Mt Ventoux Cycling HEAT WAVE

The 40ths have begun... and my friend Cassie's gone and set the bar pretty high with a 5 day cycling trip to Mt Ventoux in the Provence region of Southern France. Epic planning by Cassie, from picking a beautiful maison d'hôtes with  a swimming pool, hot tub and massive garden (www.la-sidoine.fr) to booking cocktails at the same hotel where some Hollywood couple (who admittedly I'd never heard of but it sounds very cool...) got married the week before and an incredible birthday dinner at Les Remparts in Venasque.

What she hadn't planned so well was the little matter of France's biggest heatwave in years. In the days leading up to the trip we were all very excited that it looked like it would be a) dry and b) a steady 25 degrees (still hot for cyling, but manageable)... but the temperature kept rising into the late 30s. So to miss the most intense heat we were up at 5am most mornings and in bed between 9 and 10pm - oh how our 30th birthday selves would have laughed/scoffed (-:

Mt Ventoux is the largest mountain in the region and is often referred to as the 'Giant of Provence'  or 'The Bald Mountain.' We could see it towering above the surrounding lavender fields and cherry orchards from the garden of the maison d'hôtes.

There are three different routes up the mountain:

Via Sault - (Average gradient: 4.5% - Maximum gradient: 11.0% - Distance 25.7km - Height gain 1152m)

Via Bedoin - (Average gradient: 7.1% - Maximum gradient : 11.0% - Distance 22.7km - Height gain 1622m)

Via Malaucene - (Average gradient: 7.2% - Maximum gradient : 10.9% - Distance 21.2km - Height gain 1535m)

Apparently Bedoin is the most famous and hardest (and the route used for the TdF) so of course we did that one three times (rolling eye emoji), once via Malaucene (my favourite for scenery) and only descended via Sault. Average gradient of 4.55 - pah, barely a hill! Till next time, windy mountain...

Seven girls = seven bike boxes

Mt Ventoux in the background

Early morning starts via Bedoin...

Rising above the tree line

Nearly there...

First time at the summit

Rest & Recovery

Birthday girl descending via Sault

Lavender fields after the Sault descent

Ordering pizza for seven in French for "no anchovies/extra anchovie/switch the olives for peppers" is not easy

Birthday balloons at 5am

Malaucene ascent

Bedoin village market

Birthday dinnner at Les Remparts - not a scrap of lycra in sight!

Microadventure #12 - ADVENT(ure) Running Challenge

Keeping with the running theme from November's treadmill challenge, this month I decided to do an advent running challenge with a bit of a gambling twist. So every weekday I rolled a dice and ran the number of km that I rolled, and at the weekend I rolled two dice. 

Knowing that the maximum I could roll during the week was a six, I decided to do my weekday runs at lunchtime. Fewer daylight hours in December meant it was a great way to get some fresh air in the middle of the day (even if it did mean dodging tourists along the busy Southbank). Then at the weekend I explored routes closer to home, sometimes with friends (who were only too willing roll the dice and gamble on my behalf!)

When the 1st and 2nd December fell on a weekend and I rolled a NINE on BOTH days, I started to wonder whether this whole running thing was a good idea. While I've been running (inconsistently) once or twice a week for the last few months, I haven't run every day for years so I knew I needed to be careful about injuries. To ease in, I decided to walk a km at the beginning and end of each run at first, and up my yoga and foam rolling (aka self-myofascial release/massage/torture) to help muscle recovery.  

24 days and 117 km later I'm still standing! And while I'm looking forward to getting back on my bike over Christmas and the New Year to start my Pyrenees training, I'm keen to keep up the lunchtime running when I start my new job in January, just leaving the dice behind (-:

https://www.strava.com/athletes/11606927

Albert Bridge by Battersea Park

Battersea Park

Along the Thames between Albert and Chelsea Bridge (Battersea Power Station on right)

Waterloo Bridge

Tower Bridge

Millennium Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral

Dodging puddles from Kew Bridge to Richmond

Riverside run along Wandsworth Park from Fulham to Putney with Kat

London Bridge and the Shard

Tooting Bec Common

Bedgebury Forest, in Kent

Cranbrook, Kent

Microadventure #11 - Pakistan Hotel Gym Challenge

What kind of microadventure can you do when you can't leave your hotel compound unaccompanied?

