Final interval session 2010

Before I begin my write-up for last night's training session with the club, I wanted to just express a few words of sympathy for one of my former readers. I have 4 followers on my blog. Discovered this week that one of my followers actually died in September and I now only have 3 followers, one of whom is my wife. People just don't know what they're missing!

Turned up at the club last night to find a small group of runners, despite the fact that there was no trainer this evening and a quiet jog was on the menu. Nico, Gérald and Mohammed were there, together with a good turnout from the women: Laurence, Delphine, Anne, Murielle and Pascale amongst others. Nico, Gérald and Momo were keen to run some intervals and asked if I'd join them. With this group, I knew that I'd be pushing it hard but since that is what I need at the moment, I accepted.

We ran down under Michel's guidance to Poissy and alongside the railway. This was the 5 km warm-up and then we decided that we'd run back to the clubhouse doing the intervals. 2' of effort for a 1' recovery was agreed and we'd run as many as we could before running out of road.

I had the Garmin and quickly programmed it for this session and off we set with me in the lead since I had the watch. This first section was mostly downhill and we weren't pushing it too hard to begin with - 3:40 pace for the first interval. Nico took over for the second interval and it felt hard right from the start. I was just telling myself not to give in and to stick with them despite the pain. I lost about 3 metres on them just towards the end but I was pleased to have pushed it - 3:25 pace for this one.

We passed back under the railway line now and started the next interval led by Gérald. After about a minute we hit the main road and a good uphill section which forced us to slow down somewhat. The heart was beginning to feel all of this exertion and the pace was still sustained - 3:40 for this section. Another uphill section again and we were running along the path beside the main road in the pitch black. I followed the group of 3 ahead and just stuck with them over this section. The pace was not quite as sustained and I could see that Gérald was also tiring a little which gave me a spark of hope ! 3:35 pace here. I took the leas for the next interval and pushed as hard as I could with Momo encouraging me as I was at top speed. There's nothing more disparaging than busting a gut trying to push the pace and having somebody speaking to you easily telling you to push it harder ! I could feel the lactic in the legs now and the last 15 seconds were long.

The last interval was an interval too far and I dropped off the pace rapidly, watching the 3 others leave me easily. I really felt that I was slow now and it was a surprise to see that even this interval was run at 3:45 pace. Unfortunately the others were still at 3:20 pace which explains the gap.

10km all up in just under an hour. Good, hard session and I need more of these next year. Great to run with Nico, Gérald and Momo too as there are no excuses to hang back.

A little thought for Christelle at the club last night who had written to Father Christmas requesting a Garmin 405 to help accompany her in her running and racing, having seen mine and the functionalities that it provides. Father Christmas gave her a pot of anti-wrinkle face cream instead. I think Father Christmas's cheeks are still smarting from the blows !

Coasting ...

I've been accused of coasting by my brother. Coasting means not applying oneself, not trying your hardest, taking it easy ... and he's right, in a way. Marathon training is hard work. Not only is the weekly mileage a grind but it's combined with interval training both long and short to increase speed and endurance. Then comes the marathon race itself and when this is over, your body is simply not ready to restart immediately. All the training books suggest that you take between one month and 6 weeks to fully recover and my own experience is similar. This doesn't mean that you can't run during this time. No, it just means that you shouldn't be looking to be competitive during this period and to ease off on the race schedule.

Well, I've done all that and started racing again: Les Flambeaux in mid-November; Conflans in early December; and now Houilles at end December. However, the quality of my training hasn't improved. Apart from a few intermittent track sessions at the club, I haven't been constant with the interval sessions and doing these on a regular basis. This is how I'll improve.

Having stated the obvious, it's confession time. I got up at 6:00 am to go for a run again this morning and some quick thoughts about 24x200m intervals were banished from my mind and I went for the easy option. All of this in the space of a nano-second. Intervals are never easy but at this time in the morning, they are virtually unthinkable. So, this is how I did them: 'virtually' !

