15x200m

The programme for the morning was 15x200m off 200m rest with each interval to be run in 43 seconds or less. This sounded straight-forward, especially since at the start of the training I was running 24 intervals at this speed.

I set out and ran a longer warm-up than usual as there weren't so many intervals to run. It was raining steadily and I was rather warm with a running top, a waterproof and a fluorescent jacket so that I don't get run over by a sleepy driver first thing in the morning. Despite the reduced number of intervals to be run, I can't say that I was looking forward to this. Thoughts of how I could never be bothered to run intervals by myself, first thing in the morning in the past filled my head and I was quite glad that I now have a strict programme to follow.

The intervals went as follows:

41, 42, 44, 42, 43, 42, 43, 40, 40, 40, 41, 41, 43, 38, 39

So fairly consistent and off a reduced recovery of 100m (around 35 - 39 seconds).

10km all up in 47:42 or an average of 4:44 per km. I can feel the tiredness in my legs accumulating from the marathon training now and how even easyish sessions like this morning's are harder and harder to manage.

Good start to the day - shame it went rapidly downhill when a car crash on the motorway made me take over 2 hours to get to work this morning.

Easy Wednesday

Another early start this morning. This is getting harder and harder as despite all my attempts to get to bed at a reasonable time, getting up in the middle of the night (6:00 am) is not natural for the body.

It was relatively mild this morning and most pleasant compared to some of the cold weather we've been experiencing lately. I was supposed to run for between an hour and 75 minutes, but since I was pushed for time I settled on a slightly faster hour's run.

Nothing exceptional to report in that I started slowly and gradually built up speed as I went around the course. I started out at 4:45 pace and finished the last kilometre at 4:01 pace (downhill I have to admit!).

13.7 km all up in 1:02. Not bad going and managed to get rid of all my leg aches and pains as I went around. My neck is still jarring occasionally and this is still a problem.

8x800m

Skipped the run yesterday as I got to bed too late and was just too damn tired after the weekend. Weekends are supposed to be for relaxing but lately, I feel more tired after the weekend than before.

It was hard getting up this morning to go for the run. Interval sessions at 6:00am are not motivating and it was with great reluctance that I slipped my kit on and headed out of the door. After the first few steps though, I was pleased with how my new running shoes felt. They are definitely heavier than the race shoes (Brooks Racer ST2 and Saucony Kinvara) I have been using recently but they provide much more cushioning from the impact.

I went down to the Seine to run my usual route and this was the result:

2:45, 3:03, 3:00, 2:59, 2:58, 2:56, 3:03, 2:59

First interval was too short and I knew that the Garmin had shortened the distance as I ran this one. Second interval I had to slow down to let the traffic go by as I got to the roundabout. Seventh interval was slow as I was tired and it was very slightly uphill, dark... and that's enough excuses - I was just crap!

So an average speed of 2:59 for the series if I put the first interval at 3:00. Recovery of 300m which took me 2:00. At least it's over with and I can look forward to an easier recovery run tomorrow morning.

Accompanying Paul

Went out with Paul this evening to accompany him on his weekly run to Chateau du Val and back.

He wasn't eager to go and tried to get out of it but I was having none of this. It started badly but by the end he was running more steadily and more relaxed than he has on either of the previous 2 occasions.

7.2km all up in 45:08 or 6:19 per km average.

Just under 80km running this week plus a triathlon so not bad despite my missing 2 runs mid-week.

Long Sunday Run

Sunday again so another long run to try and notch up some more mileage this week. This was especially important since because of my neck problem I'd been forced to drop a couple of runs during the week and I wanted to maintain a reasonable distance nonetheless.

Laurence and I ran over to the club in the morning adding an initial 5 kilometres onto whatever the club decided to do. There was quite a significant turnout despite the Paris - Versailles race which I wasn't expecting. Miguel was leading the session and Thierry, Jean-Marc, Jean-Pierre, Bruno and Mireille had all turned out.

The session announced was the last of the easy sessions for the start of term. Harder stuff has been promised for the future. We have been warned. Today was just supposed to be 2x10' of threshold pace running down to the bumps and back from the railway line. We set off easily, I was carrying the pack with water and some fruit gels to keep Laurence and I going over the distance. After a last minute pep talk after the warm-up we set off for the first of the 10' intervals and I ran behind Thierry, Jean-Marc and Jean-Pierre who were setting the pace. I felt really good in my legs and also with my new Mizuno Wave Inspire 6, and so I ran to the front and kept the pace honest for the end of the first interval (around 3:50).

We ran back to the rest of the group and after a 2' recovery we were off again and this time I stayed behind Jean-Marc, Jean-Pierre and then Thierry as the pace was faster (3:50 again but uphill!) and we were running into the wind up a sandy path for most of the way. I was really glad to finish this second interval and thought that I'd be able to relax when at this point Jean-Marc announced that he was going to run a thrid interval and Jean-Pierre and Thierry would acoompany him. Sucker that I am, I agreed and followed the 3 of them on the next interval. I was really tired now and could feel the effort in my legs and on an uphill stretch, I just fell off the back and tried to keep up afterwards but to no avail. I have to admit that the last interval was also fast at 3:45 pace - so much for threshold training.

