Sunday run

And the Bible said "Thou shalt run for one hour at an easy pace and then thou shalt put the the turbo on and run for 20 minutes at marathon pace before slowing down again to run the last 10 minutes at an easy pace." That was the message from the good book anyway and so I set off with good intentions in my heart and Mizuno on my feet.

The good intentions didn't last very long. It was -7°C when I set off with Laurence for the Sunday run each intending to do our own thing. My plan was around 20km based on the above whereas Laurence was running for 1h30 at an easy pace. I thought I would do the tour of Aurillac. This is a 20km route around the outskirts of the town and it seemed ideally suited for today's schedule.

It got off to a bad start. As I left the road by the stadium after 500m, there is a steep section up a little path between the fields. I had run 5m when all of a sudden I found myself flat on my belly with my gloved hands in the middle of a stream. I had slipped on the ice and put my hands through the ice into the stream beneath. I was wondering how long I had at -7°C before the water froze in my gloves causing frostbite necessitating amputation of the fingers. Luckily this didn't happen as my hands were sufficently warm to stop the water from freezing but it wasn't a good start.

After this things improved and I ran the next few kilometres at about 4:30 pace through the streets of Aurillac. At around half way, there is a long slope uphill and the second half of the course is much tougher. Sod the marathon pace stretches, my lungs were almost bursting with the effort of the uphills, trying to maintain a pace faster than 5:00 per km. I failed over 2 kilometres at 13km up a long hill (5:05) and at 16km up a really long, steep, bastard of a hill (5:08). Relief to have managed to run up both of those without resorting to a walking pace.

Total distance of 20.75km in 1:39:32 or an average of 4:48. Pleased considering the uphill involved over the course. Good session which will stand me in good stead for the speed training this week.