Easy session

An easy session with the club tonight.

The club was running a 3x7' interval session tonight, but I was taking it easy. Race is on Saturday afternoon and I didn't want to burn out so close to the event.

I just jogged around St Germain golf club way with Philippe, talking to Manu (Pascale's brother) about how bad Michel the stand-in coach is. We reckon that he's a compulsive liar and we had a good chat as we jogged around slowly.

6.5km in 41:58 - told you it was slow. Laurence was at physio tonight and was so jealous when she found out how easy I'd taken it. Complaints from her that I'm never that easy going when she's around !

Treadmill

In Amsterdam for business yesterday, so I took my running stuff to go for a quick run around the hotel while I was there.

When I arrived and saw that the hotel was situated right next to Schiphol airport in one of the greyest areas of the city, I was instantly put off by any thoughts of running the streets. Luckily the hotel had a sports room so I set off early morning to run on one of the treadmills there.

It's a completely different feeling running on a treadmill. There's no wind in your face to begin with. Not the slightest breeze even. I was sweating after not even 5 minutes. I set the speed to 10km/h to begin with and then built up to 13.5 km/h by the end.

Ran 7km in the 35 minutes I had spare. Not impressive but just enough to keep the fitness up.

Long Sunday

Last long Sunday run before next Saturday's race. I was intending to run about 20km around Olm but after a look at the map last night after a few glasses of champagne, I'd forgotten most of the town names that I was supposed to run through this morning.

I set off easily at about 4:40 pace, suffering slightly from lack of sleep and an excess of champagne. As usual, a few kilometres into the run and my head began to clear and I felt a whole lot better. The start of the run was through some forest areas and the shade and the coolness of the air was very pleasant. This ended too shortly and I ended up running some hills (yes even more than I would have asked for) in the sun on a warm morning.

I ran through Nospelt, which I recognised as one of the intended towns en route and found a lovely footpath through some more forest and down into a valley only ot rise steeply out on the other side. My pace slowed to 5:26 per km at this point, and my mind clouded with concern over La Pastourelle and the thought of the 8.5 km uphill section.

The footpath joined a road and headed back to Nospelt and I guessed, correctly, that I should be heading more West and so ran in the direction of Goeblange. This is where I made my first mistake. I'd run 14 km by now and saw a sign for Olm, a mere 3km away. I decided that this wasn't long enough and saw a another sign for Wandhaff. I followed the street down, but it looked too small to be a real road, heading anywhere. I turned back to the main road and continued on to Koerich. Once, I arrived in this village, I realised that the champagne had well and truly worn off and that I didn't recognise the name, or any other villages heading out of the town either, for that matter.

I turned up left as soon as I could here, thinking that I would be heading South and would eventually come upon another village that I recognised, or a sign to Olm or Capellen, next door. No such luck. In fact, I was still heading West in the opposite direction to where I wanted to be.
Steinfort was the next village on my tour and I was tiring now. The heat and the hills were wearing me down. I hit a main road, signposted to Luxembourg and so I followed this, figuring (correctly this time) that I would cross another main road to Capellen in a few kilometres at Windhof (actually known as Wandhaff in Luxembourgish, cause of my initial mistake).

Stopeed at 19km and walked for 50 metres before beginning to run again. Just when I was beginning to despair, I saw the town sign that I recognised and knew that I was only 3km from home.

Finished the run after 24 km and 1:49 or an average of 4:34 over the whole route. Excellent time considering the hills and the heat. Bodes well for next weekend. Knackered.

Easy Saturday

We were in Luxembourg this weekend to see an old friend, and as always we took our running kit with us to make the most of the trip.

I ran with Laurence to ease off the effort after the interval training during the week and particularly to rest after the hill training on Friday. We were at Olm and we ran a very straight-forward 7km as Laurence's knee began to play up after 20 minutes effort.

7.3 km all up in 40:15 or an average of 5:32 per km. Laurence was pleased as this is faster than her marathon pace.

We spent the evening in Luxembourg town centre watching the marathon and half-marathon. Have decided that Tom needs to take time off next year to run the half-marathon with us, in his godmother's home town. He is in with a good possibility of winning the event as the winner this year managed 1:13:15. I've already decided that I will benefit from a handicap of 1 minute per 1kg of weight heavier than him. I'm in with a shouting chance too.

