Font Romeu - 9 Weeks Out
It took a couple of days to reach Font. We found two great park ups along the way; one outside a church in a tiny village that seemed to be almost entirely deserted. The kind of quiet we experienced is like nothing you will ever find in the UK, and we slept like rocks. Lemmy spent half the night next to Holly and then came to spoon with me for the second half, which I’m slowly getting used to. It was a slightly chilly night and he made a perfect little furry hot water bottle. At home, I can lie in as late as 5:30 before rising. In the van, I sleep until 7 (sometimes later).
The next park up was in Rocamadour, a tiny village nestled on the side of a hill. After finding a restaurant for a humungous portion of omelette and chips, we took a steep, slow climb back up to our home on wheels for an early night, our back doors opening out across the treetops of a forest. I took a shower outside (our shower head attaches to the back door and, under normal circumstances, we would put up a shower curtain, but since there was no-one around it felt good to let it ‘all hang out’ on a warm evening in rural France). Rather than settling down to watch some kind of murder-related series on Netflix, we lounged on the bed, eating almond cookies and drinking tea, staring out over the forest canopy and up at the stars until the time came to turn in.
The calm before the storm I guess…
The next morning (Monday 19th August) we ran 9 miles of stunning trails around Roc, before making the final drive to Font Romeu.
I’ll be honest, Font ain’t Chamonix. The town itself is a bit of a ‘nothing’ place, but you don’t come here for the shopping or the terrible coffee, you come here to train, and the roads and trails, gym and track are booming.
We rented an airbnb a couple of minutes up from Font. This would be my recommendation for anyone coming here for altitude training. It’s slightly higher than Font and a much better place to be. For starters, the Boulangerie is next level. Where we’re situated amongst the pines, the drive to the track is less than 5 minutes. The gym is a minute further down the road. The lake is a 15 minute drive and this is where everyone performs their longer runs, threshold, reps - you can do it all.
On our first day we ran an easy 10 miles around the lake. This consisted of trail, smooth tarmac through the woods and the barrage; a 1km long bridge which is perfectly flat but also quite exposed. The altitude makes everything a little harder for the first week or so. A 5:30 kilometre pace had my heart rate at 130bpm - nearly 10bpm higher than it normally would be. The temperature was between 18-20 degrees celsius. The great thing about altitude is that, although the days can be quite warm, the temperature drops rapidly in the evening. It’s been as low as 11 degrees when we’ve woken up and it takes 3-4 hours to start hitting any kind of noticeable heat.
After lunch we found the gym. I absolutely loved it. It was sprawling and full of good equipment, but it wasn’t a commercial gym, just one where the owner - an ex olympian - had clearly thought hard about which pieces of kit to furnish the place with. I haven’t had an upper body session like that for years. Every machine felt like it targeted the working muscles perfectly.
I have also been eating like a maniac. Toasted baguettes for breakfast, pre-run, with Myrtle jam, honey and peanut butter. Post-training coffee and some form of French pastry is a daily staple. So far, my favourite has been a Swiss something or other, with custard and chocolate chips. Home for a recovery shake followed by lunch which is always a baguette with ham, cheese and tomato, followed by protein powder with yoghurt and granola. Mid afternoon muesli with more protein and an apple before pre-dinner 0% beers with peanuts and crisps. Dinner is usually a big bowl full of pasta or couscous with vegetables and some form of protein. The day is then finished with a slice of homemade fruitcake gifted to us by my mum. We weighed the beast before leaving and it came in at just over 3.3kg, which begs the question, which can I push higher over the next month, my haematocrit or my cholesterol?
The following day was a double. 7 miles around trails from our front door followed by a 3 miler in the afternoon. Stupidly I went out at 3pm in 27 degree heat and suffered my way around.
Everything is harder at altitude. There is a constant burden on the heart. The ability to sleep and recover is reduced in comparison to living and training at sea level. Adding in heat is another stressor. Recovery has to be taken extremely seriously, which is exactly what we’re doing. More food, relaxation, time in bed, and less work. I kinda like pretending to be an athlete!
