Cruising

Tom refers to it as the "purple patch": a period where everything goes just right. I'm having a purple patch at the moment, at least as far as running goes, and I feel great whenever I go out. This morning was no exception.

Some days, getting up to go for a run is a pleasurable experience. This doesn't happen very often as usually the alarm will ring and I have to force myself out of bed and to get my running kit on. Today was an exception as I awoke before the alarm and wanted to go out running immediately. Laurence wasn't too impressed, prefering to stay in bed until the alarm rang and complaining that I always woke her earlier than necessary.

After a glass of grapefruit juice, I headed out into a lovely morning: blue sky, cool temperature and a slight breeze. Unfortunately, Nick was still on holiday, but I decided to do our usual route out to Cora pond and back nevertheless. As I set off, it seemed slightly peculiar to be running this course without him. Normally, we are chatting so much that I don't feel the kilometres pass. This morning, I only had myself to chat to and the conversation wasn't exactly riveting, so I pushed the pace instead.

After the first 2 kilometres, run in 4:22 and 4:34, I settled into a faster rhythm on the well-defined forest trails leading to Cora. Without any conscious effort on my part, the pace was fixed at marathon speed at around 4:15 per km. This didn't feel unnaturally fast, so I picked up speed again, encouraged by the sight of other runners ahead of me who I was able to catch quite quickly. The next few kilometres were then run at 4:10, 4:01, 4:07.

It was at this point that I decided that I was exerting myself and that if I carried on at this pace, I wouldn't be able to make it all the way around and back home. I eased off, finding a more comfortable pace around the pond which was 4:28 before picking up once more before the uphill section to pavillon de la Muette. This uphill is the start of the harder sections. Not that the hill itself is steep, but the track becomes very sandy and every stride needs to be carefully measured to be the most efficient.

I was running with one eye on the watch again now. Having decided to run easily this morning before a longer run tomorrow, I was so pleased with my pace early on that I didn't want to let the average slip by easing off now. I finished the run at a pace of between 4:15 and 4:24 in the forest befoire getting abck onto the tarmac and speeding up to 3:55 pace to finish.

15 km all up in 1:04:23 or an average of 14 km/h (4:18 per km), so just a little over marathon pace. Delighted with my run and not overly tired having completed the course. Most encouraging for the forthcoming races and I can't wait to see how I'll do.