Hill session

I went out for a run at lunchtime today as I want to get some last hill training in before next week's fell race.

I headed out ot Grouchy Castle in Osny from the swimming pooland did a warm up of about 4 kilometres before studying the hill that I planned to run up. It's not a long hil as it only last for about 160m but it is fairly steep and enough of a challenge to wear the muscles out and get the heartrate up. I told myself that I would run up 12 times as fast as I could and then jog back down slowly.

Good reps, as I started out steadily not knowing what to expect and then sped up as I progressed. Slowed at the end due to sheer exhaustion.

Reps went as follows: 46, 45, 44, 44, 43, 43, 43, 43, 42, 43, 43, 43

Lovely day. Pleased with session as really felt the lactic build up by the end. Getting stronger.

9.5 km all up in 52:43 or an average of 5:31 per km.

Bank holiday

Today is ascension day in France which is a bank holiday. Ascension day is, of course as everybody knows, the day that Christ is supposed to have risen to heaven, 40 days after Easter. I've always found it strange that for a country which prides itself on the separation of religion from the state that so many public holidays are based on the Catholic faith.

Anyway, I'm not complaining as it was a nice day off work and I was able to go runnig with the club in the morning instead. Miguel had planned a small pyramid session today, forgetting that it was a holiday and that we had more time than usual. Being the big-hearted bloke that he is, he decided that instead of a 2',4',6',4',2' session we would add another 8' minutes at the top of the pyramid just for fun.

The weather was very pleasant today: sunny and around 15°C when we started at 9:00 am. There was a good turnout with Nick, Anne and Laurence to begin with and then most of the club. I was concentrating on the runners towards the front with Thierry, Fred, Bruno, Fabrice, Régis, Yannick and Adrien all turning out. We warmed up along the wall at the St Germain terrasse to begin with, before heading towards Le Mesnil and the forest there. Laurence's knee is still playing up and she stopped there to jog home, while the rest of the group carried on towards Croix de Noailles.

I wanted to make the most of the session by pushing hard over the intervals and I certainly wasn't disappointed today. We started steadily on the first interval, mainly due to the terrain and the fact that it was single track only in most places. The four minute interval which followed was more sustained and this continued for the next 2 intervals too. I was leading at one point on the 8 minute interval before Miguel came past, but only gradually. The Garmin recorded maximum speeds of 17.4 and 17.6 km/h on both of these intervals and it certainly felt fast. On the 84 interval, I recorded one kilometre at 3:49 which is slightly below 16 km/h average but this included a slight slowdown as we turned around at the crossroads.

So, overall very steady and a good hard push. Most enjoyable and I really felt as though we'd tried hard at the end.

15.5 km all up in 1:24 or an average of 5:29 over the course. Will attack some hills tomorrow as the last preparation for the Pastourelle a week Saturday.

Easy session

Another muscular workout programmed by Miguel tonight. It was a lovely evening with the sun surrounded by a blue sky and the temperature still pleasant enough to run in comfort.

I was late as usual and had to chase the others being last out of the changing rooms. There was quite a large crowd present, with all the trailers back from La Queue lez Yvelines and the 10km racers back from Rosny. Fabrice and Régis were back running and I chatted with them for a while not having seen Régis at least in a month. Nick and Mireille caught up as well and we had a few words before heading back to the stadium.

We had warmed up over a 5.5km course through the forest and now it was Miguel's turn to put us through our paces with sit ups, medicine balls, hoops and cones. It was supposed to be a speed session, but I didn't come away feeling as tired as usual so I was a little disappointed. I should have gone off a run a few intervals over 400 - 600 metres, but the truth of the matter was that I didn't have the energy.

We ran these little workshops and then did a few tours of the stadium before finishing with 5 diagonal sprints across the playing field.

About 7km all up. Not stretching enough tonight. Thursday will be better.

Sunday training

A round of applause and a mention in despatches from the club this morning before our training for my gold in the triathlon yesterday.

The glory was shortlived however as I set off with Bruno and Mireille for the Sunday run. We set off easily enough but then began a 14' interval at threshold followed by 4' recovery and then 16' interval again at threshold. I struggled to hold on to both Bruno and Mireille as they ran through the forest at 15km/h. This wasn't helped by having to wait for Michel, our coach, as he was left behind by the pace and nobody knew the directions to take in front.

The forest was damp from the rain and very humid. Luckily it wasn't too warm but I found the going hard nonetheless.

