Cross-country training

Cross-country season is looming on the horizon and approaching quickly. I can feel the atmosphere already: cold, frosty mornings with a thin layer of ice over waterlogged fields that crack underfoot, plunging your feet into pools of icy water. Fields that are rapidly churned into full-blown mudbaths with clods that cling to your soles as you try to plow through the ruts without twisting your ankle. Courses designed to take you up the same steep bank 14 times in the space of one loop and where 10km races last well over 40 minutes. Delightful.

This was the first session of training for the cross-country organised by the club and coached by Miguel. The same Miguel who had prepared any potential candidates for training very carefully by basically informing everyone on Thursday that if you weren't Superman, it wasn't worth turning up. It was with a little trepidation that I waited to be picked up by Nick and Anne this morning to head to Marly park where the ordeal would take place.

We were only a small group (not surprising after Miguel's prep talk) comprising of Nick, myself, Philippe, José, Miguel and a couple of other male runners I didn't recognise. The ladies were better represented with Anne, Christelle, Pascale, Catherine and Aude. We weren't prepared to hang around as it was chilly so without wasting too much time we set off on a warm-up around the circuit. We reached the far end of the lake when we saw a familiar figure running towards us: Nico who'd obviously slept in, judging by his dishevelled look. Another rough night apparently.

We finished a first loop and then began the session proper: 3 blocks of 3x3' off 90 seconds recovery. The aim was to attack all of the hills at the beginning of each 3 minute acceleration so as to work out the legs good and proper. I set off with Nico for the first interval which was mostly along the flat. I was able to stick with him until the first slight uphill and then off he went. My problem is definitely on the hill work where everytime we hit an uphill, I would fall off Nico's shoulder and José would come past. José advised me to take smaller paces up the hills at a faster rhythm. This worked to some effect but it wasn't sufficient to stay with the 2 of them.

By the end of the session I was well and truly knackered and coughing my lungs up due to the effort involved. It was good to see Nick run all the session, bar the last hill, following his recent back problems. He was sporting a nice new pair of trainers which looked about 2 years old by the end of the session.

14 km all up in 1:26 but a really good workout and one which I'll try and keep up over the next few weeks.