Back to the club and then I ran home with Laurence who is also running really well at the moment. We were at around 5:10 pace for most of the way, which is faster than Laurence's marathon pace after more than 2 hours of running.

29k all up in 2:33

Triathlon de St Germain

There was no escaping this triathlon. We'd signed up again but it was hard work to get up early this morning, to get out of the house and to take part. I wasn't really over my neck problem either and it wasn't the most sensible idea to go diving into a lukewarm swimming pool at 8:30 am in the morning.

However, there we were again and plenty of participants organised into 2 teams from Le Mesnil. I was in the English team composed of Nick, Paul, me, Sophie and Axel; and there was a second team made up of Didier, Eric, Patrick, Laurence and Pierre-Henri. Didier had done all the organising and everything was ready when we arrived at the pool.

After a quick warm-up in the pool, about 150 athletes waited in the water for the gun to be fired. We were off and the water went white with thrashing of arms and legs. I had a few blows from feet and arms in the head and torso and my googles were hit causing me to go sightless in one eye as they filled with water. An order was then created based on the speed of the different swimmers and I settled down into a steady rhythm, abandoning front-crawl for breaststroke despite the neck pain that this caused.

I thought that I was swimming at roughly the same speed as Nick until the guy I had mistaken him for dropped half a length. I climbed out of the pool to see Nick already changing into his cycling gear. We exchanged a couple of words and he was off outside, 30 seconds later I left to see that he'd already disappeared and that I was chasing again. I was on my old bike so that I could benefit from lighter weight and not need SPD shoes. The saddle was too low though and I lost some time from not being able to use more leverage on the pedals. I was relatively steady, but it was still a relief after 20k when I could leave the bike and start running.

As I had entered the bike park, I'd seen Nick leaving on the other side for his run. He had almost exactly the same start on me as last year when he beat me overall by 50m. This was my chance to see if I could run faster this year, and catch him before the end. I set off feeling good in my legs and running at around 14km/h (an estimate since I didn't have a watch to check speed or pace). I picked up speed as my legs got used to the run from the bike and I started catching other athletes and overtaking them.

When I reached the last hill alongside St Germain terrace, I could see Nick now about 100m ahead and I concentrated on catching the runners between him and me and chasing him down. I knew that there was about 500m to go when we left the terrace wall and he was about 25m ahead. He saw me on the last corner as he looked around going past, and I made an enormous effort to catch him and another runner from Houilles. As I drew alongside, he asked if we were going to sprint to the end or finish together. I didn't fancy a sprint to the line now and I was pleased at the idea of finishing together so that's what we did, crossing the line in 1:18:43.

Didier had finished ahead and his bike training paid off as he gained 2.5 minutes on us. Paul finished about 6 minutes behind and Laurence just after Paul in 1:27.

Laurence did a fantastic job finishing as 3rd woman and 2nd veteran overall. I was happier with her performance than my own as both Nick and I completed a minute slower than a year ago. Race didn't do any good to my neck and lack of sleep was a factor too. Still it was good to see everyone taking part and hopefully we'll have an even bigger team next year.

Injured

I don't know whether it was anything to do with the tough double session on Tuesday but yesterday everything seemed to go downhill.

I woke up fine after a good night's sleep and thought that the small pain in my neck that I've been suffering from since coming back from the US had finally gone. I arrived at work and my neck slowly began seizing up until at the end of the day my head was at 45° and every small movement was agony.

I've just come back from the chiropractor and he's massaged the area where the problem is and cracked a few bones in my back and I'll see if this has done the trick in a couple of days. I'll not run until Saturday when I'm doing a sprint triathlon.

The problem, apparently, has probably been caused either by stress or fatigue. Fatigue I can understand from my training schedule but stress ... I must be more concerned about realising a good time in this next marathon than I realised !

Doubling up

Not content with my masochistic workout this morning I decided to leave work early and go running with the club to find companionship and solace.

On arrival, 15 minutes late, I ran towards the swimming pool hoping to catch the group returning from their warm-up. I was greeted as a hero, having beaten José by a good 17 minutes during the trail at the weekend. I was slightly abashed and had to explain that he was probably on an off day and I was just a little lucky (but it felt good nonetheless !!).

It was a track session and some short series were announced: 200; 300; 400; 500; 400; 300; 200 off 100m rest and 200m for the 400m and 500m intervals.

I decided that I would take it easy and not push at the front. I let a first group go including Gérald, Tom (new young guy), Bruno and Thierry. Bruno and Thierry started coming off the back of this first group and I was a little way behind just in front of Franck. We then ran the next few intervals together as a group of 4 and I blasted the last 200m just to see if I could still sprint after the trail work ;o).

Good session and then a warm-down with Laurence who arrived late too. Nico was on his own training for some Paris-Versailles race at the weekend and taking it very seriously. He has to beat 1:05:04 my time from last year which I achieved when I wasn't even trying. I think that he would like to get closer to the hour than this but he's going to have to push hard up La Cote des Gardes !

8x800m

There was a magazine article a few year's ago about how running 800m intervals was a fairly good indicator of your marathon time. The guy was called Bart Yasso and the article about this predictor can be found here: Yasso 800's.

Basically, I'm aiming to run a sub 3 hour marathon again and since I'd like to beat my record I've figured that 2:55 is a nice goal to aim for. This equates to just under 4:09 pace over the distance and is an achievable yet challenging goal. So according to Mr Yasso, I should be running my 800m intervals in 2:55 and that was the aim this morning.

