Pacemaking

Race tomorrow in Conflans over 10km so I didn't want to do a hard workout today. However, I was extremely happy that Henry decided he would run the Chateau du Val course with me this morning.

We set out just after 9:00 am when Laurence and Paul had gone off to play tennis. I set the pace at around 10 kmh and we did the first 1 km up the road in 5:55. Henry found this comfortable, or at least I presume so since he wasn't complaining ! We maintained this through the forest until we reached the half-way point.

Just after half-way, there is a little slope uphill and I was worried that this would be enough to cause Henry to stop and walk but instead he took it in his stride. He was tiring a little at around 4km but carried on nonetheless. I could see that he was tired now but still determined to carry on. This determination only wavered as we left the forest and got back to Le Mesnil. He started to speed up to almost a sprint and I asked him why he was doing this. He told me that he was going to stop at the car-park. Luckily, I was able to persuade him to make the final effort to run the last kilometre home and we finished the 7.1km course in 42:07.

I was very proud of him and hope that he will now start doing this run on a regular basis.