This morning I set the alarm to wake me at five but I didn’t get up. I felt tired and decided I need sleep more than a bike ride. I don’t know whether I am affected by the seasonal change, or whether I am still tired from this weekend. Waking at 4am wasn’t that hard on Friday, but after cycling hard on Saturday, and hard on Sunday I need time to recover.
Yesterday as I cycled from Nyon to Geneva I felt my mouth become dry so I drank, felt it get dry again, and drank again. The wind that is usually cooling, or cold was warm. I was having a hair dryer ride. This is a term I use when the air is so warm that it offers no cooling effect.
One solution to avoid such a ride is simply to ride at sunrise like I did with Tête de Course. You wake up before sunrise and head towards the meeting point as the sky starts to gain some colour. The ride itself takes place at dawn, so you’re in 20°c rather than 34°c. It’s 10°c cooler than my bedroom so I wore layers to stay warm. If you don’t like the heat then this is an excellent way of getting a bike ride in before it gets too hot. It’s also a way of getting a bike ride before work.
I think that tomorrow I will wake between 05:00-05:30 to be ready at the meeting point to go for a bike ride that starts at 06:30. The start is early because it is meant to be a “ride before work” for this group.
The pace is tempo. On the flat I expect to be okay. It’s on the climbs that I expect to be left behind, between Tartegnin and the turn where if you go right you go to Signal de Bougy and if you go left you go through cement roads.
Usually I like to go out in the afternoon because that was often when I felt the need for a mental break. This morning, and yesterday, or a day or two I went out in the morning. Part of the reason for this is that summer temperatures are arriving. We are getting back to 30°c or more, and running in that temperature is not as pleasant.
There was little noise pollution yesterday so I opened the balcony door in the morning, and a velux and I had a nice cooling draft in my apartment. When there is little noise pollution, and when the neighbour who smoked has moved away summer is slightly less uncomfortable. The temperature in my bedroom is still 28°c but at least I can cool down the lower floor. I also made sure to get a draft from the stairwell to evacuate the heat from the centre of the building.
This morning I ran towards the lake. If I had continued going west I could have gone to the Piscine De Colovray, had a swim, and then walked home or taken a publibike, once I was tired enough. In fact I live along the course for the Nyon Triathlon so I could easily train for the triathlon without needing to use a car.
I believe that I suffer from Rhume des Foins (hayfever) so when I went to sleep congested, and woke up congested I thought “There’s no way I’m doing that 10km run. I checked what my Garmin watch recommended as a run and when I saw that the recommendation was a 35 minute run I grabbed the chance. Even with pollen a 35 minute run is comfortable.
This weekend I have the choice between running, hiking, walking, via ferrata and probably more. Years ago I would have automatically gravitated towards Via Ferrata because that is a sport I really loved. These days I’m not so sure. It’s especially that the VF would take one and a half hours of driving, which isn’t really the issue, but that it starts at around 11:30, which, for me, is late.
This morning I got up at 4am to go for a run with strangers in Nyon. The meeting time was 05:10 and the run/jog/walk began at 05:30. Before the run Activ Fitness gave us a warm up workout that I followed half-heartedly. I had already walked 3km so my body was warm. I now needed to remain warm before the run itself.
For some people the idea of getting up at 4am to run at 0530 is an absurd one. They would prefer to sleep. In reality I think that waking at 0400 is easier because that’s where I am in a light sleep phase, so if I wake up then I’m fine. It’s if I wake at 0600 or so that I may struggle, because that’s when I might be in a deeper sleep phase. In either case I woke quite easily ahead of this run.
Yesterday the town of Nyon posted about the Wake Up and Run event that is taking place tomorrow so I felt like signing up until I saw that it costs 38 CHF, and then I changed my mind, temporarily. Eventually I thought “This is in Nyon so it’s local, so I could meet local people”. I also thought “well, if it includes breakfast and a t-shirt then it could be worthwhile after all.
This morning I went for a bike ride before taking my daily shower. I rode through Nyon and then turned up towards Duiller and from Duiller I headed for Genolier. When I was in Nyon though I cycled down towards the lake before cycling up one of the steep hills before heading to Duiller and onto Genolier. along the way I considered whether I would go all the way to Arzier and changed my mind, because it would have required a long descent on carbon wheels that I am not yet used to.
One winter I woke seven or eight days in a row at 2am to be at work and ready to work for 0400. It was very hard to do, and since then I prefer not to have to wake up too early. Yesterday I woke at 0600, naturally, but also because I wanted to set off by 07:30 to be at my destination by 08:30. Traffic was good so I arrived half an hour earlier than anticipated. The one hour drive took half an hour.