Long Saturday session

I had organised with Nick on Thursday to go for a long run on Saturday in order to try and increase the average kilometres in my weekly schedules again. I thought that the cold I had been battling for the last week would have gone and that I'd be able to enjoy a long run in good conditions.

Big mistake.

Last night, my cold came back with a vengeance and coupled with the fact that we went to bed late meant that I'd had very little sleep when I got up at 7:30 to go running. I met up with Nick at 8:00 am and he wasn't faring any better. He had the beginning of a cold too and was suffering a little from asthma.

The plan was to run down to the river, cross over the bridge to Sartrouville, run along to Le Pecq and then up to St Germain and back through the forest. I would then run another loop of the Sunday course and Nick would decide how he was feeling before joining me or running straight home.

The plan was simple but we never made it that far. It was -3°C when we set out and Nick was suffering from the outset. He had trouble catching his breath and after a little walk and then jogging for awhile, he decided it wasn't going to improve and so he headed back. I carried on along the river, picking up the pace slightly to 4:20 per km. It was just beginning to get light now, and with the extreme cold, it was very still and quiet down by the river. I crossed the bridge at Le Pecq, running up the 1.4 km of hill to St Germain. This slowed the pace down and I concentrated on catching another runner in front so as not to slow down too radically. This took a lot of energy from the legs but I was able to recover as I went past the Chateau and then alongside the swimming pool and back into the forest.

I was back on very familar ground now and I then ran the 1.5 loops of the Sunday run at around 4:30 pace, slowing down a little towards the end with the tiredness.

28.5 km in all in 2:09 so an average of 4:31 per km. I was fairly pleased but as I soon as I stopped, I began to cough my lungs up and only then realised that my cold had definitely not gone yet. The other problem I experienced was with the camelbak that I was carrying with sugary water inside. I was unable to drink anything over the last 5km as the contents had frozen !!