16 km all up in 1:32. I would have preferred a longer run at an easier pace after yesterday's efforts. Knackered now.

Podium

I took part in the first triathlon organised by Mareil Marly, a nearby town, yesterday. A poster had been put up on the wall of the running club changing rooms and since it was free entry, I decided that it would be worth a shot. Despite the fact that it wasn't a classical triathlon, since the swimming had been replaced by archery, I managed to persuadeAndy to take part too.

We turned up at 1:00 pm at the start to sign up and to check out the competition. The plan was a 6 km run followed by a 12 km bike ride (2 loops of the same course) and then a 6 arrow archery competition. I won't go into the calculation regarding the scoring as it was far too complicated and nobody understood, suffice to say that it was based on your performance against the average and then weighted 2/3 for the bike/run and 1/3 for the archery.

Andy and I checked out the course quickly and it was clear that it wasn't going to be as simple as I had imagined. There was a long uphill to begin with, which lasted about 1 kilometre, before flattening out on a track through the forest. Just enough time to pick up speed before a sharp left then right combination sending you an a narrow parallel path to the track through some mud and roots. Another sharp left and then down a vicious slope (very dangerous on my old mountain bike whose braking capacity was very limited) and along another narrow path with a steep drop off the left. Having negotiated all of this, there were a few more shorter pulls uphill before a final downhill stretch to the starting area. The course was sufficiently technical to be interesting on the bike, but what would it be like running ?

We lined up at the start after a short delay against the planned 2:00 pm start. A few words of advice about the course and then we were off. It all started fairly fast and Andy and I were back from the front runners in a total pack of about 50 competitors. I left Andy and accelerated slightly to see what the front runners were doing. 2 runners were sharing the lead, one in his early 40's and the other almost 20 years younger. I followed them up the hill, taking it steadily to run the first kilometre in 4:34. As soon as we hit the top and the track, I stretched out, picking up the pace and overtaking the older guy in the process. I tagged behind the young runner and then overtook him as we left the track and ran along the muddy path. I wondered if he would fall off the pace here, but then as we turned to go down the hill, he came past and quickly put a good 15 metres distance on me.

At this point, I hesitated mentally and then resigned myself to the fact that he was a good competitor and that the over 40 category was still within my grasp. I let him pull away and as we finished the run heading down the hill to the bikes, he had gained 50 metres over me. I jumped on my bike, only to be told to get off immediately, as the bikes had to be walked through the transition area. I refused the water and food offered and started on the bike just behind my younger rival. My hopes of winning wavered again as he was as good on the bike as he was running. He quickly left me up the first hill and at the top, he had put 100 metres between the two of us. I concentrated on finding a comfortable rhythm along the flat and started pushing the big cogs as much as possible.

I glanced up as we ended the flat section and saw that the distance between us had reduced again to around 75 metres. I lterally flew down the hill, scaring myself rigid in the process as the warm-up circuit with Andy was completely different when hurtling downhill at top speed. Twice the bumps almost through me off balance but as the path flattened out, the guy in black was just in front of me. I latched onto his wheel at this point and followed him up the short hills. We hit the top and another wider track and I shifted to the large cog on front and accelerated away. He followed and as we completed our first lap, he was just on my tail.

I had recovered my breath by now and was feeling more comfortable on the bike. Comfortable in the leg muscles at least, since on the downhill, I had landed so heavily on the saddle that it was pointing skyward at an angle of 15°. I kept the legs turning over quickly up the hill and the breathing behind me disappeared. I couldn't look back to see where he'd gone as I didn't want to show him any signs of encouragement. As I hit the top, I felt great and I just wanted to retain the lead over the remainder of the course. The feeling of leading a race was tremendous, something that I'd never experienced before. I kept peddling steadily now, checking every now and then that there was nobody arriving at speed from behind. When I reached the wide track leading downhill, I knew that I'd won the race. My only scare was on the last downhill stretch, a man pushing a lawnmower popped out from his garden, almost mowing me down in the process.

Last bend, a final sprint and I finished first: a good minute ahead of the second competitor and three minutes ahead of Andy who finished third. I was really satisfied with my performance and happy that I'd done a good job. To be honest, I wasn't bothered about the archery to come, being a complete novice, this would just be the fun part.