I’m just about to head home after a week of delivering training for one of our clients in Pakistan. With long days and limited opportunities to get outside due to security concerns following recent protests, it really challenged me to think about what I could (and couldn’t) do.

The last couple of months have thrown me some curveballs, but one of the topics I’ve been training people on this week is Resilience, including how to use activity and exercise as a way to look after yourself when times gets tough. Without a bike or the opportunity to safely run outside, the only option I’ve had is to hit the hotel gym. Hardly the most exciting form of exercise, but by turning a potentially mundane part of my daily routine into something that included two of the main ingredients of microadventure (curiosity and personal challenge), I accepted that the third (exploring outside) wasn’t going to be possible this time.

Over the years I’ve had a bit of a love-hate relationship with running. I’m never going to break any records and have never been that bothered about my time or speed, but recently I’ve started going to www.parkrun.org.uk (a weekly community-led 5km running event) and for the first time found myself wanting to improve my time.

A couple of months ago I set myself the goal to run 5km in 25 minutes by the end of 2018. When you’re surrounded by mega-speedy friends, regularly running sub 20 min for the same distance, it’s easy to go down that slippery slope of comparing yourself and beating yourself up. But as the saying goes, “comparison is the thief of joy”, so I set myself a realistic target for me and my indoor microadventure for this month just fast-tracked my end of year goal to the end of this week.

It didn’t start well...

Firstly, the hotel gym in Lahore was mixed gender so I had to wear long and baggy clothes which I found distracting and hot because the air conditioning wasn’t working. But in Karachi, the hotel’s women-only gym meant I could relax and wear my usual gym kit.

Secondly, the tricky thing about treadmills is the belt takes a while to get going, so precious seconds are ‘wasted’ during the first minute when you’re cranking up the speed. This took a bit of getting used to as I needed to compensate for the slow first minute or so with a faster than average pace over the remaining time.

But after a few attempts during the week, last night I did it – 25 minutes on the nose.

www.strava.com/activities/1969692931

Next year, sub 24 OUTSIDE.

Looking out at Lahore...

Looking out at Karachi...

Microadventure #10 - 24 hour Bagan Bike n Balloon

Meeting up with three other adventure-loving friends from around the world (London, Singapore and Zurich) in Myanmar, there were lots of opportunities to choose from for my microadventure this month. In many ways, the whole week was a string of mini adventures, all threaded together into one big adventure, but our 24 hour combo of mountain biking and hot air ballooning was the absolute highlight for me.

The plains of the ancient city of Bagan's archaeological zone lie next to the Irrawaddy river in the Mandalay region of the country, and are made up of over 2000 impressive temples, pagodas and monasteries. Covering a vast area of 40-sq-km, the best way to take it all in is from the perspective, peace and quiet of a hot air balloon. But just standing in a hot air balloon would be wayyyy too easy, so we decided to cycle the 60km from Mount Popa to Bagan first...

In front of Mount Popa with Helen, Anna, Sarah and our awesome guide Toe Toe 

Matching Trek Mountain Bikes

All more used to road cycling than mountain biking, we decided to give fat tyres and front suspension a whirl. Getting used to the additional weight and tyres wasn't easy. When riding through loose sand, it takes a while to learn to trust the tyres and lean into any slips and slides, but it all added to the fun (-:

We started on paved roads, making our way down from the Mount Popa Resort to Mount Popa Rock Temple, where a certain Aung San Suu Kyi was also visiting... so that was an interesting start to the day! Joined by our super friendly guide Toe Toe, we were well looked after with regular water refills and dragon fruit, sesame brittle and peanut brittle stops. It's actually debatable as to whether we actually burned off more than we consumed.

At the half way point we stopped for lunch at a palm wine distillery for yet more food (and drink...) before hitting the off-road tracks and sandy paths for the remaining 30km to Bagan.

Arriving in Bagan in time for sunset beers, we got a sense of the expanse of the plains, but it wasn't until the next morning at sunrise that we could really appreciate the dizzying array of golden stupas and ancient temples. The whole thing lasted just under 2 hours but time seemed to stand still and fly by simultaneously. 

A completely magical microadventure that we'll never forget...

Filling the balloon with hot air

Up up and awayyyyyy

Sunrise with Mount Popa (where we'd cycled from) in the distance

Long morning shadows over the Bagan and the Irrawaddy river

Letting the cool air in to prepare for the descent

Excellent landing in a fallow field, with help from the ground crew