After 8 weeks of lager… Real Ale

  Tried the Tourist Information to see if I could get a deal on a decent hotel but no luck so decided to go for a convenient cheapie.  The plan was to have a wander round Grenoble in the morning but when morning came Grenoble seemed less appealing so I caught a bus out to Grenoble airport and waited for a flight to Stansted.

  The incoming flight arrived early and everyone boarded the plane quickly so we took off ahead of schedule and after an hour and a half in the air we arrived an hour ahead of schedule.  Astonishing and, in my experience, unprecedented – whatever happened to delays ?

   The upshot was that instead of waiting at Stansted for a couple of hours I could catch an earlier bus and I was in Norwich by 5pm.  Not bad at all.  Then it was down to the Rushcutters for a mixed grill and a pint or three of a decent bitter (Marston’s Pedigree).

Off to Grenoble

  Having decided (not that there was really any other choice than) to abandon the race training in favour of recuperation in readiness for the BASI Instructor course I already feel better, although the calves still feel tight this morning so I’m sure I’ve made the right decision.

  Anyway, today I’m off to Grenoble…

Catch Up Sunday

  I’m back in my chalet, so I’ve got an internet connection again (courtesy of some other, unknown, local chalet, who haven’t put any security on their WiFi router).

  No skiing today; my legs need some time to recuperate.  So I’ve got some time to catch up on all those chores that I haven’t attended to for the past week; primarily servicing my skis and washing all that sweaty ski gear.  I should really be reading the BASI manuals too (and maybe I will, later).

Valentine’s Day Dinner

  We started the day on a slalom course on the Méribel Stade where the snow was soft and deep and cutting up very badly.  On the first run I hit the fourth gate full on with my uphill ski which promptly detached itself from my boot and shortly afterwards I was inspecting the snow surface rather more closely than is necessary.  The impact had left me with a slight pull in my right calf but otherwise I seemed undamaged so I removed my remaining ski, retrieved the lost ski and for some reason put them back on the opposite feet to what they’d been on.  Then I went round again and gave the course a second shot.

  The fourth gate is a right-hander and, apart from the deep ruts round all the gates, there seemed nothing particularly difficult about it.  Nevertheless for some reason I again hit the gate dead centre with my right ski, with the same predictable consequences but at least I know that the bindings on both skis release in a forwards direction.

  The pull in my right calf was a bit more painful than before but I was fairly wound up so I put my ski back on and continued down the course.  For about three gates, until I fell again, this time pulling a muscle in my left calf.

  I finally got the message and decided to quit the Méribel Stade and practise some technique (which I’m clearly lacking) on the piste.  I was hoping to ‘run off’ the strained muscles before the ‘Chamois’, a timed run which we were planning to do at the Mottaret Stade around noon so I skied on over there but the strains didn’t really ease.

  So obviously entering the race would be a bad idea but since I was there and Felix had come over to meet me and watch me race I was obviously going to give it a go, despite the fact it was now spitting with rain.

  Probably because there were quite a few kids from the local ski clubs racing the course was shorter than we have been skiing and it had a very flat start.  Maybe that worked in my favour because I scored a silver placing where my previous best had been bronze, although I don’t know what the pace-setter’s time was nor my own or even what percentage of the pace-setter’s time was required to get silver.

  Felix and I lunched in Chez Bibi because I still wanted to try the galettes - I won’t be having another there, although Felix’s croque monsieur was very nice.  The weather though wasn’t so nice – the rain had set in so we decided to get up high where hopefully it would be snowing and have a long run home.

  Higher up it was indeed snowing, horizontally !  The strong wind made the first few minutes really quite unpleasant after which it eased and the flat light and poor visibility made the next few minutes quite unpleasant and then we were back into the rain for the last few minutes so were quite glad to call it a day and dry off.

  Splashed out on dinner tonight (well you have to, don’t you); we went to Chez Kiki, which is probably the most famous restaurant in Méribel.  It is quite possibly the most expensive too but the food was absolutely superb – we shared the speciality; Côte de Boeuf, accompanied by a very nice Burgundy.

Snow > Rain > Snow

  We had about 10cm of decent snow overnight but around 7am it started to rain, heavily, so by the time we hit the slopes the powder was mush.  Today was supposed to be a technique day but the pistes were ankle deep in the heaviest, wettest, ‘powder’ I’ve ever skied and we were on slalom race skis to boot so it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t fun.

  The rain would have soaked us by itself but then I fell more or less every 5 minutes for the first half an hour and when I wasn’t falling the ‘powder’ was flying up and coating the entire front of my jacket and salopettes like spray from the bow wave of a speed boat.

  After a couple of runs on unpisted pistes we tried the Mottaret Stade, which was better, but since we hadn’t booked it we were crowded out by the groups that had.

  Finally we tried another unpisted but very well skied piste; in parts this was better because there was some surface to get some edge grip on but there were also parts where the snow had been heaped into mushy lumps that couldn’t be completely blasted through despite the fact we were skiing at speed.

  We were also trying to keep as close to each other as possible and eventually the inevitable happened and someone fell.  In fact there were two fallers; the skiers immediately in front and behind me – I was lucky not to collide with either of them.

  Unfortunately Lucy fell badly and after trying to get back on her skis and continue she had to give up and call for a rescue.  The stretcher was with us within 5 minutes of our call and within a couple of hours we heard that she hadn’t broken anything but had bruised her right tibia; it’ll keep her off the slopes for 2 or 3 days and maybe off race training for a bit longer so it’s fortunate that next week is a rest week (no race training – we’ll be shadowing or snowboarding).

