Six thousand one hundred feet, that's the height I'm currently training at. I have been fortunate enough to be asked to go along to the UK Athletics endurance camp in the Pyrenees Mountains. We are staying in a small town at 1850m (6170ft) called Font Romeu in France, not far from the Spanish border. This is my first time training at altitude so it's quite an experience for me and I'm going to try and share the experience on RunnersLife to give everyone an insight to what it's like to do this type of running as it's something completely new for me with lots to learn.

There aren't many of us here, the only athlete I flew out with was Lizzy Braithwaite from my group in Loughborough along with UKA staff. Nick, who I train with in Loughborough was already here as he'd been racing in Switzerland last week. He came with Helen Clitheroe and Becky Lyne around 4 days ago.

We arrived in Barcelona around 3pm, met up with Mo and a couple of his African training partners; Boniface and Moses, then made the long drive to Font Romeu once we'd picked up our hire cars. We arrived at our hotel at 6:30pm and I went straight for a run to loosen up my legs after the travelling.  I met with Mo and his 2 mates and we just went for an easy jog at 9min mile pace around the mountain area we are staying in. There is still snow on the ground in places along the trails so it was quite entertaining loosing a foot and falling over to a deep patch of snow. The only downside last night was that it was bitterly cold, 4 degrees when we arrived so I'd say it wasn't far off freezing when we were running as it was starting to snow again. It was quite a strange feeling running at first, I was breathing quite heavily when barely moving at all and my heart rate was 130-140bpm, I soon got warmed up and used to it and just plodded on with the lads.

I didn't actually realise the company I was actually in though, Mo is a phenomenal athlete as everyone knows so it's a pleasure to be able to train with him but also seeing how he lives around his training and his routine while training hard, but one thing that shocked me was his 2 training partners- Boniface and Moses, they are pretty special too. Today I found out Boniface has ran 12:57 for 5k and Moses 12:54 along with a 2^nd place in the recent world cross in Jordan. Not bad company to be in!

I have to say I can't wait to step on the track in a few days and join in part of the session Mo, Moses and Boniface are doing, I'd assume the idea is to run a percentage of what they are doing, whether it be 70% of their reps or reduce the distance down to 800's if they are doing 1200's so I get that extra recovery and can stay with them. I'll find out more in the coming days once John monitors my progress in runs and how my body is responding to the altitude as I have been told it can disastrous if you train too hard to begin with.

Today we went for a run at 8, it was a bit of a compromise as it would be far too cold at 6, but even at 8 it was 0 degrees and snowing pretty badly. We drove down to 5000ft where there is a large lake which is about 5.5mile around. I was told to stay under 140bpm heart rate no matter what the pace was so I ran most of the way with Becky while the other guys pushed on a little quicker. It was good to see Ian Stewart in his running kit too this morning joining us along with Spencer Barden and Nuttall who really does love his early mornings when he doesn't have a coffee!

I just ran nice and comfortable at 135bpm round the lake in about 40mins and didn't feel too bad apart from that rain (it was only snowing higher up) and wind. When we got back to the apartment typically the weather soon changed, the sun come out and the temperatures had risen.

This afternoon I had a little sleep then we went out and got some lunch but there isn't many places open at all as it's labour day I think someone said, but we found a café to get a sandwich and a drink. I'm not running again tonight but tomorrow I'll be doing a couple of steadier runs. I think I'll be easy/steady running for 3 or 4 days before I begin to pick up my runs and start proper sessions by around Monday.

So far it's been really good, the apartments are perfect, we have Internet access so we're not too far away from reality and the views are absolutely amazing. I don't know if anyone has a lead that I can use for my camera so I may not be able to add any pictures but I'll do my best.

That's all for now, I'll keep you guys updated on how things get on here.

Ryan