So what happened:

3:00, 2:56, 2:57, 2:58, 2:57, 2:58, 3:01, 3:02

I have to admit that I was pretty disappointed when I saw these having got back home. But reasonably, I'm still not over the efforts from Saturday and my legs are still sore in the calves from the hills. I'm running by myself and it's bloody early in the morning. That's enough excuses, we want results as my mother would always tell me.

Look what I achieved in February on the track this year with Fabrice and Mireille: a good 10 seconds per interval faster. Going to bed now too depressed to write more ...

Monday tempo

There are over 40 main muscles in your leg. I know this for a fact as every single one of them was aching this morning when I woke up. That means 80 muscles were crying out in agony when I woke up and pulled on my running kit.

We runners are masochists. Some days are still harder than others though. There are times when the flesh is weak and the will wavers. Temptation lingers, ever present, and the thought of just lying in bed and waiting for the moment to pass is huge. Luckily I'm very determined and single-minded and probably just plain stupid. I headed out of the door and went for a run first thing this morning.

The programme called for an hour long run at 80-85% max HR. In fact, when I looked in detail at the plan, every Monday was around 80% max HR. Hold on a second; 80% max HR is marathon speed and 85% is half-marathon speed. No way was I going to go out in my state this morning and try and attempt marathon speed, let alone half-marathon speed for an hour. Having made this monumental decision, I set off at my usual pace and usual route and just took it easy(ish).

13.4km later and I arrived back home, satisfied with a job well done. 1:01 to complete the circuit and an average pace of 4:36 per km. I couldn't have gone any faster today. Lord knows how I'll achieve 8x800m tomorrow morning - the flesh is weak !

Sunday recovery

My obligation once per week is to run with Paul to make up for the lack of sport he doesn't do at school.

Chateau du Val again today and I was pleased to do a run with him if only to run at a 6 - 6:30 pace to recover from yesterday's race.

He beat his record set last week, finishing the 7.2km run in 44:26. Pleased to get out and finish the week with an easy run. Missed running with the club though but I'll try and go with them next weekend.

95km all up this week. 5 weeks to go to the marathon.

Imperial Trail - Fontainebleau

Waiting for my partner ! Just setting off for my leg
Partner obviously gave it all he had ! Laurence finishing her leg. Still looking fresh !

(PS. Thanks to Jérôme, Claire's hubby, for the fantastic photos)

Trail runners are a sub-species of the human race with completely different qualities to the rest of us. They think nothing of entering races that are longer than marathon distance and abandoning family and friends to spend a weekend running across some mountains in the middle of nowhere. What on earth was I doing with them on a Saturday afternoon ?

It all happened during a moment of weakness a couple of Sunday's ago when I agreed, foolishly, to take part in a trail race in Fontainebleau over a distance of 65km. Luckily I wasn't going to be running all of it, just half as we were down for the duo category with Natanael my teammate for the race. Laurence had also signed up in an all women's team as a trio. So 23km for Laurence and 35km for me. I was treating it as a long run in preparation for the marathoon.

We arrived at the start an hour before the departure time, announced as 1:00 pm. We met up with Laurence's other halves, Pascale and Claire and I called my teammate to find out where he was - on the outskirts of Paris as they'd left late. Brilliant - here I was for an easy afternoon run and now I was stressed because my partner was probably going to miss the start!

We had 4 teams from the club for the duos: Laurent B and José (favourites to win), Natanel and myself, Patrick and Laurent K, Laurent Bénacérraf and Thierry; together with the women's team for the trio: Claire, Laurence and Pascale. After the intial panic about not arriving on time, the start was announced in waves with 5 minutes interval between each wave. The duos and trios started at the end, so 15 minutes after the first runners.

We saw off the first leg runners and then went in search of lunch. A quick stop in Fontainebleau for a sandwich before we headed off in the car to the first handover point at 19.5km which was also the handover point for the duo as there was a further 10km loop from here. We watched the first runners come through the checkpoint and Laurent arrived in second place for the duos, looking very comfortable and easy. Natanauel arrived about 5 minutes later, looking less comfortable and finding it harder to speak. The strain could definitely be seen on his face. They'd done the first section in around 1:40 for 19.5km so the going was faster than we had initially imagined. Half an hour later, Claire arrived and handed over to Laurence who set off for her section. Claire was delighted with her run and the scenery that the trail had provided. The path passed between boulders and runners had to scramble between rocks. I was just waiting now for the first runners to come back.

Laurent came in and handed over to José, unclipping the timing chip and fixing it around his ankle. The last 10k had been far harder than the start, with the leaders taking just uner an hour to complete 10k. And they call this a running race...! Natanael didn't show up for another 15 minutes and a good 9 or 10 duo teams had already made the changeover. I set off slowly, getting used to my new trail shoes (Asics Gel Lahar 2), which I found heavy and cumbersome after running and training exclusively in lightweight trackshoes for the last 6 weeks. I had forgotten to set the Garmin to training mode before I set off and it now took me over a kilometre before I could finally pick up the satellites and start the watch.

