Flying training

I'd love to be able to write that Spring is here in the Alps, but it isn't.  Despite rearing its head two weeks ago, when we had some glorious weather, the temperature has plunged again and wind, rain and snow seem to be the order of the day at the moment.  Nevertheless, the X-Alps is a flying race above all else and I've written a lot on this blog over the winter about my physical training, so now it's time to update you on the flying side of things.

In recent years (non X-Alps years) I've been guilty of being rather slow to get back into flying after the winter hibernation.  The good XC days come early in the Alps, normally in April, and it doesn't do to be feeling rusty when setting off on a 10 hour epic XC in bubbling spring conditions.  So my approach since the beginning of March has been to fly whenever possible.  2 weeks ago I was in Chamonix for warm and glorious, but dissapointingly stable conditions.  Last weekend, despite a mediocre forecast I managed to fly on both days. Saturday was more for physical training than flying, I walked up our local hill, the Saleve, and flew back down before walking 2 hrs home.  Nothing but a top to bottom but the take off was tricky with the wind cycling between 0-10kph down the slope!  Sunday however saw the first glimpse of proper spring flying, as I spent an hour exploring good thermic conditions on the Saleve.  Very unstable air meant the plain in front was flyable, but Geneva TMA rather limited me on that front, I also thought about making the transition to Annecy but in the end I chose to stay in the local area and just enjoy the happy sensation of banking over hard in 2.5m/s thermals.  It feels nice after the long winter months.

 

This weekend was again an unpromising forecast.  Friday had seen good conditions, but like most people I was stuck in the office.  Saturday's forecast was to start sunny but with high cloud coming in during the afternoon and very strong South wind starting to blow from the middle of the day.  The south wind is called a Foehn wind in the Alps and it brings dangerous conditions.  So I decided to head in the other direction - to the Jura mountains on the other side of Geneva, to a lowish south facing site called Vesancy. This is the opposite side of Geneva to my house and it took a frustrating 2 hours to cross Geneva by public transport before I could finally set off up the mountain from the town of Gex.  A serene 1 hr and 40mins walk up through the forest, on roads still deep in snow and trackless, saw me reach the beautiful take off overlooking Geneva, the Saleve and Mt Blanc (see main picture).  The wind was already blowing, but it wasn't too strong so I launched into what turned out to be very rough and turbulent conditions.  Despite the strong wind on launch there was precious little dynamic lift and I was left working broken and turbulent thermals that were blowing me to the NE in the direction of Yverdon les Bains.  If the climbs had been more consolidated I'd have turned and headed that way on a wind blown, UK style, XC flight.  But, they were turbulent, the wind was strengthening and the sky was becoming quite grey so I settled for a exploration of this new site for me and landed back near Gex before walking most of the way back home.

 

So, my philosophy from now on in is to take every opportunity to fly, in as many different places as possible. I believe there is no substitute to being current on the wing and in the air. Flying in even marginal conditions helps to drive confidence and build and hone skills needed for this challenge.  So, as with my fitness training, I'm taking the flying part very seriously too!

The Route in 3D

As an added bonus, here's the Red Bull X-Alps 2013 route in Google Earth KML format, including the turnpoint sectors.

The turnpoint sectors will change a few times right up to the start of the race. We'll only know the final route when Jon starts the adventure in Motzartplatz in Salzburg on July 7, in a little over four months time.

Click here to download the route.

The Route

Red Bull have announced the route for the 2013 Red Bull X-Alps: it's over 1000km, that's 15% longer than in 2011!

However, despite the extra distance, the route offers the option to follow the classic XC routes in Austria, Switzerland and France. With long valleys to follow there could be some epic flights.

To help plan our route, I programmed the turnpoints into my XC Planner software. You can zoom in to see exactly the terrain that we'll race though. You can also show the airspace, and the thermals thanks to thermal.kk7.ch.

Here's the link to the route in XC Planner: http://bit.ly/WFr0q5.

A quick round up...

It seems to have got very busy here, so much so that I realise I haven't posted anything for a while now.  So here is a quick round up of what has been going on.

