Race pace

Managed to arrive at the club session in advance for once which was a nice surprise. Tonight's session was the 2km VO2 max workout in which you are supposed to run the 2km distance flat out in order to calculate your training schedules and your capacity to run before creating oxygen debts and lactic build-ups.

We set off slowly for a warm-up through the forest and into St Germain park before heading back to the track. What had been a warm evening, if a little windy, was rapidly turning into a cooler and decidely wet evening. By the time we ran back to the stadium, the rain had settled in for good and raindrops were already seeping down the back of my neck.

We ran a few more laps for warm-up and then the first group set off over 1500m. Laurence took part in this group and probably ran the first 300m too fast before settling into a more steady rhythm to finish the distance in 6:41. She's definitely capable of running faster and the fast start must have cost her a good 10 seconds.

I lined up with the men and notably Nick, Bruno and Jean-Marc to do 5 laps of the track in as close to race conditions as possible. We set off quickly and Jean-Marc, predictably, went to the front with Bruno and myself just behind. 1st lap in 1:17 and Jean-Marc began to pull away. I overtook Bruno at this point and made a little break but I could hear him just behind me all the way from then on. The front straight was into a headwind and rain so the conditions were far from perfect and I could feel myself tire from the second lap onwards. Bruno pulled back to my shoulder on the final bend but I was determined not to let him outsprint me having led all the way. I accelerated around the bend and then put on a final spurt down the last straight to beat him by 2 seconds in 6:55.

Nick finished 9 seconds slower than last year in 7:19 so the conditions were not easy. I'm still a little disappointed as I was aiming for 6:45. According to McMillan calculator, I should be capable of 6:36 as an equivalent performance to 37:28 over 10 km. There'll be another try next week and I'll see what I can pull off then. Good session with about 10km all up.