoy different activities for several reasons: a) like you said, you get a more well-rounded workout and I feel like I’m in much better shape because of that b) you don’t get as bored doing multiple activites. I wouldn’t suggest a high powered pilates class the day before a race, but in the normal course of training I think the more you do, the better fitness level you have.
Skiing!? And I wasn’t invited :-(( Make sure you wear the correct clothing for your technique Von SmallHaussen . . . helmet, full body armour, and a pillow down the back of your trousers should do it.
Answering your sensible sports realated question - I find it helps. Doing the same sort of exercise makes me tired and bored. The variety also gives time for muscles to recover.
This only becomes tricky on race day, or in the final 6-8 weeks of training before the race season, where I do ‘brick’ sessions - combined swim and bike, or bike and run. The sudden change in which muscle sets are being used is quite a shock to the system and takes some getting used to.
More on this later, when I regale all and sundry with the hillarious tale of my bike and run accident from a couple of years ago.
Karl - you were invited but then i had to retract the invite becuase its only work people going. We do have spare beds now though so if you change your mind!!!! Will definitely have the pillow stuffed down my trews. No concussion this year followed by delirious laughter i promise.
Thanks for the useful tips guys. Am trying to build up my upper body strength and abs, so have a new gym programme (yes i finally found my way to the gym for more than a trip to the steam room,jacuzzi and a manicure) . In addition am trying advance pilates (ow - it felt really easy but hurt yesterday) and stability ball to improve my inner core.