Chty blog

Cette fin 2009 a été plutôt difficile côté course. Il a quand même fallu que je remette une course dans les pattes pour essayer de retrouver un peu de motivation. La semaine dernière, je suis donc reparti pour le trail D2B. Deux fois 15km en relais cette année; en effet l'année dernière, j'avais opté pour le 30km mais vu mon entraînement, ce n'était pas raisonnable.

La météo
Meilleur météo qu'en 2009. Presque pas de pluie, presque pas de vent, température de saison.

Le parcours
Je devrais refaire les même commentaires que l'année dernière; le décor est vraiment superbe, c'est toujours un plaisir pour moi de courir en pleine nature.
Le tracé a changé: chaque année ils inversent le sens, cette année du Touquet à Berck; ensuite le passage dans les dunes se fait sans doute en fonction des autorisations.
J'ai effectué la deuxième partie du parcours, la plus facile car comportant sensiblement moins de dunes. La fin s'est avérée surprenante par le passage dans quelques prés inondés d'eau glacée...
Il m'a semblé qu'il y avait moins de ravitaillements mais cela ne m'a pas gêné vu la distance que je devais parcourir; il faudrait poser la question à une personne ayant fait la distance totale.

Quelques chiffres
Près de 920 inscrits, avec environ 200 relais alors que c'était seulement la troisième édition ! Il y a fort à parier que l'année prochaine ils atteindront le maximum autorisé.
02:51:36.89 pour le temps, 46ème/167 parmi les relais et 32ème parmi les relais homme-homme.

L'équipement
Si je ne dis pas de bêtise, j'ai dû faire trois trails l'année dernière. Je n'ai toujours pas de chaussures spécialisées pour cette discipline et je n'en ai jamais essayé, donc je ne sais pas si cela m'apporterait un réel gain. Bref je suis parti avec mes chaussures de route 2008-2009 pour ne pas trop abîmer les neuves avec le sable.
Côté habillement, collant bas et haut pour avoir chaud, et nouveau de 2009, un manteau en gore-tex; très efficace, même si cette année je m'en serai passé car les conditions étaient supportables (j'ai pu par ailleurs le tester par gros temps, et ça fait vraiment plaisir).

Refaire une course ça redonne de la motivation pour s'entraîner. J'essayerai sans doute de prévoir un peu mieux pour l'année prochaine pour éventuellement raccrocher avec le 30km.

When I started running, I was used to run with one single pair of shoes until it became unusable. Some years later, very recently though, I learned that in fact shoes were more or less like cars; indeed, after some kilometers, your shoes are loosing their elasticity. And so what? Loosing elasticity means loosing one of the most important functionality of shoes: protect your body against the impacts of the ground. It's particularly true when you are running regularly each week.

According to my budget and the average distance I'm running, I'm buying a new pair of shoes each year. I always go to a specialized running store. First you will find shoes you can't find in regular sport stores, and secondly, the shop assistants are often more qualified to give you real good advice. The first time I went in such a store, the man asked me very precise questions like the distance I was used to run, whether was running for competitions and how often, etc... After that he gave me three different pairs of shoes and told me that it would fit my needs by explaining me what were the particularities of each one. That's totally what I'm expecting for a salesman: being precise, clear, without any commercial arguments. With three choices I wasn't lost, and I knew that it would be good shoes for me.

We could sort the shoes in three different kinds:

• The first category could be named competitions shoes, which are only made to be used very occasionally. Usually these shoes are extremely light and don't have a lot of protection for the stability. In my opinion, if you don't have a good stability, it could be dangerous to wear this kind of shoes.
• The second one could be named middle-competitions shoes; these ones could be used for competitions and training. They are lightweight but they have good protections: thick heels, and protections for the stability on each side. That's why I'm choosing them.
• And finally, the third one could be named training shoes; they are usually heavier that the others but very resistant.

If you are running a lot, or several times a week, it's important to know that your body will loose in stability if you don't change your shoes between each training. Indeed, if you are using the same pair, you will always run in the same position, and you will increase the chances to get body injuries; whereas if you are changing each time, your body will get used to a change of position. I'm not a body specialist to explain this, but that's what I learned from many guys; one of them was arguing by telling me, he didn't get any problem since ten years by changing of shoes each time. We could be very extreme by saying, it's important to choose your shoes depending on the ground you are running. Anyway, I want to keep the reputation of a cheap sport. That's why a good thing is to keep your old shoes during the first year of your new ones and change between each training. When buying new shoes, throw away the old ones or keep them for very dirty races!

I hope I did teach you some advices and did not lost you until the end of this entry. Let me finish with my last acquisition in shoes.

My last shoes were the adidas adiZero Tempo (2008 edition), and so this year, my aim was to change brands; it's important for the reasons I mentioned earlier.
During my holidays in Norway I went back to my favorite running store. They suggested me several models, among them, the Saucony brand, an American one. I didn't know this brand, but in fact they are very old (created in 1898); since 2008 Saucony launches complete line of running shoes, and so they are trying to be on the first plan. I tried them and I was quite surprised by the good feelings I had. I finally choose the Saucony tangeant 3. After several trainings I must say that I'm really satisfied by these new shoes.

The race was harder for me, compared to my last marathon, but I was quite surprised to be in a good shape the next day. In fact, race after race you always learn.

After a marathon, when you are exhausted and didn't manage to keep a little bit of energy, it is difficult to stretch by yourself. So it is good when someone who didn't run, can help you to do the classical exercises. If this person is very kind, it could be useful to do some massages on your muscles; mainly your legs, and your feet. Indeed, your limbs have been doing the same moves so long, that they need to be reactivated. It's more and more common at races to see some physical therapy schools coming to do some massages on finishers. At this Berlin marathon there were indeed so nice students from such schools waiting for you... The surprising thing is that you could find such stands along the way... I must say that I asked myself several times, but choose to keep the good things for the end; anyway I now do understand why people are finishing the race in more than six hours!

One other good advice is to go to a swimming pool. It's good to move your muscles without any impact with the ground. Some days after, it always surprising how fast you can run during some kilometers even if your muscles didn't yet recovered after the marathon.

I found the temperature quite hot at the end. And it has been confirmed by Haile Gebrselassie, the 2009's winner and the current world record marathon holder. Indeed the temperature was around 16°C degrees at the beginning and around 20°C at the end. Compared to last year (12-16°C), it was warmer. He added that, according to him, it was impossible to break the world record above 16-17 degrees Celsius. I think a lot of people ignore this fact and don't realize how the weather is important. We often think about weather for sports which need special weather to be practiced, but we sometimes forgot that the weather has a direct impact on our body.

After such a race, I'm thinking about the next one. But I really don't know when it will be.