Grouchy again

Fantastic driving to work this morning: not a soul in sight as the Summer holidays have begun and tomorrow is a bank holiday so most people have taken a day's holiday to make a long weekend. When I got in to work, it was just as quiet.

I thought I would take it easy at lunchtime and go to the pool and then out to Grouchy Castle again for an easy run by myself. I ran down into the castle grounds but was then prevented from doing my usual loop by barricades all around the lake with signs 'Attention: Zone de Tir". I wondered what the hell was going on: had the townhall decided to organise a duck and goose cull by letting loose men with shotguns ? It was only as I finished my first short loop that I realised; July 14th tomorrow and the annual firework display in the grounds tonight to celebrate. I needn't have worried about the shotgun blasts anyway.

I ran fairly easily beginning slowly enough and then naturally speeding up as I began to feel good. I was running 4:50 per km at the start to finish the last 4 kms in around 4:15 - 4:20 pace.
The temperature was warm at around 27°C, so I was pleased with my performance. Nick, if you're reading this, you'll need to go for a run tonight to get the training in.

We've decided to enter a team of 4 for the Yvelines Marathon relay in October: Andy, Nick, Paul and myself. Nick is on holiday today so needs to keep up his training as he's been running great recently; Andy is training on his bike for 'L'étape du Tour', a stage of the Tour de France (172 k and Mont Ventoux to finish !); and no news from Paul recently so hope he's still training hard.

Anyway finished my run today: 10.65 k all up in 48 minutes. Good for an easy run and then fantastic to jump in the pool and swim 10 lengths. Training with the club tomorrow.