Andy gave me a few tips as we headed up to the archery: keep your elbow high as you pull back the arrow; bring the arrow to your eye; pull back as far as possible. I bore this in mind as I let loose the first 3 practise arrows. 2 sevens and a nine - not bad. Another 3 practise arrows and I improved again. I lined up for the first 3 arrows that would be counted now. First arrow: seven points; second a nine; last a ten. 26 points from a possible 30 - excellent. A reasonable second volley and I'd secure my place as best veteran at least.

The second volley was more tense than the first as more was at stake. First arrow: ten points - impressive; second arrow - nine then the last arrow: another ten. 29 points from a possible 30. Even the judge was impressed. I was ecstatic.

Andy and I waited a long time for the prizes, but we picked up first team. I won first veteran and then first in the overall rankings. First ever podium for me and I was over the moon.

I'll be back next year to defend my title !

More intervals

I turned up for tonight's session not knowing what had been planned. I had hoped that following Tuesday's workout that tonight would be a little easier, especially since a lot of runners from the club are racing this Sunday over a 10k course.

I should have known better. Having changed into my running kit, Miguel announced that the plan for tonight was 3 x 3' off 1'30 recovery. OK not too bad. Oh, but he hadn't finished. That was for the runners racing on Sunday. For the others present he had some further surprises in store ... 6' with 3' recovery followed by 2 x 3' off 1'30 recovery.

In for a penny, in for a pound. Off we set.

The session started fast enough. The first intervals were led by those who were only doing the first 3. Those of us who were carrying on were trying to keep a little energy in reserve. This energy was fast disipating in the heat and the humidity though. It was around 18°C and the humidity was high. Even after the first interval, my shirt was soaked in sweat and my legs felt heavy.

I ran with Mireille and Bruno, staying ahead of them over the first 3 intervals, but behind Nick. I then ran jsut behind them over the 6' interval and a good 10 metres behind them over the penultimate interval. Miguel told me to stick with them and then Mireille told me to take the lead over the final session. This was all the encouragement I needed to pull out all the stops and to give the last interval my best effort. I led everyone around until the last 50 metres when Bruno came flying past. He'd obviously been watching his watch looking at the remaining time whereas I'd just been concentrating on the pace.

Another tough session overall which should pay in the next race. We were running the intervals at just below 16km/h in my opinion. The Garmin recorded the max speeds at between 15.7 and 16.6 km/h which I felt was reasonable.

15.2 km all up in 1:27 or an average of 5:45 per km. Humidity made the going tough tonight.

Tuesday training

I was looking forward to the club session tonight. The programme was for another session of muscular workout, just like last week's session. After all of my training runs and race over the last few days, the idea of an easy jog followed by a gym-style workout was very appealing.

It rained heavily last night and this morning the weather was only slightly better - lousy in fact. I packed my running kit and even a waterproof, just in case. I reached the club on time for once this evening and Miguel announced that due to the rain, the grass was too wet for a muscle workout and so a pyramid session was programmed in replacement. Miguel, with his abounding generosity replaced the scheduled programme with a 3', 5', 7', 5', 3' pyramid session off 2' recovery. Bang went my easy session replaced by 23 minutes of hard work.

We ran out into the forest to the Toto Vermeil cross-country course. This is a 3 km loop with some nice downhills and some rotten uphills over muddy tracks. A warm-up for 30 minutes and then off into the first interval. I ran with Nick and we chatted a little, not trying too hard to begin with. We let Thierry, Bruno, Mireille, Adrien et al run off ahead cruising steadily behind them. It was a warm evening (around 18°C) and the humidity was high. I was already sweating heavily after the first interval and this just got worse as they carried on.

The second interval, I started with Nick again, but put more of an effort in to try and catch Mireille - no way. Third interval was the longest and I started closer to the front, just behind Thierry. I let him pull away but kept a steady pace at around 15.5 km/h. Bruno was right behind me and as we ran down a hill, he came past and I couldn't follow. Worse was yet to come as I saw the shadow of woman behind me and knew that Mireille was just on my tail too. She pulled past up the hill, and I had nothing left in my legs to respond. 5 days of running (and mountain biking) has left me exhausted.

The last 2 intervals were run at the same pace and I was glad when it was all over. Sweat was dripping from me now and even the slow jog back felt exhausting.

13.8 km all up in 1:16 so an average of 5:31 per km. Almost 80 km run in the last 5 days. Well-deserved day off tomorrow.

