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Andy, where are you ?He didn't answer our call to go running this Saturday and I fear the worse: a bad case of New Year's blues where running is playing second fiddle to mountain biking. Whatever the excuse, Andy wasn't available for the Cora run so Nick and I went out by ourselves around the 15km loop through the forest next to Maisons Laffitte.There's nothing lke a good run to Cora to recharge the batteries and to improve my motivation and this Saturday was no exception. Nick and I had a good chat and the time seemed to pass by really quickly. It was beautiful in the forest with the cold and there were no other runners around. We headed out to Cora at a good pace, gradually speeding up to 4:27 per km before we eased off around the lake and then headed back up the hill to Pavillon de la Muette.I got back feeling fresh and looking forward to the weekend. I managed to get some wife credits by buying the croissants for breakfast before Laurence got back from her run too. Good start to the weekend.15 km in 1:12 or an average of 4:48 per km. Total mileage for the week amounts to 61km.
Work has been intensive this week and I haven't been able to find an time in which to fit an early morning training run. I even intended running with the club on Thursday evening but then got held up at work and missed this too. So Friday morning had to be the day and despite the lack of motivation, I got up an hour later and ran a 10 k loop before going to work a little late.The run itself was uneventful. I found it hard to push myself and thought that I was running a lot slower than usual. I got back home and hit the stop button to see 43:36 for 10 km, so only 30 seconds slower than Tuesday's run. Amazingly, the 2 runs seemed incomparable in speed. 4:18 per km for the 10.1k course. Not too bad after all.
6:00 am start and it was damn cold. Temperature had dropped to -8°C and a thick frost covered the ground. It was still fairly dry, so no snow to really make the going difficult but the icy patches had to be avoided.I've prepared my winter training gear now so running in the cold is no longer a problem. 2 layers of long sleeved running tops with the second insulated, a pair of long running tights, a pair of gloves and a thinsulate ski hat. Perfect for all temperatures down to -10°C. Below this, I think that I would suffer terribly. At least for the running tights, I 've found a solution with a nice pair of silk boxer shorts that Laurence offered me in the past. These now protect me from any chafing from the tights and extra insulation on cold days.I did the usual 10km course around Maisons Laffitte and I set off fast to avoid getting too cold. Having negotiated my way down the slope to the Seine in the dark, and avoiding the ice traps, I pushed the pace harder alongside the river. I've bee thinking about my lack of VMA training and I thought that I could alternate the effort on these morning runs over each kilometre: one slow then one fast. Unfortunately, the thought has remained just that for the moment and I haven't managed to overcome the mental barrier to actually putting this into place.10.1 km in 43:06 or an average of 4:15 per km. Good run.
Shit, shit, shit. The alarm that I'd set for 8:10 am had failed to go off and it was now 9:15 am. In fact, I 'd set the alarm time and then not turned the bloody thing on and it was the early morning sun, streaming through the window that had woken me up.So much for the Sunday club session that I'd been looking forward to doing. I would be running by myself yet again. I hesitated for a long moment as to where to run to this morning. I eventually decided that I would go off in the direction of the clubhouse and on to Princess Road to try a few hills and to train there before heading back. Laurence had already set out, as she was late for her running partner and I drank an orange juice and headed out in turn.It was cold outside at just below freezing and a thick frost had covered the cars in the drive. I set out easily, as I have a tendancy to do nowadays, and ran up towards the church at Le Mesnil. I saw the Garmin indicate around 5 minutes for the first kilometre and then I told myself to ignore it from now on. I was running to enjoy myself not to do a time trial. I settled down then and found a pace, running through the forest towards the club in the straightest line possible. The ground was frozen underfoot and it made the running hard, twisting the foot and the ankle into some unnatural running positions. I ran out past the club having crossed a good 10 runners through the forest and then ran up past the Horticultural Lycée to the Princess Road. I passed another 5 runners up the hill until the point where I almost reached the top, and then set about doing some hill intervals. I tried the first interval and felt completely crap. My legs wouldn't move properly, my breath was panting and I just couldn't be bothered. My initial intention to run 10 of these went straight out of the window. I f I run 2, I'll be lucky. I jogged back down the hill and ran the second interval, during which I felt much better. My effort was more controlled and I felt in charge of my body. OK so perhaps I won't give up just yet and I'll do a couple more.I ended up running 5 hill intervals, and the last was the hardest. I had slowed to a virtual walk by the top with the flow of lactic acid to my legs, the effort was just too much. I carried on towards the St Nom la Breteche Road and ran back to St Germain along the main road. I carried on up the hill and into the park at the Chateau, before heading back home through the woods. The last 3 kilometres were another test as the lack of food in my stomach warned me that I was now running on empty and I need to get back to refill.25.8 km all up in 1:58 or an average of 4:36 per km. Good training and some anaerobic intervals to help me in my quest to beat my 10k record this year.