The scenery was fantastic with the path winding its way through the forest and up and over the ridges around Fontainebleau. I felt good and quickly caught plenty of runners doing the race solo (65km all by themselves) and then I caught some of the duo runners that I'd spotted while waiting for my partner. The speed was not fast as I was running up the hills at about 10km/h and then reaching just under 14km/h along the flat. I must have passed a good 10-15 runners when I passed a marshal who announced that I was in 26th place. I told myself that it would be good to get into the top 20, so I set off again, motivated to catch as many as I could.

I passed the first feeding station after 13km (where Laurence would have over to the final leg of the trio) and I began to feel a bit tired. I told myself that there was still over 20k to do and I had to keep going steadily. The kilometres passed regulalry now and I paid no attention to the Garmin, just concentrating on the trail and the bits of race tape attached to the trees to show the path. There were fewer and fewer runners but I managed to overtake another 6 or 7 and was into the top 20. The path between the boulders was very complicated with it winding in directions that I didn't expect or anticipate. Several times I had to run back uphills as I set off downhill too quickly missing the tape in the process. I passed another marshall who told me that I was only a couple of minutes behind a couple of runners and so I set off in pursuit of them.

3 km later I spotted a runner ahead and chased him down. He was also the second leg of a duo and I smiled inside as I'd made another place in the ranking. The last feeding station was ahead at 54km and when I arrived I was the only one there. When I left I was still alone not having glimpsed another runner. The 2 cups of coke were a godsend and I felt that I was able to continue but running on my energy reserves only. The pace that I'd been achieving earlier along the flat was unthinkable now and I was running at about 12km/h on the flat and 8-9km/h up the hills. The legs were definitely tired. I was caught by another runner at this point (the only one during the whole race) and he left me easily, skipping down the hill with a freshness that I could only just admire. I just concentrated on keeping the legs turning over and not losing too much time.

I looked at the Garmin regularly now to comfort myself with every extra kilometre that I achieved. I had 31km on the watch and I estimated that I had another kilometre unrecorded from the start to add to that. I turned a corner at this point and saw what looked like 2 runners ahead. I was cautious since I'd already seen other walkers along the path but as I got closer I could see that they were competitiors and furthermore one of them was José. I was thrilled now as I was catching them rapidly and I thought of the pleasure in being the first runner from St Germain to finish. I had managed something that initially was unthinkable. Another problem quickly arose as when I caught the 2 runners, we saw a wild boar cross our path, then another and then 2 more. We slowed to a walk and watched the group of boar as they watched aside just to the right of the path. We got closer still and then about 4 or 5 baby boar crossed the path 10 metres in front of us too. I wasn't going to argue with these animals and was glad when we finally cleared this area and was able to start running again.

I was on a high from now on until the finish and even the onset of minor cramps in my legs didn't dispirit me. I could see another runner in front who was suffering from cramps as he pushed against a wall 500m ahead and I chased him to the finsih only to end 5 metres behind him at the line. It was almost dark now and we'd been running as a team for 6:34 and I'd personally run for 3:30 of those: my longest run ever in time.

Pleased to have taken part. Laurence was happy too. Scenery was fantastic, path could have been better marked, but organisation overall was very good.

Good marathon training.

35.6 k on the Garmin (plus 1.5 to add) in 3:22 (plus 8 minutes).

Swedish recovery

Still in Stockholm this morning and since I only had a meeting at 9:00 am I was able to sleep in until 7:00 am - luxury !

The weather was better this morning as it was drier and slightly warmer. I was down for a recovery run before the trail run tomorrow in Fontainebleau. I just planned to run around the lake of Malaren and take it easy this morning.

I did just that and started easily, running the first km in 5:00 and then gradually sped up until I was at marathon pace by the end. Lovely relaxing run, admiring the multitude of Swedish female runners around the lake. Jogging is evidently the female sport of predilection in Sweden. Anyway, I'm not complaining as it was most pleasant for my eyes and made a nice change from seeing Nick and Nico ahead of me !

10.1k all up in 47:00 or an average of 4:40 per km.

20 x 500m

The one advantage of Stockholm is that at 6:00am it is already daytime. The one disadvantage of Stockholm is that at 4:00am it is dawn. My night's sleep was interrupted at sunrise and I never fully got back to sleep before I went for my interval session at 6:30 this morning.

The weather wasn't too bad with 12°C and it had stopped raining. I can't say that I was looking forward to this monster of a session as I consider 20 intervals as a lot. The official programme according the training schedule was 20 intervals of 500m in under 2'10" off 300m recovery. Since I was in Stockholm on business, I didn't have the time to warm-up, run 16k of intervals and then warm-down. I decided to cut the recovery to 200m and to try and run each interval in under 2'.

I crossed the road in front of the hotel and into the park and ran alongside the lake towards the historic town centre. I decided that rather than doing a loop, which would involve steps, uphills and other obstacles, I would just run back and forth along the lakeside.

The intervals went well, depsite the fact that I felt like stopping after 6 and it was only when I got back to the hotel that I was able to see what I'd achieved:

1:51, 1:59, 1:47, 1:48, 1:45, 1:46, 1:49, 1:51, 1:48, 1:47
1:48, 1:46, 1:49, 1:51, 1:48, 1:47, 1:46, 1:43, 1:47, 1:46

Clearly the second interval is an anomaly and the Garmin must have suffered a glitch. Especially since I was trying harder at the start than at the end ! I was thrilled to see the times as they confirm my form at the moment.

