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 ?