Laurence had her consultation with the sports doctor today. Windscreen wiper syndrome has been diagnosed, as we suspected. Cure is to run until it hurts and then stop, building distance back slowly. Insoles and a visit to the chiropodist are prescribed - more news next week.

Monday off

To celebrate my day off this morning, I decided to make the most of Laurence being at school in order to go for a short run.

All my training recently has been based on increasing the mileage, and even the club sessions have been focused on general muscle building rather than any speedwork. It was time to rectify this and head back out on a short run to Chateau du Val. This route is just over 7 km in total and used to be one of my standard training routes before I started to train over longer distances.

I set off this morning under a very overcast sky. It had been raining during the night and the ground was soaked. I decided that I would try and run the course fast but not so fast as to bust a gut in the process. It wasn't to try and set a new PB but just to ran at a faster pace than the usual endurance pace of around 4:30 per km.

I ran up the hill towards the forest in 4:28 and I could feel the fatigue in my legs. This is the fourth day running non-stop now and I'm not used to the intensity. My thighs were sore and tired so all thoughts of blasting the whole course disappeared then. Having decided this, I settled into an easy but consistent rhythm, running at around 4:10 pace and every now and then accelerating a little. The following kilometres went by then in 4:14, 4:05, 4:10, 4:12, 4:06, 4:02. Sprint for home and all up in 29:38 - second best time ever. So despite the tiredness and not trying hard, I am still improving on my times set just under a year ago. This is really encouraging and a big boost to my morale.

To celebrate, I went mountain biking with Laurence this afternoon. Came off the bike 3 times in the mud and landed heavily on my thigh in the last accident. Laurence was well amused though. She then showed me up for my lack of bike training by leaving me on the flat on the way home. My legs couldn't take any more. Having second thoughts about the triathlon on Saturday but will do it anyway.

Sunday run

Another lovely morning, and it was a real pleasure to go out and run with the group in the forest from Le Mesnil. Laurence was accompanying on the bike this morning, as her knee problem has not improved. She's forcing herself to rest,but like all runners deprived of their daily dose, she's suffering from withdrawal symptoms and going cold turkey. Life alongside her isn't always easy.


There was a fairly good turnout this morning with Ralph, Louise, Pierre-Henry, Sophie, Philippe, Yann and Thierry. I set off with Philippe at a steady pace thinking that we were the only two that would be running around the full course, but Yann followed so we slowed down so as not to lose him. I haven't run with Philippe in a while and he's improved tremendously. If he carries on at this rate, it won't be long before I'm struggling behind him to keep up. We ran with Yann until a kilometre before the barrier and then stretched out to about 16 km/h (3:45 pace) to reach the barrier. Philippe struggled at this point, but since he only runs once a week, this is not surprising. I told him how much faster and stronger he would be if he ran even 3 times a week - great potential.


We went back to run with the girls at this point and then set off again faster over the second half of the course. Philippe was determined to catch the other blokes who hadn't stopped half way and he pushed the pace faster than I (or my legs) were inclined. Managed the 11.5 km in 55:00, so an average of 12.5 km/h.


The others stoped after this loop, but determined to increase my mileage, I set off with Laurence on another loop at a faster, more regular pace. It was hard work and the last few days had taken their toll, but I was running at between 4:20 - 4:30 per km, finishing down the road in a last kilometre of 3:58.


All up in 23.9 km in 1:52 or an average of 4:42 per km. Great run on a lovely day.


Some photos of the trail from Friday (thanks to Christèle). Laurence looking good despite the knee.

Saturday run

Went for an early morning run with Nick this morning, back to the pond at Cora. I didn't have much time to run as I'd promised Laurence that I'd be back for just after 9:00 am to help her. Besides which, my legs were definitely aching from yesterday's race and my energy levels were still low despite the copious quantities of orange juice and chocolate cereal bars that I had for breakfast.

We set off steadily, but as per normal, Nick and I were soon cruising at 4:30 per km despite the aches and pains. In fact as we approached Cora, we even managed to pick up speed to 4:15 per km on my watch. Due to the lack or time, we didn't ru the 2 kilometre loop around the pond but cut back immediately up the hill to the forest house. We slowed the speed here as we were both a little tired, and I had just about had my fill of hills for the weekend. I say we were both tired but I speak for myself, Nick is in training for a 10km race next weekend and I suspect a little extra training on the side. Suffice to say, that he was doing a lot more talking than me as we ran up the slope.