It was Saturday and this meant the usual route out to Cora. I'm definitely a man of routine and although Nick and Andy are away at the moment, the run out to Cora had to be done.I'd run with Gill and Laurence the day before but today I was heading out by myself. I ran easily through town to begin with, wrapped up heavily since it was -1°C, and again my legs felt heavy as I tried to get them warmed up to turn over more quickly. I wasn't particularly worried about pace as this is one of my relaxing runs of the week. I was also capping off a big week in terms of disctance as I'd been running every day this week and was going to cover 80km including this run.I ran down to the railway bridge and the puddles of the previous day had completely frozen over. I arrived just in time to see 2 cyclists crossing the bridge and the second man skidding on the ice, falling down heavily, cracking the ice and completely soaking the right-hand side of his body in close to freezing water. His cycling partner just laughed at him and as I pondered whether to make any remark, the poor guy looked so miserable that I just let it go.I ran out to Cora, picking up speed as I went. I started to feel good before getting to the pond and was surprised by how little water there was in there. I was expecting to see a nice expanse of ice stretching over the usual pond, but instead there was patches of ice and large patches of earth which the water usually covers. What has been going on ?I headed back up to La Pavillon de la Muette and then back home without any further mishaps. The forest was really lovely, covered in a layer of frost that glimmered in the early morning sun. I felt good to be out.15km all up in 1:06:13 or 4:24 per km. 80km for the week.
I ran this morning with Gill and Laurence. We headed off in the direction of Cora with the intention of running a 10km loop.I showed them the loop that we normally run with Nick and Andy and we set off in the direction of the railway line, crossing this and then along the paths the other side towards the pond. When we got to about 5.5k we took a left turn and headed back up to the Pavillon de la Muette, up a short hill. Laurence suffered a little up the hill, befire catching her breath and striding away again afterwards.I was really impressed by both Gill and Laurence and how consistently they run, especially at a pace well above Laurence's marathon pace as were were running at about 5:10 per km. It was beautiful in the forest and we did a lovely loop to finish 11km in 57:42.
Another morning session by myself before coming back for breakfast with everyone back home.I ran the usual route down by the Seine and into the park at Maisons Laffitte before coming back home via the townhall and the long straight to the house. I felt a lot better than the day before and managed the 11.1 km in 47:47 or around 4:18 per km. Legs felt better on the run and I've fully recovered from the week's activities.
Just a quick run around Maisons Laffitte on Wednesday morning by myself. Legs felt shattered after interval session the previous night. Running felt very hard and I experienced the sort of feeling when you don't think that you'll ever be able to run fast again.No Garmin on so I had no idea of the time to run each kilometre, which probably made it worse. 10 km all up.
It had been a long time since I'd last been out with the club. I thought that this would be an ideal opportunity to get back out there and meet the guys. I turned up for the evening session and sure enough Nico, Fabrice, Miguel and Gérald were all there.After a short vote, it was decided that we would do a real workout rather than just a jog for the evening. Miguel told us that we would be doing 12x1 minute off 1 minute recovery. This suited me fine as I don't get the chance to do any quality speed work nowadays as I spend all my time running endurance runs. We ran out to Poissy and then began the workout: boy was this hard. Nico would set off fast and try as I might, I could never catch him or pull him back over the last few seconds. My lungs and legs were aching by the end and I was really glad to get the last one done. Each of the intervals was run at about 19km/h. I'm definitely not up to Nico's standard now over these distances, even though I was ahead of the rest. Fabrice was just spitting distance behind me, so I know that I've got to concentrate on these workouts if I want to improve over 10k this year.A little warm down to finish and then back home. Resolution for this year is to try and get to one evening session a week with the club.
