Back to the grindwheel

Sunday again. Sunday for me now means running for an excessively long period of time and hurting seriously by the time I get back to the house. Still, today was an improvement over the usual Sunday for 3 reasons:

i) Laurence was accompanying me on the bike and at least I'd have somebody to keep me company.

ii) I had all my new running gear to wear, including my new Brooks Glycerine 7 which I was dying to try out.

iii) I'd had a reasonable night's sleep and I wasn't hungover.

I prepared the camelbak with some maltodextrine preparation, so that I could drink over the run while Laurence carried the bag. We both had a glass of orange and then we set out. I set off at a faster pace than last week as it was cooler, I was less tired and I wasn't wearing the rucksack. Up the hill into the forest in 4:50 - good start. The next few kilometres into the forest and towards the clubhouse were averaged at 4:30 pace, even slightly faster.

I was feeling really good, definitely in a deep purple patch, and I wasn't keeping anything in reserve but just pacing myself steadily. We passed the clubhouse at about 9:00 am and saw some fo the other runners arriving, but we didn't wait and carried on towards the Princess Road again. This is the hardest point of the run with just over 2 kilometres of uphill. I ran steadily all of the way trying to pick up my feet and run tall where I could. The Garmin showed afterwards that even this I ran at 4:49 and 4:54 pace so a good 15 to 20 seconds per km faster than last week.

Once on the top, I ran alongside Laurence and slurped down some drink and then pushed on again. I love this part of the run through the forest on the road and I talked to Laurence about how nice the scenery was. The pace was still very constant between 4:20 and 4:28 per km and by the time that I got to St Gemme, Feucherolles, I thought that 2:30 for the whole circuit was a feasible proposition.

Another downhill portion into St Nom and Laurence and I admired the magnificent properties that line the route above the golf course. The pace picked up naturally and I still felt a lot fresher than at the same point last week. This feeling carried on to St Germain where I pushed the pace even harder down the hill, maxing at one point at 18 km/h and the kilometre in 3:44. Once into St Germain, I had some more to drink and knew that I was almost home.

I still had strength in my legs as I passed the swimming pool and I had another slurp before stretching for home. I fely light and it didn't seem to be much of an effort to reach 4:15 pace and when I slowed slightly, it was to do that kilometre in 4:23. Laurence told me how impressed she was with my speed which just encouraged me further.

I reached home in 2:27:08 after 33.4 km, equating to an average speed of 4:24 per km. This was a good effort of a hilly course in places and I was really pleased. I managed to beat last weeks time by a good 12 minutes. I even had some positive thoughts about re-running a marathon which hasn't happened in a while.

I've added some photos that Laurence took while I was running. Feel free to admire the new running gear ! New shoes were very good: no blisters and no lost toenails.