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.