We eased off until the end of the loop from then. I finished the 12.6 km in 59:05, which takes my mileage for the week to 60km, from 4 runs. The aim is to carry on consistently at this level until the Autumn and the next attempt at a marathon. Looks like it'll be La Rochelle at end November. Hotel accommodation is already booked. The challenge is on.

Course du Sanglier

After last week's race, I was determined that this would be a better attempt at running a fell race. Last week, I set off too fast and paid the price in the second half of the race. Today was going to be an exercise in running at a consistent pace and feeling better for it. Simple plan, so did it work ?

We arrived at the race nice and early and Laurence, Christèle and I entered the event and changed into our running kit and waited for the rest of the club to appear. We were 8 from the club in total: Philippe and Catherine, Pascale, Christelle, Christiane and us three. I talked to Philippe before the race, explained the race strategy and lined up beside him at the start. Things were looking good for the race though: sun was completely obscured by clouds, temperature was 13°C and the course was very dry. The cannon was fired and we were off.

545 runners were lined up at the start and the going was fast to begin with. The path headed off across some fields on a gentle slope downhill. Despite my race plan, I ran the first kilometre in 3:58 and the second too for that matter. Nevertheless, I felt comfortable at this pace and was in a large group of 10 or so runners. The group soon stretched out as we went up the first hill and then doubled back on ourselves to cut back to where we had run 6 minutes earlier. I eased off down the hill in order to save my right knee from to many shocks as I didn't want it to weaken on me from the start.

The path left the fields after about 4 kilometres and headed into the woods. There were a series of hills up and down an escarpment that the path followed alternately going down to the bottom before pulling back up and then repeating the process. Each hill, seven in total, was numbered so that it was easy to recognise how many hills still had to be climbed. A little sign at the foot of each hill indicated the number assigned, the length of the hill and its steepness in %. This meant that in theory that you could judge the effort necessary and adjust your speed accordingly. In practice, I just kept my head down and grit my teeth, determined to run up each one. The advantage that I gained over those walking was minor.

At 5.5 km the path turned right for the 21km race while the 11km race went straight on. This was a shame since I'd been picking off the back runners from the 11 km race and it was helping my motivation no end. Nothing for it now, but to concentrate on the runners around me and to try and stay with them. This is what happened over a large part of the race since there wasn't much movement in the groups that had formed. Some runners were faster up the hills, other down them. I excelled on the flat and was able to pull back a few places every time the path flattened out a little.

The course was excellent: well marshalled, interesting terrain and countryside, through woods and fields, and plenty of up and downhill to break your rhythm. I ran steadily throughout. My slowest kilometre was 5:53 up the last hill of the course and the fastest 3:47 down a long hill with a tarmac section.

Final results can be seen on the '>official website. I finshed in 64 place in a time of 1:37 dead. This is an average of 4:34 per km for a total height gain of 432m over the course. I'm reconciled with fell running again and happy with my race.

Laurence struggled to finish in 2:18, suffering from a sore knee and a stitch. The pain in her knee still hasn't disappeared, despite a rest this week. We're both concerned that the symptoms today may imply a lot more time off. Visit to the sports specialist on Tuesday for the final verdict.
Thanks to Castor Fou for the photos from last year's race. Race is run in opposite directions from one year to the next, so uphills seen here are the downhills we ran today. I far prefer the course in this year's direction: next year will be a lot harder !

Easy stuff

The club training session was advertising a "muscular reinforcement" programme for last night, and since that sounded like an easy alternative to a VO2 max interval session, I went along.

We started with a 30 minute warm-up run at a very easy pace since we only ran 5.5km. There was a good turn-out and when we were asked if we wanted to carry on running or do the workout, everybody chose the latter.

Miguel then put us through 30 minutes of some fairly strenuous exercises. A quick warm-up of the different muscles in the body before lying down on the grass in the stadium and getting stuck into some sit-ups. I realised doing these just how little I work out, especially on the abdominals. These were hell and I'm sure that Miguel loved every minute of it, seeing us all go through torture. More abdomen exercises afterwards on the side and then on the back. When we finished all of this, we were told to go for a little warm-down jog and then some sprints.

My stomach muscles were aching severely as I jogged around the track. Good programme if you do this regularly - motivation needs to be high though.