17km all up in 1:15 or an average of 4:28 per km.

Looking forward to the trail on Saturday to see how we can do there.

Asymetric intervals

Another Tuesday, another interval session.

Despite the early start, I wasn't feeling too bad as I left the house this morning. There was still a little fatigue in the legs, notably the thighs, but nothing too drastic. The programme for the morning was 3km in under 12 minutes then 2km in under 8 minutes off 3 minutes rest. This was acceptable mentally as running a few kilometres at 15km/h is not the end of the world at the moment so I didn't start the day dreading the session to come.

After a short warm-up down to the river, I set off at what I thought was just below 4:00 / km pace. Despite my thoughts about this being easy, it still felt like hard work and I wondered if I'd fully recovered from the weekend. As it was dark, I wasn't able to see the kilometre splits as the Garmin beeped at me, and I was just able to see the last digit: 5 then 1 for the first 2 kilometres. I was sure that I'd run the second kilometre in 4:01 and I tried to motivate myself to push a little harder over the final km to complete the first interval in a reasonable time and still go under the objective. I finished the 3rd kilometre under a street light and was able to see the split of 3:47 and so I figured that the first 2 couldn't have been that bad as there wasn't much difference in pace.

I set off on the second interval after the recovery at the same pace again. About 3 minutes into the run I found myself daydreaming and easing off so another push and I concentrated on keeping the pace honest until the end.

The splits afterwards were: 3:45, 3:51, 3:47 for the first interval so a total time of 11:23 and then 3:47, 3:50 for the second interval with a total time of 7:37. Well under the objective fixed. I feel as though I've jumped a level since this weekend. It's always the same effort to do the sessions and the intervals but I'm running them faster than before.

10.3 km all up in 46:00 or an average of 4:26 per km.

Monday morning tempo

Some days you wake up and you just feel good. Today was one of those days. No reason to feel good at all either: race yesterday followed by a long warm-down meant that I ran 23k yesterday. Logically, I should have felt on my knees this morning, but it was just the opposite.

I set out and the first 100 metres were a joy. I had some spring in my legs and I just started running fast, or fastish... This lasted until 200 metres when there was a slight uphill and I decided that I would slow the pace down as it was a recovery run anyway. When I managed to wind my way down the path to the Seine without falling over in the dark, I knew it was a good day and so I accelerated again, running the next few kilometres in between 4:25 and 4:30.

I kept it steady alongside the racecourse and then slowed down up the hill again. By the time I reached the park in Maisons Laffitte, all of the good feelings had returned and I felt really strong in my legs so I stretched a little, lengthened my stride and just enjoyed myself. I was running at marathon pace now at around 14kmh and kept this up until the forest. Here, I had to slow down as even my enthusiasm couldn't make up for the lack of light and the risk of falling over a tree stump in the dark.

Once out of the forest I picked up speed again and ran the final 3 km back home. 14.3k all up in 1:03 or an average of 4:24 per km. Why aren't all days like this ?

Chateau du Val

I came back from the race this morning knowing that I still had another 7 km to run with my son Paul. Since he refuses to sign up for any sport at school, his commitment is to run once a week with his parents (either me or Laurence) over a 7.2km course.

Paul and I set off at a steady pace (6:20 per km) and the objective was to get him to the end without stopping and not completely disgusted by the whole idea of running. He was very consistent in his pace at around 6:30 / km and we finished the Chateau du Val loop in 45:02. Good warm-down for me bringing my total kilometres for the week to 95km. Great marathon training.

Conflans 10k - Fin d'Oisienne

Stress is a bugger to deal with. This race had been on my mind for days and I couldn't relax about it. The competition and the banter with Nico had grown to a head and I couldn't spend any length of time without wondering what sort of form I was in, what sort of form he was in, and if I could improve on my best time over 10k. I thought about this frequently and told myself to relax: it was a race after all and not the end of the world. This sort of rationalising is all very logical but when you're stressed, nothing works.

Laurence was in a similar state to me and doesn't like racing because of this. We picked up Nick this morning and drove to Conflans arriving about 1 hour before the race. Several other runners from the club had already arrived and we all chatted together, pinning our numbers on and then set off on a warm-up before the start. Nico, Bruno P, Bruno W, Ephrem, Nick B had all arrived. Nick let slip a laconic "7 guys from the club and I'm going to be the last!" while we were running around. Only 3 women from the club with Laurence, Christelle and Madeleine.

After a 4k warm-up, I lined up at the start with butterflies in my stomach. A huge mixture of feelings swirled around inside me: apprehension, worry about being beaten, worry about my form, fear of the 10 kilometres ahead. It's true that I don't like 10km races. They are just too long to be able to go out and run full blast, but they are too short to run at a comfortable speed. They are simply a test of your cardiac performance, with your heartrate pumping to close to max all the way around but for over 30 minutes. Sheer hell !

The start was a bit confusing as the race was also the inter-departmental challenge for the youngsters from the region "Espoirs" and "Juniors". They started on the start line and the other runners started 5 metres behind. I was convinced that they would be trampled to death within 100m after the gun, but I was to be proved wrong on this count. The gun went and I wasn't really ready. Since everyone surged forward, I wasn't going to argue and set off at this point.

