Summertime

"Summer time and the living's easy" - well this was most definitely the case tonight. I turned up for the club session with plenty of time to spare, all of 5 minutes, which took everybody by surprise. It was a very warm evening with the thermometer showing 32°C when we set out for the run.

Jean-Claude issued the orders and with most of the senior runners absent, Dominique declared that it would be an hour's easy running towards the St Germain terrasse and then down to Le Mesnil. This suited everybody. I wasn't in the mood to run hard and with the heat and the humidity my motivation was lacking.

I ran with Philippe to the terrasse and to make a change, instead of running alongside the wall in the shade, we ran on the terrasse and took in the views over the Paris basin with the evening sunshine. It was really pretty and for once, we were running at a speed where we could enjoy the views. The speed ? Well around 6:30 for the first kilometre and then we maintained this pace around the circuit. It was a real jog but I appreciated the relaxed atmosphere and the sheer pleasure of running without forcing myself.

Despite the easy pace, the group still managed to split into two and we lost the slower members in the forest around Le Mesnil. So apparently, despite all my efforts to lead the group at an easy pace, it just wasn't slow enough. We carried on along the wall at Le Mesnil and then back through the forest following the shortest route back. I stretched out along the path to the barrier and ran for a while with Dominique before he dropped off and I finished by myself. It was a nice pace and I lengthened my stride until I was running at around 15.5 km/h speed.

10.2 km all up in 1:02. No great shakes !