Decided to run "Course des Sangliers" on Friday. Will attempt to do a better job than last Friday's run.

Sunday club run

Nick was busy at home, entertaining this weekend so I decided that rather than go running with the usual crowd from the Church at Mesnil le Roi, I would head off for a longer Sunday run with the club. Pay-back time for "moi-je.com" will have to wait until another day.

It was a busy weekend and when I turned up at the clubhouse this morning, it took me all of 5 minutes to greet everyone. The training session planned was a threshold session of 14 mins , 12 mins, 10 mins effort off 3 minutes recovery. The idea was to run out to the Golfclub at Joyenval, and the are known as the Retz desert (le désert de Retz) to run these intervals.

Plenty of competition to maintain the pace this morning: Thierry, Fred, Yannick, Jean-Marc, Bruno, Adrien, Philippe amongst others. We set off and arrived at the golfclub after about 30 minutes of warm-up and then began the first interval. Jean-Marc, Fred and Thierry set off easily enough but as I joined them they pulled away again leaving a small gap that I couldn't close. We ran up through the forest and up some hills, bringing back fresh memories of Friday's fell race and my legs slowed instinctively. There's a lovely track through the forest near the top that contours around that I've often cycled along and I followed the others with some distance along this path.

Disaster struck at the end of the path when I reached a crossroads and couldn't see which way the group had turned. Yannick caught up at this point and he pushed ahead with Adrien on his tail. A few minutes later and it became obvious that there were no other runners along this path and so at the end of the first interval, we pulled together the remainder of the group, about 10 of us and back-tracked. We went down the hill this time and turned right under the motorway and the second interval was then a little marred by dead-ends on the path and numerous U-turns. Maggy wouldn't have approved.

It was only then that I understood that they were trying to find there way back to the golf-club and the start. I'd assumed, naively, that the others in the group knew where they were going and I just followed blindly. For the last interval, I led for the first 6 minutes until we hit the right path but as Adrien and then Bruno went past, I couldn't summon the energy of the willpower to push on and follow and so the ended up 30 metres ahead by the end.

Last interval was run at a steady 16km/h which I found heavy going. Met up with all of the group again by the end, more by luck than judgement, and jogged back to the clubhouse.

18 km all up in 1:39. Average of 5:30 per km. Nice long run with some good hills. Photo as promised of my feet. Please don't examine if you're squeamish !!

Recovery run

Nick and I had planned to go for an hour's recovery run this morning. I was to recover from yesterday's run and he was to recover from his long run in Marly forest yesterday. The sun had decided that it would take a break today and there was plenty of cloud cover to protect me from the heat. I wore my cap nevertheless.

We started slowly enough running towards the forest in the direction of Cora, but soon enough we had quickened the pace, running easily at around 4:30 per km along the forest paths. We got to Cora in good time and were still at 4:30 pace when we decided mutually that this was not going to help us recover and we would be knackered very shortly.

Coming back from Cora is mostly uphill. Not steep uphill but after yesterday's efforts, it felt extremely heavy going and the sandy paths didn't contribute to make the going any easier. We slowed down at this point and were able to start talking again. This is a good gauge of the effort, if we can still talk then we're comfortable, and as soon as we push the pace: silence.

It was very quiet in the forest this morning with few runners out. It looks as though most people have made the most of the long weekend and left for a short break. The run was most enjoyable and Nick and I were able to have a good chat. Reminisced a little about the raid in Normandy last year and how it would be good to repeat the experience.

15 km all up in 1:11 or an average pace of 4:46 per km. Not quite a recovery run but most enjoyable anyway.

Feet are a mess after yesterday: big blister on toes and underfoot. Nail fell off on left foot. Will post photos soon !

Trail du Vexin

It was a beautiful sunny morning when we woke up and once again the weather forecasters were completely wrong about the rain front that was supposed to be crossing the country. This was a relief as I didn't really want to run through muddy fields with 2kg of mud attached to each foot, but I left the house with a cap to protect my fragile head from the sun anyway.

We picked up Christèle and Jean-François and headed to Issou for the start of the race. The GPS took us to the town no problem, but nobody in the car had any idea where the start was situated. Luckily, it's only a small town and the streets were full of cars spilling runners out into the roads so we decided to park and wander off in the direction that the other runners were taking.



