Tuesday taper

Into the last 2 weeks before the Paris marathon and the tapering has begun.

I turned up at the club tonight having read the Bible which stated 2 x 10 minute marathon pace after a warm-up followed by a warm-down. Unfortunately, Fabrice wasn't there tonight, as I'd been expecting his version of tonight's events and to follow him. In fact, the turnout was rather low tonight with most of my usual running companions absent: Fabrice, Régis, José, Bruno, etc.
Instead, I asked Philippe what his plans were and then decided that a 6x800m threshold workout sounded fine.

A quick warm-up towards St Germain terrasse and by the swimming pool and we were back at the track for the workout. Mireille and Nick B had joined us so it was a small group of the 6 of us: Philippe, Nick, Nick B, Mireille, Adrien ( a new youngster) and myself who set off around the track.. Michel the old coach was watching our progress and giving us friendly but annoyingly unhelpful advice. Apparently, he was a really quick athlete in his day (1:09 over the half-marathon) but despite his 40 year's experience, his coaching methods tend to depress me rather than inspire: your stride is wrong, shorten your stride, run wider around the bends, etc. etc.

Anyway, we set off and ran the first 800m very easily (too easily actually) in 3:10. Following the 200m recovery, I took the lead in the second interval determined to pick up the pace and so we finished this one in 2:59. From then on, the aim was to make a second per interval faster over the distance, taking it in turns to lead the group over the 800m. Intervals went as follows:

3:10, 2:59, 3:00, 2:58, 2:57, 2:57

So I found it fairly comfortable and certainly wasn't pushing my heartrate to the max. Again, I far prefer leading the group at my pace than following at a pace imposed on me, which I find a lot harder to follow. Most enjoyable session though and a great warm-down for the marathon next week.

12.2 km all up in 1:06. Good fun.