The pace was fast but I felt good and slalomed between some of the youngsters, notably the girls, while the lads remained a good 20 metres in front and were leaving me behind. There were a lot of runners in front of me and since I finished 20th in this race last year, I was convinced that I would catch up with most of them and overtake them later on. This didn't happen. I felt strong in my legs and I finished the first small 2 km loop in 7:04 as the timekeeper shouted out as I passed. This was identical to last year's race and I was pleased. The other reason for satisfaction was that I was the first runner from St Germain. I'd noticed that both Nico and Bruno W., my 2 main rivals, were behind me from the start. I was now concentrating on keeping them there.

The second large loop started well and I joined a group of runners, keeping an eye on a runner from Issou and another from Méry just ahead. I ignored my watch as it beeped the kilometre splits and the second real notion of how I was doing was when I passed the official clock at 5 km showing 17:54. This was good. I calculated that I could lose 5 seconds per km and still beat my record at this point and I allowed myself to relax slightly as I was starting to suffer from the pace. Between 5 and 6 km was a killer as it's up a slight incline (really very slight but the pace was beginning to tell) and I wondered if Nico and Bruno would catch me at this point. I prepared myself mentally to be overtaken but I seriously thought about dropping out at this point. I banished these thoughts from my mind and told myself that even if I was overtaken, I would still finish the race, even if I had to drop the pace slightly. I concentrated on finding a rhythm and staying with the guys around me.

I was running with 2 youngsters now and catching a third just ahead. I tried to pull them along and this worked for a couple of kilometres until 8k and then they stretched ahead slightly down a hill. I was shot now. The last 2 kilometres were the worst. I lost speed and let runners pass me without responding. I just wanted to cross that finish line. I wondered how I would react if Nico pulled alongside now and knew that I didn't have the energy to respond. The last uphill was agony and it was a relief to go under the starting arch and to finally pull into the stadium. I managed a semi-sprint just to keep ahead of a couple of runners breathing down my neck at this point and I crossed the line in 37:15. I was elated at being the first St Germain runner and beating Nico, but slightly disappointed at the same time that I hadn't been able to beat my record, which was on the cards until the 8km point.

Nico finished 26 seconds behind and congratulated me. I was disappointed for him too, as he's capable of doing better than this and he will be beating me soon regularly over this distance. The rest of the club finished in a bunch just behind with Nick finishing last of the 7 (as he predicted) in a very respectable time of 39:17. He was pleased that he'd managed to catch a 70 year old in the last 500m to beat him over the line ! Admittedly, the 70 year old in question is triple European champion in his age category and is till running 10k in 39:27. I hope I'm in this condition in 30 years time.

Laurence ran into the stadium in 46 minutes and I cheered her on over the last 200m. She finished in 46:49 smashing her record over the distance by over a minute. We were both thrilled.

Good race and mixed emotions. Glad to have held off the club competition but slightly disappointed to have finished 18 seconds down on last year's time. This was due to my endurance over the last 2k which I need to work on. I'm confident for the marathon now and this is the next main objective. I have to admit that I far prefer the thought of running a marathon to a 10k. How weird is that ?

Full race results here: Conflans 10k

Preparation run

I'm preparing for the race tomorrow at Conflans. Normall y all the textbooks advise tapering before a race in order to rest the body so that it is perfectly ready for the event to be run. I looked at my blog from last year, the day prior to this very same race and saw that I'd run to Cora and back. So why not do the same this year ?

I met up with Nick and Nico, but they told me straight out that they were only going to run a short course of about 30 - 40 minutes. I think that Nico was very stressed about the race and didn't want to waver from his training programme which said that a 30' session was sufficient prior to a race. As his blog now states, he's lowered his expectations to a sub 37 race for the 10k and he's been a lot quieter of late about his chances of beating me !

I ran with both of them for a about 3k at a very easy pace (just under 10km/h) before leaving them and carrying on to Cora. I didn't run around the lake but back along the usual route, completing the 13k course in 1:06 or an average speed of 5:12. When I'm by myself, I just can't run as slowly as 10km/h and find that without concentrating I approach 4:45 pace or just under 13km/h.

Very easy run and looking forward to tomorrow's race just to see what I'm capable of at the moment.

Easy morning run

With the 10k race approaching fast, I didn't want to push it hard again this morning so I dropped the marathon training programme for the day (12x200m) and just took it easy around my usual route.

Nothing much to report except that even if I'd wanted to run harder I'd have found it very difficult. I imagined running a few fast stretches but after a first attempt beside the river, I gave that up as a lost job. So the run this morning went from 12km/h to 15km/h over the duration. A very slow start as the body gradually woke up and by the end I was beginning to feel fresher and had a little more spring in my legs. This means I'll probably need to run an 8k warm-up before the race!

10.3k all up in 48:30 or an average of 4:43 per km.

Rest day tomorrow and then another easy run on Saturday should see me in good stead for the race.

Recovery run

After 2 sessions yesterday, it was time for a break and a relaxing recovery run this morning.