We went though some small gates and found ourselves in the wonderful grounds of an old uninhabited castle. The registration area was teaming with athletes and as we went to pick up our bibs, we bumped into most of the other runners from the St Germain club: Thierry, José, Yannick, Nick B, Philippe, Catherine and many others. We all had a good chat and enjoyed the sunshine before the start of the first race.

2 races were organised for the morning: the first to start was the 36km race which shared the course with the second race until the 13th kilometre before adding an extra loop: and the second course, which we were entered for covering 19km.

We watched the first race go off and then lined up ours. The sun was beginning to gain in heat and still no clouds in sight. The temperature was very pleasant and I was able to stand in my singlet without feeling the cold whatsoever. My aim was to finish in my target time for a half-marathon in around 1:25 and I figured I would be in the first 15-30 runners. The best runners from the club: Thierry, José and Yannick were all down for the 36km race, so my club competition for this race would be coming from Nick B.

We set off at a steady pace. I didn't want to tire myself from the start and knew that there would be plenty of time to catch others over the distance. I ran with Nick for a few hundred metres at the beginning before he let me go. The course wound its way up past the castle and along a wooded track behind, creeping gradually upwards. I was running just behind a small group, telling myself not to let them stretch away from. The pace, after the first km in 4:30 had settled down to a steady 4:10 - 4:15 rhythm.

Already, I could feel that I wasn't totally involved in the race. My mind was elsewhere and I was going through the motions but the heart wasn't quite in it. We arrived at the first feeding station after 6km and I grabbed a glucose drink and carried on. The sun was beating down now and I was starting to overheat. I hated the long passages through the rape fields, running in ruts left by tractors and trying to overtake slower runners from the 36km race who'd set off 15 minutes earlier. Trails are so unlike road running as you can't get into a rhythm and every stride has to be taken carefully in order to avoid twisting an ankle in a rut or slipping in the mud.

At around 9 km there was a steep stretch of uphill on the road and I ran up this slowly. I was overtaken by another runner who stopped shortly after and began to walk. I overtook him again and then was overtaken in turn by Nick who invited me to run with him. I was tired and fed up now and I let him go. The will to race was slipping away and the course was getting harder and harder: the going was all uphill now and the sun was relentless.

Another kilometre further on and yet another hill and my willpower went. I began to walk up the hill and then jogged as the incline decreased. I slowed the pace and thought only about reaching the next feeding station at 13km. This one was perched at the top of the hill and I remembered from the course profile that this was the highest point. I stopped for a couple of glasses of water and then poured one over my head. Thoughts of the Paris Marathon were ever present and I was determined not to repeat that experience.

I set off again and my performance improved from then on. Nick was long gone but I could see other runners ahead now and I began to catch them slowly. I had stopped looking at my watch and was just concentrating on finishing the course. The going was easier as it was in the shade of the forest and downhill. At long last, I was able to get my legs turning over steadily and concentrate on the runner ahead rather than on the track 2 metres in front of my nose.

The last feeding station appeared and I took my 2 cups of water and repeated the operation: one for the head, one to drink. Off again and I could feel that the runner in front was tiring. I overtook him on one of the last uphills but unfortunately, he responded and stuck to me as I increased the pace. I stayed ahead for a kilometre until around 17.5km and then he set off again and I couldn't reply. 1 kilometre to go was posted on the next sign and this was encouraging. I had looked around earlier and there were no runners in sight behind. I just kept steady and concentrated on the finish.

Into the castle grounds and down a small slope: 500 metres to go. I heard a noise behind me and 2 runners came past. This was totally unacceptable. Despite my head telling me not to bother, it's not worth it, my legs responded and I followed them. Another last effort, and I overtook them on the last bend, sprinting the last 200 metres to the finish. Lose 2 places after almost 90 minutes of effort: no way!

Finished in 1:29:23 in 20th position. Nick B. finished 8 places ahead and 3:30 faster. He had been speeding over the second half of the course, putting all of that time over me in 9km.

Graph showing course profile and speed. (Note severe drop in pace uphills!)

I waited for Laurence and Christèle, expecting them to have run together. Laurence showed first though and was clearly flushed from the heat and the physical exertion. She'd left Christèle after 7 km and had suffered with her knee, still not recovered fully from the marathon.

All in all good training. I needed a good 5 minutes and several cups of water to recover from the race and heat. Don't know how I'll manage the Pastourelle if it's sunny like that. Time will tell.