After a call with Hollys coach, Alan, we were instructed to perform our first session on Thursday. After warming up for a couple of miles along the lake, we found a flat tarmac section in the forest and performed 4 x (3x2 mins at 170bpm off 1 min rec) off 3 mins recovery. We went out way too hard. I looked down at my watch to see 3:08 flash up at me - way too fast for a first faster run at altitude. I paid for it for during the remaining 2 reps and even in to the second set. The final 2 sets I found myself settling in. We hit 3:38 per rep, but adjusting for altitude, we came out at roughly 3:34 per rep. After this we cooled down for 2 miles and then jumped into the lake for swim.
After eating tofu, couscous and veg the prior night, we knew we had to reclaim our carnivore cards, so opted for a Tartiflette Burger and fries in Font. This thing was oozing with raclette cheese, ham and onions. It took me all of 5 minutes to eat but it left Holly feeling like she had a brick in her stomach and without room for desert - a crack in her veneer of toughness for sure. We also spotted a potentially decent coffee shop called ‘Fika’ which we’ll try out next week. If you’ve been, let us know.
Friday was another ‘easy’ double. Completed on trails at 1750m, it was hard to keep HR consistently in the 130’s. We went for our second gym session of the week later that afternoon and I finished with an easy 5k on the treadmill.
Saturday: A rest day for me and a climb for Holly since she’s desperate to climb and run trails. She reported back with pictures of some incredible park ups looking out over the mountains. We’re going to drive up and stay on Sunday night. Sleep high, train low… Tbh, if we like it we might just stay up there. Both of us prefer living in the van than an airbnb, which I think is how you can tell if you’re a real van-lifer - you’d rather stay in a Citroen Relay than a chalet in the woods that you’ve already paid for! The only reason we rented a place was for Lemmy, since we didn’t want to leave him in the van when it’s hot outside. We needn’t have worried. The max air fan in our van is incredible and over 2000m there’s little humidity and the temps aren’t that high.The mornings and nights can actually be quite chilly.
Sunday: Long Run Day.
2 hours around the lake with the final 30 minutes at marathon pulse.
We crawled out of bed at 7:20am. Back in 2018 I would have already completed a 40-50k trail run by this time in the morning and it just goes to show how my brain operates during a typical week; which is to say that, I am punctual to a fault. My first client, Jane, would come in for 6am on three days of the week back then. I would be out of bed at 3:30 at the very latest. I simply cannot fall out of bed and start work.
Why do I have to be so absurdly early for everything? I don’t know, but when we’re away in the van my brain can switch off, and I can sleep.
After a toasted baguette with apricot jam and 2 large coffees, we gathered our long run essentials and headed out of the door. I personally took a handheld water bottle and two Precision Hydration 90g Gels. I love these because you can sip away at them as you need and they taste SO MUCH BETTER than Maurten gels.
On parking up by the barrage at Lac de Matemale, Holly and I went our separate ways. It was a cooler morning and, whilst I still managed to pack in around 200m of elevation, it was nice to have 50% of the run on tarmac.
I really enjoyed this run. The fact is that Hollys easy pace is still a little too quick for me and running alone meant I could do what I always do - start really slowly! It takes a couple of miles for me to warm up, and if I go out too fast it sets the tone for my heart rate for the remainder of the run. It is crazy how much of an impact the altitude has on HR. I was averaging around 5:05 per k and my HR was 144-146. Back home it wouldn’t have climbed out of the 120’s. The faster 30 mins, when adjusting for altitude via the Vdot app, had me running at 4:13 per k at a HR between 155-160, although during the final k or so it climbed as high as 164 due to trying to run hard on quite technical trail.
I was happy with this. Some people feel like they’re losing fitness if their pace drops and HR increases, but this is just par for the course when training at elevation.
Week one complete. 64 miles in the bag and still in one piece. Win.