The good thing about Houilles was that I was on holiday all of the following week, and so I was able to take it easy and get a run in every day.
I ran with Laurence and Gill on Monday, heading out to the Terrasse at St Germain. We ran the length of the terrasse and then headed for home through the forest, back by Chateau du Val.
11.5 km all up in an hour exactly.
What went wrong ?OK let's get the bad news out straight away: 10km - 38:52 - 215/541 and 60/153 vet.It's hard for me to sit down and to be brutally honest as to why I didn't do better in this race. I set out telling myself that I wouldn't achieve a PB over this course. I told myself that I'd be happy to finish under 38 minutes. I couldn't even achieve this.I was racing with my sister in law, Gill. It was a nice opportunity to enter her into a 10k race in France, especially a race with such a high quality field. She is recovering from a stress fracture in her foot, and so her aim was just to finish the race without pain and if possible under 48 minutes.We lined up at the start with others from the club: Nico, Fabrice, Patrick and I'd spotted Mireille earlier warming up. It was not warm but not too cold either. No excuses for not doing a good time from the weather. There was a little breeze but this was not too strong to be bothersome. The gun went and I set off as best I could. The initial problem was the sheer quantity of runners and the bottlenecks that were forming. I hadn't intended to set off at breakneck speed but this was still a problem as I had to weave in and out of runners and then keep to the extreme side of the road as I ran up the hill. The first kilometre went by in 3:58.After the hill the road flattened out and wound its way gently downhill. I stretched out now and made the most of the wider roads and the fewer numbers around me. The second kilometre marker went by and a couple of runners next to me shouted out 3:36 and I checked the Garmin which confirmed the new pace. I slowed down again towards the end of the first lap as the road wound its way through the town centre. The constant bends and the accelerations each time were tiring and I lacked the motivation to push myself hard. I was happy to see Alec, Laurence, Jack and Sophie cheering me on at the end of the first lap and even if Alec said that I was looking good, I certainly didn't feel it.The hill was harder this time and I caught up with 2 runners who I followed up the hill not having enough strength to go past until I reached the top. I went past a female runner dressed in black and was happy to be overtaking some other runners now. I thought of the end of the race already and how happy I would be to finish and relax. This was a mistake as I still had the end of the second lap to complete and a final lap to run. I overtook Batman towards the end of the second lap but I could feel that my legs were beginning to tire. I passed Alec and Laurence again to more encouragement but the desire to push hard was lacking and I just wanted to finish.The last lap was the worst: the hill felt twice as hard as before, time was slipping by and I just thought about getting the race over with and moving on. To cap it all, Nico passed me in the last 200m and I didn't even notice. Perhaps if I had, I would have made an extra effort to speed up. Perhaps not. I'd passed caring by this point.I finished in 38:52 to discover that Nico had beaten me by 5 seconds and Mireille by over 2 minutes. This was the final straw. 2010 will be the year when I beat her well and truly in an official race. The determination is there, I just need the opportunity. Rambouillet will probably be the first opportunity.Gill finished in 47:02 official time, so under 47 minutes real time. She was pleased and deservedly so coming back from injury with this time. We were all thrilled for her result.I was just depressed by the whole affair. Still, I've learnt my lesson and if I'm going to take part, I need to participate seriously and not half-heartedly.