  It was still raining at lunchtime so my plans to ski with Felix were canned and instead we headed into town for a bite to eat.  We had planned to try the galettes at Chez Bibi but that turned out to be closed on Mondays so we went to Jacks instead.  I ordered a couple of beers while we decided on what toppings to put on our pizza.  The barman, James, was in a good mood and gave us our beers for free.

  We’d almost finished the beer and were just wondering where our pizza was when James turned up with two more beers – we hadn’t asked for them, he’d just decided we needed more.  The pizza turned up shortly afterwards so we polished that off and had a few games of pool before rounded it all off with a couple of coffees.

  When I went to pay the only thing James would let me pay for was the coffees.  Sure beats skiing in the rain and what’s more while we were in Jack’s the rain turned to snow.

Felix goes skiing

  Obviously it wasn’t just Felix that went skiing, I went too.  We started on the green runs around the Altiport area and built up through the blues to a reasonably steep red and then skied down to “Ronnie’s” for a late lunch.

  This week is the start of 2 weeks of English half terms and 4 weeks of French half terms so I expected the pistes to be crowded but as it turned out they weren’t as bad as I’d feared.

  The weather is still out of sorts with cloud and a dusting of snow interspersed with sun and temperatures that are far higher than is healthy for a ski resort.  We desperately need new snow, especially with all the additional people who will be mashing up the pistes over the next month.

  Be nice if the temperature stayed below zero too.

   Best of all though is that I’ve (temporarily) escaped from the young ones; the majority of the youngsters on this course are self-centred, often unaware and/or unthinking and not infrequently astoundingly selfish, particularly en masse.

   Of course I might well have been like this myself at 19 but recently I’ve been finding that putting up with their behaviour (not to mention their inane chatter) has been increasingly difficult.

Boss’ Birthday

  Happy Birthday Boss !

  No skiing today.  Apart from anything else my poor body needs time to recover.  I also needed to get my passport photocopied and make up three stamped self-addressed envelopes for the French Test Technique application.

  Then I had to get down to the Ravines car park by 10:30 to meet Felix and since it’s the start of the French half term as well as the British half term the restaurants will be reservation-only this coming week so we needed to book up some places for the first few evenings.

  24 hours on a coach had left Felix in need of a bath and a sleep, which left me some time to go and watch the rugby.  Despite the Man of the Match being awarded to Troncon I think the general consensus amongst commentators and spectators alike was a poor performance by England.  I wouldn’t entirely disagree but I think it was a very good performance by Italy and their tactics were spot on so I would have awarded the Man of the Match to Pierre Berbizier (the Italian coach, although of course you can’t do that).

  It’s still snowing in a half-hearted kind of way and the temperature is hovering around zero so the snow is quite wet and not settling on areas that don’t already have cover.  With a bit of luck it will snow through the night and we’ll have a fresh layer to enjoy in the morning; for tomorrow we ski !

Busy Lazy Day

  I hadn’t intended to do a lot today but I thought I ought to at least revise a bit of the BASI Central Theme before totally relaxing.  Then I decided to service my race skis and I had to go shopping and before I knew it the day was disappearing so I grabbed some lunch and went skiing for a couple of hours which revealed that my all mountain skis needed servicing so I did that and finally cracked open a small bottle
  Tschhh… glug, glug, glug… Aaahhh !

Relaxation and Rugby

  After the rigours of the past week decided to make today a bit of a recovery day so took the gondola down to Brides-les-Bains.

  Last time I went to Brides it was a Sunday and the place was a ghost town but even in the middle of a Saturday morning there’s virtually no-one about. Maybe there’s more life in summer (or maybe not).

  Anyway, the trip takes about 20 minutes and drops down through some very picturesque snow-draped wooded valleys (now that there’s some snow) so it was worth it for the views.

  I did go out to ski this afternoon but my legs were really too tired to let me enjoy it so I stooged around for a bit, took a few photos (from Mount Vallon towards Mottaret and Meribel) then packed it after a couple of hours and headed down to Chez Kiki instead for a couple of pints.

  The beer was most enjoyable.  Even more enjoyable was watching England beat Scotland (42 - 20) in the first match of this year’s 6 Nations.

  Nice to see Jonny Wilkinson back on song; kicking, handling and tackling, so maybe he did deserve Man of the Match but he definitely shouldn’t have been awarded a try.

  My personal Man of the Match was Harry Ellis; although (or perhaps because) all the attention was focussed on Wilkinson, Ellis played a great game, always seeming to be in the right place at the right time and making the right calls and passes and when the opportunity presented itself making the breaks himself. 

  Good to see Jason Robinson back too and although he may not be quite as pacey as he was he still did an immense amount of running (unsung and off camera but he was always there to support an attack or cover in defence).

   Recovery seems to be going well !

Brief but beneficial

  The journey from Meribel is pretty tedious; bus to Moutiers, wait for a train, train to Chambery, wait for another train, train to Grenoble. With each stage (including the waits) taking about an hour each it isn’t quick either.  Felix was waiting on the platform when I arrived, which was nice.  In fact the whole weekend was very nice.  Dinner was particularly nice; the food was excellent, the conversation interesting, the manners pleasant; a wonderful change to the chimpanzees tea party I have to endure most nights.

  And being away from the zoo seems to have helped my recovery; (touch wood) I’m almost better, although not back to full strength yet.

  Felix had to leave at noon on the Sunday (when the last bus departed for Grenoble airport), so it was more of a day than a weekend (the remainder being devoted to travelling for us both).

  Short but satisfying.