Slothful Saturday

Just a short run with Nick this morning as he's taking part in the Ekiden tomorrow at Taverny (together with Nico who'll be running in the Senior team). We jsut ran into the forest towards Cora and then turned back after about 3km.

We pushed the pace uphill along the forest path in order to get a bit of speed in before Nick's race tomorrow. I felt good all of the way around.

After I got back, Laurence and I accompanied Paul on his run to Chateau du Val and back. Paul is running better and better and every week he is showing some improvement. Today he ran the first kilometre up the hill in Le Mesnil in 5:42 and then ran the next kilometre at exactly the same speed. He sped up slightly for the third as the path flattened out and then descended slightly and slowed to 5:40 for the uphill section of the 4th kilometre.

I told him at this point that he was going to beat his record and I could see that he was concentrating on maintaining the pace and had a look of determination to beat the 40 minute barrier for the course (7.2km). We ran back into Le Mesnil and back along the road to finish. This was the only point in the course that he ran slower than last week (5:02 v. 4:50 a week ago) which also showed that his speed had been steadier and that he was tired to finish. No sprint this week at the end but a good time of 39:03 or an average of 5:30 per km. Good to see such an improvement and really pleased for him. If he continues to improve at this rate, he'll be leaving Laurence behind soon and me next ;o)

15km all up in 1:18. Very easy going today.