Snow season

Laurence doesn't work on Mondays. No, let me correct that: Laurence doesn't go to school on Mondays but spends her time preparing lessons for the week and correcting homework. I had a day off and to make the most of my day off I decided to spend it with my wife while the kids were at school.

So what better way to spend a whole day with your beloved than starting by going for a run ? We planned a nice little saunter out to Cora and back along the wall to Maisons Laffitte down by the castle and home. A 20 km saunter to be precise. Having planned all of this, we almost changed our minds when we woke up this morning and saw a nice 5cm of snow that had arrived during the night. The thermometer was showing -1°C and it was looking decidely cold. However, being the determined folks that we are, and a plan being a plan, we wrapped up warmly and went out.

We set off slowly and headed into the forest. The forest was absolutely stunning with a light sprinkling of snow covering all of the trees and the paths. There was a distinctive silence as we ran with the surrounding snow absorbing the noise of the few roads, traffic or even the occasional pedestrians out walking their dogs or exercising. It felt as if Christmas had arrived early and we ran down to Cora at a very steady pace of about 5:25 per km.

Laurence was running really well and looked comfortable at this, her marathon pace. But, she told me that we needed to ease up as the initial schedule had been to run at around 6' per km pace. We slowed at Cora to 5:35 pace but this was as far as we went and we both carried on back from Cora along the old wall through some of the most isolated part of the forest back towards Maisons Laffitte. The conditions were ideal with the snow but no wind and the forest was fresh and crisp around us. It looked just like a Christmas card as we ran and I wouldn't have been surprised to see deer and robins appear. All we managed were a couple of squirrels though !

Ran back into Maisons Laffitte and then down Avenue Albine towards the castle where we managed our fastest kilometre at 5:18 pace. This was good going after 90 minutes of running in our legs already. Back along the Seine to finish in 1:54.

20.3 km all up in 1:54 or 5:38 average. Nice meal in St Germain at a new Italian restaurant to celebrate. What a great day off.