Doubling up

No, the title does not refer to some new form of swinging or anything else as exotic, but another form of the mid-life crisis whereby I have resorted to going running twice a day to keep the mileage up.

Actually, it wasn't really planned this way as since I've started my new job, I've been finding it harder to manage my time and to fit in a daily run. Since I thought that I wouldn't be able to get to the club session tonight, I decided to go for an early morning run through the park at Maisons Laffitte.

It was literally chucking it down when I woke up this morning and I very nearly gave up the whole idea as a bad lot, but hell, I wasn't goning to let a little water get in the way of my marathon training, so I kitted up and left the house. It was dark outside and very wet. I managed to make it to the end of the drive before getting soaked through. The next problem was starting the Garmin ,which doesn't like the wet much, and the start button refused to function for a good 30 seconds. These 30 seconds ensured that I was even wetter than before and my shoes squelched as I set off down the road.

It was an uneventful run after this as I ran alongside the Seine, up through the park and towards the Chateau and back before heading home. Surprisingly, I was the only runner out today. In fact, I was the only person out today, bar a few horses and riders out for a morning walk near the park. I kept up a steady pace all the way round and felt good.

13.4 km in 59:30 so an average of 4:26 per km.

I then managed to get back from work in time for the club session and Laurence encouraged me to go out even though she was resting today. I left at the last moment with the intention of taking it easy.

I caught the group at the entrance to the forest, so I left the car on the road and ran after them for the warm-up. I chatted to Christèle and Madeleine about La Rochelle marathon and the state of their preparation (nil and limited due to injury - so not promising). I saw Nick ahead, so I ran to join him and to run the session with him. If I'd known before what he was planning to do, I probably shouldn't have bothered.

Half of the group headed for the track, and so I joined them there. The plan was to run 10x 400m - no sorry, that was the plan for most of the fast group. Nick and Patrick had decided that they needed to run 10x 600m and that I could run with them. Worse still, Nick said that the plan was to run them all in 2:10.

The first couple were hard and I felt tired from this morning, and mentally I wondered seriously why I was letting myself in for this punishment. After this, I settled down and ran the remainder with the brain switched off - this helps to forget about the pain and the time passes quicker.

The intervals went as follows: 2:12, 2:10, 2:10, 2:09, 2:08, 2:11, 2:09, 2:10, 2:10, 2:11. Iktrailed a little on th last5 intervals finsihing about 2 to 3 seconds behind me, but we were very regular and I was pleased that I'd done it at the end.

13.0km all up in 1:08. Over 26km today. Not bad and if I could keep this up, I'd beat the 100km in the week.