Interval session - finally

It's the holidays, but it's also the first official week of the marathon training plan for Toulouse. Since Monday, I've been saying that I have to fit my training schedule in but when?

Tuesday was supposed to be a 2x2km session but that went out of the window when we didn't get back early enough from our day walk to l'Aiguillette des Houches. I postponed it then to Wednesday. Laurence and I went on a gentle bike ride on Wednesday morning, using the raod bikes borrowed from the centre here: Onnion - Mieussy - Sommand - Col de la Ramaz - Praz de Lys - Tanninges - Mieussy - Onnion. 50km in 2:30 with a killer of a climb up a category 1 col - this was definitely not one of my gentler rides. When we got back to the centre and told them what we'd done, they looked at Laurence with pity for being married to such a nutter!

Wednesday afternoon, we were off again for a gentle walk beside the river Risse, the same valley as Onnion. We joined the river at Pouilly and the plan was to walk up the river back to Onnion. When I say walk up the river, I mean just that - we were up to our waists in 10°C water wading upstream. A few obstacles had to be overcome just to add a little excitement: tree trunks, rapids, waterfalls and large boulders were all on the menu. It was better than an ice bath for soothing the legs after the cycling in the morning. So no training that day either. Surely Thursday would be better.

Thursday was a day walk to the top of Tête de Colonney. A 1100m climb and an 11km walk in total. Unfortunately, due to the composition of the group, it all talk a lot longer than initially planned and the run went out of the window again. The only consolation was running down the last 2.5km with Laurence with our walking boots on - just a little bit of endurance training!

This morning was dedicated to the run and I had my 2x12x200m interval training to fit in. We drove to a little lake in Ville en Salaz with a path around in order to do the intervals here. A long lap of the lake to warm up and then I started the intervals. I really can say that I was not looking forward to this session at all. When I began, I realised why I don't like this - quite simply, it hurts far too much. At the end of each 200m my legs would begin to tire, my breath was short and my heart felt that it would beat out of my ribcage.

They went like this:

42, 39, 39, 40, 39, 40, 40, 40, 39, 39, 42, 39 then
40, 41, 39, 41, 40, 40, 40, 40, 41, 41, 40, 38

Despite the enormity of the session, I was pleased to see that my times had improved over last week. I averaged 40 for each interval so still not as fast as I should be (37) but a 2 second improvement. In order to improve, you need to put up with this training and repeat it frequently (at least once a week). Hopefully, all of this will pay off in the next few months. Only time will tell.

I'm currently reading Bruno Heubi and I've finally understood the importance of the different training speeds and how to put together a training programme for a specific event. Really interesting, but unfortunately, despite the comprehension, it doesn't make the sessions any easier. Gentle bike ride anyone ?