LSR - Long struggle of a run

Guilt - it is the only explanation. Guilt, my guilt, is perhaps not the main cause for my suffering this morning but it is definitely one of the causal factors.

The long run for the week is always on Sunday and for a few weeks now I've been running the same route from Le Mesnil out through the forest, past St Germain, up the Princess Road to Feucherolles, back down to St Nom la Breteche and then back through St Germain, through the forest and home. It's a pleasant route with a mixture of trails and road sections, uphills and downhills and some lovely scenery in places. Nick was starting the run with me again this morning, with the intention of runing 25k, while I was running the full circuit of 33k.

So what went wrong ? Well, things got off to a bad start due to my guilt. Laurence normally accompanies me on these long runs on her bike and she carries the isotonic solution in the rucksack. I seriously messed up yesterday and she wasn't coming with me this morning. So what was all the guilt about ? I ran to Cora yesterday with Andy and when I got back, Laurence wasn't in the house. She had gone on a long run with a friend with the intention of running 30k, so I wasn't to expect her back for 3 hours. I got back to the house and decided that I really fancied some croissants and pain au chocolats with some fresh bread. I jumped in the car and bought 3 of each for myself and the 2 boys. I didn't buy one for Laurence. How could I be so stupid ? I assumed that since she would be back from her run just before lunch that she wouldn't want a croissant and that lunch would suffice. Big mistake. Laurence loves croissants and she would have liked nothing more than to have been welcomed back with a nice cup of tea and a croissant. As it was, she had neither and I was in big trouble. Hence, my start this morning with the rucksack on my back and a litre of isotonic solution inside. Laurence stayed in bed.

It was tough from the start. I met Nick and Anne (on her bike - Nick doesn't make mistakes about croissants apparently!) and we ran together through the forest and up the Princess Road. We got to the top of the Princess Road (11k) in 55 minutes this morning, compared to 52 minutes last week. I felt that I'd been holding Nick up all the way along. He was running very well and appeared to have lots of energy. I didn't.

We carried on along the top towards Feucherolles and then Nick and Anne turned off left to get back to St Germain the short route whereas I continued on to Feucherolles. We were running at 4:30 pace now and I didn't improve on this pace for the rest of the run. What a difference to last week when I was running 4:10 pace over this section. The route continued and I continued to suffer along with it. I was sore in my shoulders from the sack, tired in my legs and the motivation was lacking. I couldn't figure out what had gone wrong since 7 days ago when I had energy abounding.

I managed to carry on all the way around the course without walking although the temptation was great in places. As soon as there was a rise in the road, I would suffer and the tempo would slow from 4:30 pace to 5:00 pace. It was a real relief to get past St Germain and back into the forest for the last 5 km. I could see the finish now, the end to my suffering.

I completed the 33.6 km in 2:38 or an average of 4:42 per km. I put all of this suffering down to the guilt, or at least having ot carry the rucksack all the way around. I'm sorry love. It won't happen again.