Trail des Cabornis

Last weekend I ran my first race of the 2017 season: Trail des Cabornis. This is a well-organised race on the outskirts of Lyon through the fields and around Mont Verdun and Mont d'Or. It is one of the first trail races of the season so it's well attended and everyone is excited to be out racing on the trails.

My goals for the race included testing my training over the winter to compare to where I was at the same time last season, trying out a new nutrition plan I want to use in my longer races, and running conservatively through the first half to be able to finish strongly. I managed to achieve all three goals and I feel quite positive about the outing.

Compared to last year I ran a faster race. The route was slightly different so even though my time was 41 minutes faster than last year I think I ran about 15 minutes faster effectively. My nutrition plan of eating frequently and using only simple gels went well and didn't present any issues for this length race. Finally I managed (mostly!) to run conservatively in the first half, resulting in a consistent effort throughout the race without slowing towards the end. I may have been too conservative at the beginning because I recovered very quickly and felt good in training again this week.

It was tremendous fun to be racing again and I'm looking forward to my next race in a few weeks.







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