Hurry up again Harri's Blog by Hat

It can be quite scary traveling alone to join a group of complete strangers knowing that the only thing you’ll (hopefully) have in common is your passion for running. And that maybe you’ll be the oldest, the slowest, the only non-club runner;  that you’ll be living communally, taking meals and training together 24/7. But that fantastic, addictive activity that originally drew us to blog on this website all those years ago, was indeed all it took to bond a disparate group of lycra junkies on a running camp with Liz and Martin Yelling in the French Alps.

Okay, so I was the bloomin’ oldest (as per!). There were 9 of us in total and the youngest was a gorgeous 19 year old girl, the junior world champion mountain runner! Gordonbennet!!!  Stunning runner and lovely, cheeky girl.

I was often the slowest - some of the group were good for age and winners in their fields, so impressive to watch, whilst a couple of the others were like me, recreational runners. But I certainly won the prize for the noisiest hill ascent! I  did naturally struggle at times with all the hill running and if I’m honest, the intensity of the week was a tad hard. But actually none of this mattered at all because Martin and Liz were so good at including everyone, whatever their ability, adapting training runs to suit us all, showing us individually how we could improve and reach our goals and generally making every single one of us feel capable of achieving more.  And I need to add here that they are the most generous, down to earth, accessible couple with a fabulous sense of humour - not once was there a feeling of ‘us’ and ‘them’ - very unusual, incredibly refreshing and much appreciated. Their daughter Ruby is completely lovely too!

So, I’ve come home having had the most fantastic week, better than I could ever have imagined with every intention of doing it all again next June. However, I will hill train for months before going next year so that I just might be able to keep up and do more! But I’m still gonna go whatever!

Not only was the camp held in a stunning part of the world - La Haute Savoie, an hour from Geneva close to the town of La Clusaz in the valley of St Jean de Sixt (why has it taken me so long to visit this part of the world?) but also the chalet was out of this world. The luxury accommodation sleeps 14. And hey, I was given the suite! So maybe there are some advantages to being the oldie!  Delicious, locally sourced, home cooked, healthy food provided by the young couple who managed the chalet was served to us at a long kitchen table every day. From breakfast to dinner and in between, all our needs were catered for. And yes, even with all the exercise, I put on weight! But it was worth it!

And so, to the running. Every day was well organised. Some days we started early with a local 4 mile hilly run (the more able did the circuit twice) or we’d end the day with the same. Actually nearly all the runs were hilly cos of the mountains...Apart from the Interval tempo sessions we did along stunning Lake Annecy. One day we had a Yoga session and on another Liz took us through some core exercises for runners which turned into a giggling fest! Massage was on offer on another afternoon and much appreciated! We swam in Lake Annecy and at the local outdoor pool. Some of the group went Parapending/Paragliding....er...I didn’t.  Cycling was on offer, as was Kayaking but somehow there just wasn’t time to do everything. We ran up long, long hills into the mountains and then down to the sound of cow bells ding-donging in the valley - life-enhancing, lung-busting and bloody marvelous. We had an afternoon of hill reps with instruction of how to run down hills, how to use our arms to balance - I actually sat this out after one hill rep as I just couldn’t hack it and took myself off instead to find some gentler inclines. Bastard body wouldn’t play. We did tempo runs around a track in Thones and Liz and Martin coached us on pace; Liz took us through  various running drills and we all had one-to-one sessions with her where she outlined a training plan for our chosen goals....So much to tell and difficult to write it all down in detail here. But most of all, it was such fun and there was lots and lots of laughter and banter and support from everyone. Runners are so good at that!

Adventures In The Alps www.adventuresinthealps.com are the company who set up this incredible training camp. They offer many different sorts of fitness holidays from cycling, to family fitness, to weight loss, triathlon, swimming, horse riding, walking and even creative writing - you name it, Pip, who runs the company, will do it. Take a look at her website and keep an eye on it because she is adding weeks and different types of holidays all the time. I can’t recommend the company enough - the organisation and care was impeccable. The cost, which initially felt a lot to me, is well worth every single penny, certainly, to my mind, it is excellent value for money.

I shall be running an over 40’s/50’s fitness camp in the Alps - 3rd - 9th September this year, so watch this space! Pilates, swimming, cycling, running, walking...I will post more details when it is set in stone, but if anyone is interested or wants more info, please pm me or take a look at the website above - although I’m not on there yet!!

And that’s where I will stop....for now. If you are on Facebook you will see hundreds of photos but I’ll leave you with a taster here too...Not sure how these will turn out!

The chalet we stayed in