Tapering

The habitual Thursday morning run was downsized today in order to taper the efforts this week so that I can take part with Laurence, Nick and Anne in the Normandy Raid this weekend.

I decided to fall back on my previous route around Maisons Laffitte and run 7.6km at a gentler pace than usual.

I set off at 7:00am (making sure that I adjusted the alarm this time and not the time) and ran down to the Seine. The sun was only just rising and the orange sky above the river was quite a treat. It was very quiet with only a couple of cockerels screaming their heads off for company. Quite where these cockerels are kept is a mystery to me as we don't exactly live in the middle of farmlands, but anyway ...

The first 2km went by in 8:35 so pace was average and I then speeded slightly up through the park to get through 4km in 17:05. Carried on around the course at this speed with my legs warming up as I went. By the time I finished, I was just beginning to feel good. All up in 32:16 at an average speed of 4:12 per km. A little more distance training and I need to keep this up for the marathon in order to finish under 3 hours - fairly confident that this is achiveable.

Let's hope that we do well this weekend. I'll keep you posted.