Long Sunday Run (LSR)

It was hard to get out of bed after a night out last night and getting back to bed late. We decided not to set the alarm and it was 10 o'clock when we finally got up.

Laurence and I both decided to run our long runs this morning as this was the last one scheduled before the marathon in 2 weeks time. I had been so disappointed with my run last Sunday that I decided to run the same course and to just run it steadily to see how I would fare.

I set off slowly so as not to burn myself out too early and ran the first kilometre into the forest in 5 minutes. I sped up gradually from then on getting to the top of Princess Road in 52:30 almost a minute faster than last week. Despite this faster time, I felt a lot more energy and I didn't stop at all pulling a chocolate bar from the rucksack as I ran (no mean feat either as I fumbled with the zip for a good 3 or 4 minutes) and eating this with a slurp from the Camelbak.

I didn't try and attempt any intervals this week but carried on running steadily, just accelerating slightly to around 4:20 pace. I maintained this speed to Feucherolles and then sped up again downhill before easing as I hit the hill out of St Nom la Breteche. This in fact was my slowest kilometre at 5:08 and I could feel the fatigue settling in. I had some more water and took on sugar and I instantly felt better again. This was probably the best managed run I've achieved in taking on solids and I need to remember this for the marathon.

Back up to marathon speed (4:14) along the plateau and then a fast descent into St Germain (3:50) before another long slog up into St Germain and back to marathon speed through the forest to finish. I was pleased with my speed at the end despite the tiredness which just goes to proved what you can achieve when you think you're beat.

33.5 km all up in 2:31 or 4:31 average per kilometre. This brings my total mileage for the week to 103 km and a nice taper now for the next 2 weeks. I'm as ready as I'll ever be.