I went outside to find a light drizzle falling although it was still fairly warm at around 14°C. The first couple of kilometres were hard going despite the snail pace I was running them at. It was only towards the racecourse that I began to feel better and relaxed thoroughly, enjoying the run and not bothering to look at the Garmin. In fact, it was very tempting to sneak a look every time it beeped to signal another kilometre, but I managed to resist temptation and not look once over the run. I was worried that if I saw that I was running at 5:00 per km pace, that I would try a little harder.

Not another runner in sight over the course, the drizzle had obviously put them off.

10.3k all up in 50:30 or an average of 4:53 per km. Told you it was relaxing.

Doubling up

I managed to sneak out of work when noone was looking. No that's not true, in fact I left my boss in my office saying that I had to leave as I needed a run to retain my sanity. Fact.

Good to see a fantastic turnout at the club tonight. Everyone was there. Nick had run over from his house so obviously there is some secret training going on there. Nico had run a lunchtime session and was doubling up too. Adrien, Jean-Marc, José, Thierry, Bruno, Gérald were training too. Some taking it easy after races at the weekend.

The session for the evening was 10x1'x1'. So 1 minute hard for 1 minute recovery. After the long warm-up chatting to some newcomers to the club, I set off on the intervals leaving a little in reserve. I let the fast guys go and ran at the front of a second group leaving a decent space between them. I could feel that if I pushed too hard then the effects of the morning run combined with tonight's effort would be too much.

Nico joined us on the 7th interval and ran at the front to see what was going on. I chased him for a while putting on a spurt of pace, only to feel it almost instantly in the legs and the breathing becoming more laboured. Kept the intervals constant then and finished well. Happy with the session just to see everyone else and to chat to them. Plenty of runners turning up at Conflans at the weekend so it should be a good race. Stick here for the results and the race report !!

10.2k all up in just under an hour.

Last minute race talk with Nico who is quitting alcohol, pizzas and sex before the race. Wish I could say the same ...

8*1000m

Some days you just don't want to know. You wake up and you just can't be bothered. The fight has left and the motivation has disappeared. This was one of those days.

As I ran down to the river, I kept wondering to myself if I shouldn't prolong the warm-up for another couple of kilometres, just to push back the start of the intervals. The programme for the day was 8x1000m off 400m rest. Since I didn't have enough time, I had already decided that I could only manage 300m rest but the problem was that just now I didn't even want to start.

I cleared the unlit path with the potholes down to the river and into the streetlight by the road alongside the Seine and finally decided to go for it. I started the first rep but without enthusiasm and definitely not flat out. The recovery went well and I continued the rest of the session as I began. I was telling myself that since I was doing 8 of them and I was supposed to be at 90% of max HR then that didn't mean running them flat out. No idea of the times that I was doing but I just kept hoping that they were all above 15km/h because frankly some of them felt a little slow but sod it ...

Only when I got back that I was able to look at what I'd achieved:

3:48, 3:41, 3:58, 3:37, 3:48, 3:51, 3:50, 3:55

Both the third and the last reps were running uphill. First from the river into the park and then up the hill from Maisons Laffitte to Le Mesnil. Both of these hills are far worse than Conflans so I'm actually quite chuffed with what I managed to do. The hamstrings were aching from Sunday's run and I didn't have any go in my legs whereas the heartrate was quite manageable.

12.9km all up in 58 minutes or an average of 4:32 per km. That's all of the tough stuff done now before the weekend.

Monday morning

Some days are harder than others. Monday's are always harder than the rest of the week. The anguish of returning back to work after a great weekend relaxing with the family. Whatever the reason, the run first thing Monday morning is a bugger.

Summer is over, well almost, since this weekend was still delightful, as it is now completely dark at 6:00am when I leave the house. The days are drawing in and this makes following the marathon training schedule harder as the body does not naturally want to exercise intensely while it is half asleep. I had only run a few hundred metres when I realised that the hills from yesterday's long run had tired my legs and that it wasn't going to be possible to run hard again today.

I ran the same route as last week: down to the Seine and along the river until the racecourse. I then headed up into the park at Maisons Laffitte and did a large loop in front of Maisons Laffitte castle. It was only here that the legs began to feel lighter and I found a little more energy. Not that my speed increased in the slightest, but mentally things became a little easier. I headed out of the park and into the forest after the railway line. I figured that after 40 minutes of running, the sun had risen sufficiently to reveal the roots and stumps on the forest paths. I was wrong.

I stumbled along in the forest, worried that a wild boar would cross my path at any moment. I pushed hard up the hill and out of the forest into Le Mesnil and finished strongly along the roads down to the townhall and then back home.

14.3km all up in 1:05, so 2 minutes slower than last Wednesday's run. Average pace of 4:37 per km.

Sunday trailing

Met with the guys from the club at 9:00 am and the first word of welcome from Nico was that I looked tired. Charming - the young lad will go far in diplomacy. OK so Laurence and I stayed out late last night; and I probably did drink one whisky too many; and I did eat too much dessert; nut the last thing I wanted to be welcomed with first thing in the morning is how dreadful I look.

So, it was with no regrets that I left Jean-Marc, Nico, Bruno and Fabrice to go off and run their session around les Charmilles, while I set off with Laurence and a dozen trailers towards the woods of Marly le Roi.

Trailers are a breed apart. They don't run fast. I think that most of them take up trail running when they realise that they can't keep up with the pace anymore and pretend that they run only to enjoy the scenery and that speed doesn't matter. The first few kilometres of warm-up were very sedate and I had to do everything I could to rein myself in and not disappear into the distance.

