After arriving back in the UK a week ago i've felt pretty strange while running, that i'll go into further into the blog but first i'll tell you about the trip itself. 

We started out driving there as i've previously mentioned and arrived late on the Sunday evening (18th) and went straight to bed. The first few days were very much about taking things easy and acclimatising so we would go out as a group and just run easy, enjoy the scenery and get used to the feeling of running with reduced oxygen.

For those who don't understand the altitude effect, as you go higher up the partial pressure in the atmosphere is lower- eg. the reason a bottle will expand when you go in an aeroplane, the force pressing on the outside of the bottle is no longer as strong and the air particles inside the bottle are moving further away from each other. This is the same logic when breathing at altitude, the air pressure isn't as strong so the air isn't forced into the lungs like at sea level and the air that you do manage to get in is slightly less dense with the particles having a greater distance between them. I hope that makes sense!

A shot at the foot of the hill before heading up to the ski slopes.

After spending 4 days easy running on the 5th we a light session, well, tempo efforts. All John said to me was 'enjoy bringing your heart rate up and down, it shouldn't be difficult.' We all did the same and within a 50 minute run we did 5x2minutes with 2 minutes jogging between. All I did was stride out and bring my heart rate up to 165-170 and then hold it there for the remainder of the effort. It felt very much in control and it was good to turn my legs.

The lake where we did our tempo running as it is at around 5000ft

The next few days were a combination of easy and steady runs before out first main session on the Saturday. I did a 20 minute tempo followed by some hills, 3 sets of 3minutes, 1minute, 1minute, 1minute continuously uphill. This was the first real test at altitude and it was very hard! I found that once I got beyond 90 seconds of running my breathing rate went through the roof and I felt like I was having an asthma attack! Thankfully it didn't get any worse, it was just a case of staying in control and I got through it. I knew from the previous year how tough hill sessions are and how not to attack them too much, more just relax and ease into them.

Halfway up the hill, all of us lads who took on the ongoing hill session.

My lovely VW which got us the monster 2500 miles during the month that we were away!

Next up was our Tuesday track session, A large group of us did that, it was 5 sets of 1km followed by a 400m. The K rep was meant to be slower than 5k pace and the 400 at 3000m pace but everyone seemed to be going well and hitting under the times. Doing the session was myself, Mellor, Bowser, Moralee, Challinor, Clowes, Townsend, Thewlis & Raeside and we all seemed to work pretty well together. I found my first track session quite tough on the lungs although it was good to get in a group and not have to worry about taking each rep out. 

Probably one of the first reps if i'm smiling like this!

Next up session session wise we did another hill session. It was 20minutes of tempo running followed by 15x45second hills just outside the track. I found the tempo slightly tougher when doing it at 6000ft round the track rather than at the lake which is 5000. Obviously with it being higher it's going to be slightly harder but i'd say their is a significant difference really and it's pretty noticeable in heart rates. It was still good to run round the grass circuit at the track- we did it on a 4minute loop which undulated a little but still flat enough to keep a good speed. The hills I found very hard, especially the first 5 or 6. I think I was still recovering from the tempo, my legs just seemed quite heavy and took a while to get turning. In the end I found my feet and began to really push on in the final 10 hill reps. Myself, Lewis and Bruce and Jonny Thewlis did the hills and all worked well together again sharing the work. It was great when I was feeling tired and I had to take the rep as I felt under pressure to really take it out hard for the others so I found that brought to best out of me.

Next up came the snow...

This was actually taken on the track!

When the snow came down on the Monday we weren't going to let it stop us, we were all determined to keep on training! Normally running in snow wouldn't bother me, I actually really enjoy it and I'd say my best race of the winter came in the snow at Edinburgh however this is way too deep. The photo above was taken only a few hours after it started snowing and it got a lot worse. The hotel seemed to call that a light snowfall yet the next day they called it 'winter like' conditions! We opted for the underground car park the following day.

I ended up doing my track session on the Tuesday evening as the staff were very efficient in clearing the track, lanes 3 and 4 at that, but I didn't care as I had good ground to run fast on. I drove up the the track with my girlfriend, Lucy- she came out during the trip to get some training done, and got warmed up and just got on with the 10x2mins off 90. It was very very hard on my own in the that cold air, my car temp said it was -4.5!

After the ground staff had cleared lanes 3 & 4 on the track.

The session itself was very tough but I was going ok. I had my Garmin keeping me right on how far I was running so going round in lane 3 on the back straight and lane 4 on the home straight didn't bother me too much. I was just happy to get it done and dusted so I could get my extra days recovery before the weekend session.

The final main session was a track again for me. I would have done it with the rest of the group but George decided last minute to get everyone doing the track session on the Wednesday. Again I headed up on my own on the Saturday and got warmed up before I went on and did 2k, 2x1k, 700, 200, 600, 200, 400 off varied recoveries. I had some bother with school kids on the track during the 2k, they seemed to like walking and jogging on the inside- something that drives me mad when i'm trying to train. The reply I got from the teacher was 'we pay for this' ... well so have I and I was always taught to move out if someone is coming by who is moving quicker than yourself. They learned the hard way after a Portuguese 800m runner clattered into one of the kids. I think he still ran a 25 for his 200, it was great viewing!

I'd say the hardest part of the session for me was the 1k reps off 60seconds recovery. It was very tight, if not too tight at altitude but John wanted to test me and he certainly did! I got round just outside 5k pace, which was a little disappointing but I had to remember I was doing them with mileage in my legs and at altitude.

The highlight of my session had to be Paule Radcliffe watching as I trained, it's so inspiring having someone of her standard looking up as you run by every time. She probably wasn't taking note or anything, more just looking thinking that's the guy who should learn to knock after I walked into the physio room the day before without realising she was getting treatment! Quite embarrassing at the time!

We wrapped up the trip with some steady mixed paced runs and plenty of easy running before the long drive home. We stopped off just north of Paris, before that I had to navigate central Paris 

Driving up towards the Arc De Triomphe as the realisation hits home I'm about the drive round the worlds worst roundabout!

We arrived back home around tea time last Thursday and i've took things very easy since I got back mixed with a few sessions, first up 6x800, 6x200 off long recoveries just to acclimatise back, that was last Saturday and then on Tuesday I did 5x400, 5x200, 5x400. I feel like i've adapted well back at sea level, unlike last year where things went very bad for me! I won't know until I race tomorrow but i'm hoping to get a good performance in the Loughborough International.

Finally I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone at UKA and London Marathon who made the trip possible. As an athlete I think we need a lot more opportunities like the Font Romeu trip if we as a national are going to make in roads into the endurance world, but Ian Stewart doesn't need to hear this from me, he already knows it. I'm so happy to see a plan set out and in action already, so hats off all the endurance guys at UKA, they're starting to make it happen.

I was going to say a quick well done to Chris Thompson on here but he doesn't deserve a quick mention, he deserves a hell of a lot more. He will a get a full blog devoted to him very soon!

I'll update after the 3k race and let everyone how it went from my perspective. I hope you've enjoyed readying and feel free to comment.

Ryan