Sunday morning saw me at the Parc de Loisirs running over the embankments in the wind and the mud. I warmed up with Nick and the other veteran runners from the club: Fabrice, Régis, José, Thierry, Nick B etc. My aim was to stay (well) ahead of Régis and to get as close to Thierry as I could. I honestly thought that I was in with a fighting chance of beating him over this sort of distance especially through the mud. Thierry is still probably untouchable on the road, but a nice muddy, hilly course would discourage him and I thought that I might be able to sneak past.
As it turned out, I wasn't so far off. After a tough race, he finished just in front of me by 3 seconds and I lacked the mental grit and determination to make the real effort over the final loop. I set off fast (3:43 for the first km) and paid the price afterwards. I'm still lacking the endurance and VMA training to keep up this sort of speed at the moment. The biggest blow was Régis (henceforth known as Crossman!) coming past on the final lap. He's just so constant that despite my efforts (feeble and meagre due to tiredness), I just couldn't stay with him and he first went past me then Thierry to finish a good 30 seconds ahead. So much for revenge for last year's race. Anyway, I considered it as good training as cross-country has never been one of my major objectives for the season.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were all early morning runs (6:00am). Same course (10.1k) in 42:45, 43:24 then 44:45. The first run was good as I set off fast (4:04 pace) for 2 k then eased up for 1k before running 1k fast then 1k slow for 3 intervals. Fast intervals were run at 3:53 pace.
Saturday went back to Cora with Nick and ran 15k in 1:15. 54k for the week.
Régis just about to sneak past me !
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