We finally arrived at Marly Forest and it was then that I discovered another fact about trailers. Trailers only run at one speed. What was a very sedate speed along the flat became exhausting as you began to run uphill. These weren't just little slopes either: they went out of their way to find the steepest slopes possible with gradients of 33% fairly common.

The effort was considerable and with the lovely weather and sunshine and a very pleasant temperature on what is likely to prove to be one of the last days of summer, I was soon sweating buckets and dreading the next slope that loomed as we ran along.

Trailers don't care about speed. We were running at between 6:30 and 7:00 per km pace but the hills were unending. I managed to keep up with José and Laurent at the front of the group on the flat and at the start fo the hills, but towrads the top of the hill, they still seemed to have the energy to continue while I was shattered.

After 2 hours of non-stop hills, it was decided to call it a day and to head back home. José announced that we would run back at 'marathon speed' and promptly took off with Laurent on his heels. I stuck with them and since the going was mostly downhill and the paths were wider, I took the lead and stretched my legs a little. It was a great feeling and I'm definitely in shape at the moment. We were now running at about 18km/h down the hills and at 15km/h along the flat.

A great outing and they convinced Laurence and I to take part in the Imperial Trail in Fontainebleau in 2 weeks time. I'll run with Nathaniel and Laurence with Pascale. Should be good marathon training, both mentally and for the legs.

22.5 km all up in 2:20. It sounds pathetic in distance for the time taken but it was hard work. Almost forgot, the Garmin registered over 800m of uphill over the course this morning which is the equivalent of an extra 8km on the flat. This makes the time more reasonable.

85km this week and I'm still feeling good.

Cora and back

Another beautiful day, sunny and a pleasant temperature. I ran around to Nick's house this morning as neither Nico nor Paul were answering my mails about going for a run. Paul is either still on holiday or else still in bed as his house was still fast asleep when we ran past it twice both times. Nico had no excuse, bar his usual too many pizzas, too many beers ...

Very easy run and most enjoyable. Nick and I chatted easily all the while running at 4:35 - 4:40 pace. Great run that makes you feel good about being out and exercising.

1:09 for 15k or an average of 4:37 per km.

Will go for a long run (2:30) with the trailers tomorrow at the club as they're preparing the Templiers trail for end October. Looks like the London marathon is on for next year with about 20 runners from the club participating. Should be fun!

10x400m

Short interval session planned for this morning. The marathon training schedule for each week is basically always the same: Tuesday long intervals at around marathon pace; Thursday short intervals lactate session; Sunday long run. The rest of the week is recovery runs and active endurance as it's known in France. I find the hardest sessions to be the lactate, speed reps and am far more comfortable on the longer reps and the long run. This is why I try my hardest to achieve decent times for the speed intervals.

The plan stated for today's session was to run each 400m between 1:30 and 1:35. When I ran the same session in February, I was running these in 1:31. I was determined to improve on that today and couldn't help but think about Nico's times over this distance in his 10k specific training: 1:15.

I wasn't as elated as yesterday when I started out this morning. Each day is darker at the outset and the going tougher. I ran down to the river and began by running as hard as I could.

400m is a short distance, but extremely long when you're not used to it. My legs would start tying up after about 300m and the last 100m was just gritting the teeth and keeping going. I was on the roads and had no real idea of the distances, so by the end of each rep I would just be listening out (and praying) for the Garmin to beep to warn me that the interval was about to end. The first 2 or 3 passed OK and I found that the 100m recovery was very short (actually about 45' when I looked at the analysis afterwards).

The final 2 reps were killers and I ran out of steam. I warmed down for 4 km and ran 10.4k all up in 48 minutes.

The reps went as follows:

1:23, 1:23, 1:25, 1:24, 1:21, 1:22, 1:23, 1:21, 1:26, 1:24

So a lot faster than before but still a good 8 seconds slower per rep than Nico. It'll be the endurance that will have to count in 10 days time.

Cruising ...

The above is probably the most famous opening riff of all time. Every aspiring guitar hero begins by learning this and playing it from time to time.
Recognise it ? Smoke on the water on their Machine Head album in 1972 from Deep Purple.

So what has this to do with running ? Well as I ran along the Seine this morning there was a thin layer of mist lying over the river giving the scene an eery aspect. At the same time, I was thinking of my brother's reference to his purple patch and I felt so good this morning that I consider myself to be in a Deep Purple patch.

It was supposed to be a medium-length, 1 hour, recovery run this morning. I set out along the usual route thinking of all the little extra add-ons that I could do to make this run as long as possible. The first kilometre felt good, although very easy and as I hit the tarmac down by the river I sped up a little. I thought that I was running at 4:30 pace but the breathing was very easy and it all felt as though little effort was necessary. By the time I got to the park and past 6k, I sped up as I still felt good. I added on a loop in the park towards Maisons Laffitte castle and ran this at 4:20 pace before heading over the railway line and into the forest. Even the uphill section didn't slow me down today and as I ran back through Le Mesnil I was at 4:10 pace.

Down the hill to the townhall in 3:55 pace and a final stretch back home to finish the run.

14.3k all up in 1:03 or an average of 4:25 pace around the circuit. If only every day could feel like this.