At the end of February I was back in Cumbria in the North of the UK to give a very well attended talk to the Cumbria Soaring Club in Kendal.  Cumbrians always want value for money so not content with my 'usual' talk on the X-Alps they wanted me to throw in the Mt Blanc landing and some details of my preparations for this year to boot.  It was a pretty full, but enjoyable evening.  I started flying in Cumbria 22 years ago so the area has very fond memories for me and it was great to see some familiar faces along with plenty of new ones.  Of course, I had to take the opportunity for a bit of training while I was there so I set out on the Saturday morning up Middleton Fell - I had intended to fly, hopping across the fells X-Alps style but as I climbed the first hill snow started to fall. By the time I reached the take off point it was a little windy (but manageable), the wind direction was not ideal and the snow had become more sustained.  Dspite all this, I still considered flying before deciding I was enjoying the walk too much and continued on my way.  The picture is taken somewhere near the summit.

Back in Geneva I've been busy too - getting my training regime sorted out.  I got back in touch with Pierre Gazeau, the genius behind my training plan for last X-Alps, and after a thorough performance test he's set me up with a detailed training plan for the next two months.  He was pleased to see I'd already been following the philosophy he laid out for me last time around and this showed in the performance data.  As I wrote in my book, it seems to be very important to do the right training for an event like this (vs. simply doing a lot), and understanding the science behind it certainly helps, as does having someone like Pierre oversee the details.

Back in January I'd been experiencing some pain in my knees when I was training. After various doctor visits I've now been working with a Physiotherapist who seems to have resolved the immediate problem but is intent on keeping an eye on me and making sure the root cause (apparently a slight misalignment of my pelvis) is properly fixed to avoid any recurrence.  I bounce between being immensely impressed with his treatment to being somewhat sceptical (well, proding inside my ears did not, at first, seem a very logical place to work on to fix a knee problem!!)  On balance though it is working, so I'm sticking with it.

And if all that wasn't enough, I was flying again at the weekend, only a short flight in Chamonix, but good to be back in the air after a winter lay off, despite it being a stable day (the views were stunning though).  I did manage to miss out on some great conditions the day after in Verbier though.  Still, it seems the flying season is here.  Yipppee!.

Athlete's kit

I arrived home today to find a parcel outside my front door.  Even before I'd ripped open the TNT plastic outer wrapper, I knew it was X-Alps stuff - the sending address of Zooom Productions in Fuschl gave that away.  Once I'd fought my way through a layer of bubble wrap I came across the most peculiar blue bag with the biggest zip I have ever seen.  I must be missing something as the bag seems quite specialist but for the life of me I can't think why anyone would want a padded bag with a giant zip on it.  If you know what it is for then leave me a comment.  Anyhow, the really interesting bit was the data contained inside.  The first step to getting proper details of what the 2013 race has in store for us.  There are some provisional details on the route, but I can't reveal anything on that front until it is official.  Don't worry though, if you are an X-Alps fan and desparate to know the 2013 route then it will be announced on www.redbullxalps.com in the coming weeks.  Also included was a sponsors pack, branding guidelines and lots of stock imagery to use.  It all makes it feel that bit more real!

 

Don't step on my blue trail shoes...

As training picks up it is time to renew my running gear.  As I was still using my trail shoes that did most of the work in the last X-Alps, it was clearly time to change.  So back I went to see my old friends at New Concept Sports in Geneva.  This is, by far, the best running shop in this part of Switzerland, run by runners, for runners.  Laurent has once again agreed to help equip me with the right running gear I need for the race.  The first priority was to get new road and trail shoes for training.  Assuming these work out well, in May I'll get identical new ones for the event itself. This time round both pairs are from Brooks and the triail shoes pictured were advised by Laurent based on his personal experience - 'I used these for the Marathon des Sables'! Tested to extremes then!  Good to know.

  

Paperback now available

As mentioned in my last post, many people asked me for a paperback version of the book.  Although initially I wanted to just do this as an ebook and save the trees, so many people have now asked that I have made a paperback available also through Amazon.  Simply go to your local amazon site (.fr, .co.uk or whatever) and search 'Hanging in There'.  Here is the link for the book on the Amazon.com site.