Tuesday session

I managed to get back from Rouen in record time just to get to the club session last night. Hopefully I avoided all of the speed traps in the process, but it was a close run thing. Biggest frustration was being caught in the traffic in St Germain less than 2 km from the clubhouse with 5 minutes left. Anyway, I arrived on time.

And why all the haste and hassle just to get to a Tuesday night session ? It was mostly to enjoy my fleeting moment of glory as Thierry and Miguel read out the race results at the start of the session. First St Germain runner in the race is a first for me in a major event where 19 runners from the club were present. I'd been looking forward to discussing the race with the others to hear about their performances and what they thought about the course etc. I wasn't disappointed.

Another large turnout again last night. The attendance levels seem to be rocketing this year and there's a really good atmosphere at these sessions: plenty of banter, jostling and some healthy competition throughout. Miguel, Thierry, Jean-Marc, José, Bruno, Nico, Fabrice, etc. were all there last night and the only notable absentee was Nick. We ran a 25 minute warm-up all together before splitting up into 3 groups with one doing 200m intervals on the track; one doing 30/30's and the last just running easily. I was designated as a 200m interval runner along with the faster runners and so I started the session with Thierry and Bruno setting the pace. Adrien, one of the youngest members of the club (in his late twenties) was also eager for a hard session, having taken it easy over the Summer.

I have to admit that I love to run from the front. I find it far harder to run chasing someone as I tire faster and the motivation wanes. I set off intending to take it easily as there were 12 intervals but I found myself at the front, battling it out every time with Thierry. Bruno, José and Adrien were just behind. The intervals went: 40, 39, 39, 39, 38, 38, 38, 38, 37, 36, 35, 33.

Great session. A couple of laps warm down and then some sit ups with Miguel at the end. I'm so unused to these exercises, abs still ache today.

10 km all up.