Scratch Paper

Nathalie wanted me to go see the new Dany Boon movie, Bienvenue chez les ch’tis. We drove down to Pontcharra this evening after dinner.

But the cinema in Pontcharra was mobbed. Crowds were massing outside as far as the carry out pizza place.

Now, do not get me wrong. Dany Boon gets me chuckling as much as the next guy. But try to export a film like Bienvenue chez les ch’tis. It’s like finding the lowest common denominator when all you have are a bunch of large prime numbers.

The 5 children, our 3, plus 2 cousins, are playing video games on the PlayStation. I am playing video games on the Mac.

GarageBand plays the backup and lets me noodle around. It gives me the choice of a bunch of styles, for which I can change the instruments of the combo. All it turned out to require was a preamp to bring the guitar input to an acceptable level.

This is called, “The Snow Is Melting Blues,” in honor of the pistes up at Col de Marcieu.

Perhaps if I stop trying to take myself and my life seriously, I will laugh at how disappointing everything seems and just get on with it.

This morning was a first. I ran up through Chapareillan to the col de Granier from the house, and back.

The run took me longer than I hoped it would. I started at 7:30, but did not get up to the col until just after 9:00. After the steep bit above le Palud, I walked in a few spots. Not that walking slowed me down much.

Did not see any snow at all until I was less than 4 km from the top. The temperature seemed to be above freezing except on shadowed, north-facing slopes where I saw light frost on fallen leaves.

The downhill stretch was starting to get rough near the bottom, after I had gone about 20 km total. No cramping, however, until I took the car over to Ludo’s later this morning to help him move.

Strange weather. Seb, Sylvain, and I were talking about Directory Proxy performance. I looked out the window and saw a dozen bees flying around the heather in flower, collecting pollen. Feb 22. We are supposed to be in mid winter.

Sylvain lives halfway up in the mountains. Sylvain has a birdhouse that he usually cleans in January, so the birds can nest again in the spring. This Jan 20, he went to clean out the nest… and saw six small, blue eggs. So he put the nest back. Soon the mother bird came back to protect the eggs.

We had better go skiing again quickly, before summer comes.

I am pretty sure I disagree with this.

Yesterday, I went out for a 17-miler. Or maybe not really. I went out for 2:15 at a steady, but not very fast, pace, which I supposed to be around 17 miles. This was the first time I have run for 2:15 without drinking anything, at least the first time I’ve done so intentionally (meaning I don’t count the Grenoble marathon in 2005).

Compared to my first marathon, I feel preoccupied for this upcoming April marathon in Annecy. 2:15 seemed like a long time, even at an 8 minute/mile pace. I would have happily given up at 2:00.

Maybe I am getting fat and lazy. Or maybe I am gradually getting to the stage where I run to run without ulterior motives.

Today was the first time Diane really skied for long. Everyone went to the family ski area next to the col de Marcieu. She has grown up since she first tried on ski boots.

At the col de Marcieu they have a sort of play area with a very easy platter lift that pulls the children slowly up a 20 m hill. Diane must have done that one 50 times.

Tim and Emma skied well, but got tired after about 2 or 2 1/2 hours. Diane did not want to leave.

Except for some back problems, I have been more or less following my winter marathon training plan, which gets me ready for the run around the lake in Annecy in April. My aim this year is to finish without injury, and to enjoy as much of the run as possible. I have been too tired to train for a good time.

I have not been sticking to my plan religiously, however. Yesterday I was supposed to go out for an 11-miler. Instead I tried to run all the way up to the plateau behind Barraux. The hope was to run up through the ridge behind the Fayet.

Half of 1 1/2 hours, that is 45 minutes, was not enough for me to get all the way up. I lost my way a couple of times, since as a typical American male I would not actually stoop to looking at a map before heading out. Could not in fact find just where there is a path all the way up that does not dead end into a stream bed.

Going up turns out to be less scary than going down, by the way. I did not realize how close I came to the edges of cliffs until I was scrambling and sliding back down.

Didier and I ran the Trail Blanc du Semnoz this evening. The run is only 13 km (about 8 mi), but it starts at about 1300 m elevation and goes up to about 1700 m. The race is run on cross country ski trails up there, starting at just before sundown and finishing in the dark.

Last night it snowed up in the mountains around here, including up at the Semnoz. As a result, the whole race was over fresh powder. The temperature when we finished at 1300 m was -9 C, probably no warmer than -12 C at 1700 m.

It was rough. My shoes are not adapted to running in fresh powder. We should have run on snowshoes, rather than running shoes.

I had little, hard-packed snow balls inside the toes of each shoe by the end. The edges of my toes turned dark when I took a shower later.

The results were published there almost immediately. It took me 1:27:25 to stumble though 8 mi of snow. If I had been any warmer, I would have taken my time.