It was Saturday after all and so Cora it was to be. I tried to convince Nick to come out and join me but an excess of alcohol and turkey together with the early start proposed dissuaded him.I set off to Cora by myself when I woke up. It was supposed to be an early start but not setting the alarm and with no pressure to get up, I only awoke after 9:00 am. I kitted myself out and set out for a run before taking Dad et al to the airport.I wasn't in any rush and I pretended that Andy and Nick were with me running at the usual pace (OK guys - only kidding. I wasn't running that slowly ;) ). I'd done about 5k when I saw a familiar figure running towards me at full pace. It was Nick running around in the opposite direction to usual in order to meet me. Too bad that I'd set out so late or we could have run together after all. He was putting in some interval training after a few weeks off with tendonitis, so it was good to see him out again. I sped up after this, even managing a kilometre at 4:15 before I calmed down again and told myself that I was racing the next day so not to go wild.15km in just under 1:09. 60.5k for the week.
Nobody goes running on Christmas Day. It's an unspoken rule. This year I broke it.Having opened the stocking presents at the most reasonable time of 8:30am (it's so much more civilised now that the kids are growing up and don't wake up at 5:00 am on Christmas Day), I put on my running kit and went for a run before starting the Christmas lunch. Having relatives around, means that the alcohol consumption is increased and there's nothing like a run to burn off a few calories and generally give yourself a good conscience.As a result, 13.3 km around the park and back in 57:27 or an average pace of 4:18 per km. Not bad going either.P.S. I wasn't the only runner out in Maisons Laffitte either on this day. Aside from Laurence, I also saw at least 3 other runners out training.
Too tired to run before Wednesday 23 December. Plane was late back to France with family and Alec's family. Work was busy, so first opportunity to get back out was on Wednesday.Normal route through Maisons Laffitte and around the park. Good pace and managed the 11.1 km in 46:39. Can't remember much more about this run, probably due to the fact that it was at 6:00 am and I was still asleep.
Dad and Liz got married on Saturday 19 December. It was a good do, ending up with an evening meal in Hexham Golf Club and accompanied by much alcohol and dancing (in fact the only time anyone ever sees me dancing is after too much alcohol!). On Sunday I was determined to try and run off some of the calories that too much alcohol imparts, and I started off on a long run with Laurence in the direction of Corbridge.We ran together along the old road to Corbridge and Laurence was in fine form. We set off at 5:30 pace but gradually built up to 5:10 pace by the time we reached Corbridge. I accompanied Laurence as far as the start of the old road back to Hexham and then set off at my pace. I picked up speed to 4:25 - 4:28 per km and was surprised by the force of the wind in my face coming down the valley. What's more, the wind was so strong that it was blowing the icicles off the trees into my face as I passed under the them. Most unpleasant.I ran back into Hexham and then along the Tyne past the golfclub to Warden. I turned around then and headed back into town. I ran down Eilansgate and on the the station before heading back up through town to home. 21km in 1:41. A nice session for a long Sunday run.
It seems like ages ago already, in fact it is as I've been very lazy recently and not written a thing for 2 weeks now, but the big event was the showdown in Hexham between Tom and myself.I fancied my chances actually, as I've been running well of late and Tom has been injured and out of form. In any case, it was a good occaision to test my ability against my younger brother over a little training run. We set off quickly and I knew that Tom wouldn't be letting me rest at all. I tend to start slowly and then gradually build up speed whereas he sets out hard from the start.We ran out past the golfclub and there was still snow underfoot making the going slippy in places. I struggled to keep alongside him and I felt that the pace was just faster than comfortable for me - it was definitely an effort. We ran down to warden and then back along the path beside the railway. Tom pulled away from me here, just a couple of metres or so but I could tell that he had more to spare than me. I was at full pelt. Admittedly the kilometre times were fast. We were now at 3:53 per km, a speed that I only usually manage under race conditions or over a minute in interval training. We entered Tyne Green golf course and the road changed to track and my speed fell with the extra effort involved. We were now running at 4:03 then 4:06 over the snowy tracks and along the icy road. I was losing Tom now and he'd pulled away creating a 5m gap. At this point, I saw Laurence running and told Tom that I'd finish the run with her as she headed back along Tyne Green in the other direction. Tom was relieved as he wasn't looking forward to racing up Hallstile Bank. Apparently, he'd been suffering too but hadn't wanted to let on. If only I'd known ...11.4km in 52:50 all up. Great to run with Tom as it brought a new quality to my training.
