Sunday club session

Sunday already and Laurence and I headed off to the club for our 9:00 am rendez-vous with Miguel and the other runners not taking part in any of the various events around the area this morning. It was a cold morning again with the temperature just hovering around the freezing point. There was no wind and no snow had fallen during the night.

I wrapped up warmly with 3 layers on top, ready for the warm-up session rather than the intervals themselves. When we got to the club, there was a good turnout despite the number of local races and Laurence was happy to find a number of fellow female fun-runners (couldn't find an appropriate noun with 'f' - any suggestions ?) with whom she could natter during her session and I saw Nico, Thierry, José, Bruno, Vincent and Anis. A 5x5' session had been planned off a 2'30" recovery so with these running companions, it didn't look as though I be doing much talking for my intervals.

We ran down to a section of forest near Poissy known as Les Mouchoirs. Didn't see many handkerchiefs hanging around so no idea why this is named like this. Anyway, I was surprised to see that we managed to make it in the first place since Michel was leading the way and as usual he tried to take the most complicated, tortuous route possible but luckily for the group, his sadistic unconsciousness failed to surprise any victims today.

We set off on the first interval and I took the lead. Not that I am the fastest amongst the group but nobody else seemed willing to make the pace. So, despite the fact that I didn't have the faintest idea of where I was supposed to be going, I led the first interval with Nico just on my shoulder. I took the wrong turning at the end, but since we were just about to complete the first 5 minutes this didn't really matter. Flushed with success after this first interval, I took off in the lead again for the second, but quickly let Thierry past to lead since he knew where he was going. Nico and I hung on to him closely and we let Anis come past, running a good kilometre per hour faster than us, another league entirely.

The third interval went well too with me leading for the first 3 minutes and then Anis coming past initially closely followed by Nico. I let them go as I was beginning to tire slightly, which in retrospect, is my biggest mistake in that I am not ready mentally to make the effort when it counts. We finished this interval with Vincent and José just behind me with Bruno just after them. The fourth interval was the hardest as I entered the red zone and could feel my legs tiring, especially after yesterday's hills. We took a wrong turn near the start of the interval and then had to chase hard to go past the rest of the group and get to the front again. I trailed Anis, Nico, José by a long way and just concentrated on staying with Vincent, catching him at the end of the interval with Miguel just on my shoulder.

Disappointing last interval as we took the wrong path again and ended up running along the disused railway track, and then walking, scrambling a section to get back on the right track. All in all a good session, and feeling the effort in my legs at the end. Nico is still a level above in terms of speed on these intervals, and I came away telling myself that I need to push myself harder still. I always try and keep a little in reserve, instead of just going all out and not thinking about what will happen next.

15km all up in 1:26 with the intervals run at around 3:50 pace. Only 51km this week in 4 sessions so it has been a light week in terms of mileage.