Horror reps

This was the session that I'd been dreading, the horror movie of my marathon training sessions, the Nightmare on Elm Street, the Scream, the Hammer House of Horrors.

The Bible stated that today's suffering was programmed as 12x600m and that each rep was to be run in 2:10. I decided to do this off 200m recovery.

I set out for the training early this morning, braving the elements that were, admittedly, decidely more clement than they have been recently. The thermometer had even managed to rise to -2°C. I started off by running up the road to the allotments and then by running a small loop around these gardens 3 times, soaking up the early morning sun as it rose over the hills. This was all very pleasant but I had a job to do, so I headed back down the road to the track in Aurillac.

The track here is very different to the St Germain track. At St Germain, the track is a tartan track with a lovely bounce to it and most enjoyable to pound out a few hard intervals. Aurillac track was made several years earlier from tarmac and with age, cracks have appeared that have never been repaired. To make matters worse, the far corner is hidden from the sunlight by the high conifers and there was a 30 metre section of snow and ice on the back bend. I can't say that I was eager to start, but I thought it was best to get the thing over with.

I set off doing the intervals and managed the first in 2:09. I ran the 200m recovery and tried to improve on this time, as is often the case on the first, I felt that I'd kept a little in reserve. The next few intervals went better but I could feel the tiredness in my legs. This, of course, got worse as I continued and on the second series, I really felt like giving up. I don't often get this way, as once I've started, I enjoy these sessions, especially if I feel that I'm doing well. This wasn't the case today and I don't know if it was down to the skiing yesterday, the altitude, the cold or the track conditions. Whatever it was due to, the series were very hard. I only managed to find the motivation to continue from the marathon and the thought that I wouldn't give up on that.

The reps went as follows:

2:09, 2:05, 2:05, 2:07, 2:07, 2:08, 2:07, 2:08, 2:10, 2:12, 2:10, 2:08

So I was under target except towards the end when there are 3 that were distinctly slower. This was a shame.

17 km all up. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's recovery run.