Cool runnings

Don't read this unless you are a fitness freak - its boring!

As skiing is not that cardiovascular 'fittening' (is that a word?), a days moderate skiing burns less calories than a good hike/walk for 5 hours. Nathan and I calculated that over the 2 weeks we have skied or boarded over 700kms (about the same distance as here to Calais) and that doesn't include sitting on the lift, which is why you don't burn too many calories skiing as you spend more than half your day on sat down.

These snowsports do however make your legs very strong but don't make you fitter, so in order to ensure that we don't loose fitness over the 2 weeks (Nathan has lots of cycle races to do this year and I have to start cycling to Iceland in less than a month) we have decided to fit in as many runs as we can. We had 3 in Montgenevre and have completed 3 more in Cervinia, the key difference being that these last runs started at 2050m and went upto 2600m – this is very different to the ones we did last week. My heart rate was way higher than when running at home, over 170 bpm which is nearing my maximum (185bpm) – my average on the 35 minute circuit was 172bpm, this is ridiculous and puts me in an anaerobic state and not at a fat burning endurance building pace that I need (so instead of burning fat to fuel my muscles, I am using the energy stored in my muscles, once used it is replaced with lactic acid (which you can feel as sore muscles) and not very good for skiing the next day when you need strong legs.)

Now back in Switzerland and staying at 1000m I have just been out for a 2hr run (approx 14 miles) and have felt fine and strong the whole distance (can't help but think the runs at higher altitudes have helped but without proper laboratory conditions we wont know!) the valley I ran up wasn't steep but was uphill for the first 7 miles and then downhill on the way back. The way back was run in a complete blizzard and I looked like a snowman on my return.

Anyway enough running now until I am down in the south of Italy. 4 weeks of skiing and boarding and running, I think my legs need a week or so off to recover.