I set off at a brisk pace and was a little surprised by how quick I was going. This lasted 150 metres before the effort was felt and I slowed down to my normal training pace. From then on the pace was constant and it was my usual 10 kilometre route by the river, through the park and back through Le Mesnil. My legs felt heavy and I had to push myself to pick up speed several times during the course of the run. My left thigh is particularly sore with the hamstring and the front of the thigh feeling tight. I assume this is the after-effect of Houilles and nothing more serious.

10.3km all up in 46:22 or an average of 4:30 per km exactly. Not the quickest or the best of runs and definitely not the quality training that I need at the moment but it's keeping the mileage up at least.

Mid-week run

I'm setting my new objectives in my head for the moment. Unfortunately, they are still only in my head and haven't actually been officialised on paper or been sent as signals from my brain to the rest of my body to be put into action ... yet. Nevertheless, as a sign of intent, I set out this morning in order to increase my weekly mileage and to gain a sound base in preparation for the cross-country season. I haven't quite got as far as working out the interval sessions that are necessary too, but the distance is already a sound start.

The traffic to work has decreased dramatically now that the festive season has arrived. I'm making the most of this week before everything returns to normal next week and people return from holiday. I almost set the alarm for 6:30 am this morning in order to do an early morning run before having breakfast with Laurence and then going to work, and then I thought about it more carefully. If I set the alarm for 6:00am then I can get an even longer run in before waking my wife for breakfast and jumping in the car. So it was another early start when I pulled on my running kit to face the cold weather outdoors and headed into town for my early morning run. Shutting the door behind me, I realised that it wasn't as cold as I had imagined and the light snow falling was quickly turning into slush and then rain.

I set off at an easy pace down to the river avoided the patches of ice and snow that were still around. I soon slipped into that dream state that you find when you're not pushing the pace too hard and my thoughts were elsewhere. Most of this daydreaming was focused on the forthcoming cross-country races and what my objectives are for these. The best part of the endorphin induced state in running for me is that I can begin to think clearly about problems and eliminate the unimportant or non-essential in the decision making process. So what were my conclusions ? My objective for this cross-country season is to beat Thierry. I have to be focused on this one objective. No one cares about times in cross-country races. It's only between you and the competition. I have only one competitor this season who I'm interested in (remember that cross-country races are by age category - so no Nico, no Gérald) : Thierry. If I'm going to improve, I need to train harder, to run stronger and to fight harder in the races.

Having sorted all of that out, I sped up and thought about my next interval session and working hard. Even the endorphins aren't strong enough however to cancel out the pain in this instance.

15.3 km all up in 1:10 or 4:37 per km. Good run and lovely to get back to the house to find the rest of the household still in bed enjoying their holidays. Laurence enjoyed the few extra minutes in bed due to the longer run before she got up to have breakfast with me and prepare for her run.

And the winners are ...

A photo of the sprint finish yesterday with these 2 (Imane Merga just finishing by a whisker in front of Micah Kogo) finishing the race in 27:47 and 27:48, beating the course record in the process by a few seconds. When I weigh the same amount as these 2, I might be able to challenge them (or not ...!!)


Thanks to Frédéric Poirier for taking the photo and letting me use it.

Corrida de Houilles

The Corrida de Houilles is the traditional end of year race in the town of Houilles. Over the years, this race has grown into a high-quality international competition with a number of top-class international athletes showing up to take on the 3 lap course. It's not an easy course either with a good hill lasting 350 metres in the loop which has to be ascended 3 times. This year, it was also the final for another challenge: the James v. Nico 2010 challenge with the scores at 2-2 for the year, this race was to be the decider.

After a tough series which saw me off to a good start at Rambouillet, literally exploding Nico after 7 km and leaving him for dust, things went downhill at Fontenay le Fleury for the 10km there (such a low point that I stopped writing my blog at this point). I was racing this having run the Paris Marathon a month earlier and with the heat and the race fatigue form the marathon, I was in no shape to run competively, and Nico overtook me at 7km in this race at which point I dropped out. Definitely the nadir of my running in 2010. So we were at 1-1 at this point. Nico had been improving rapidly throughout the year, coming into form after beginning running mid-2009. The next challenge was Orgerus (wot no blog!), a 15km race in early June. Nico and I were together until the 7 km mark and then I tired a little letting him escape so another victory to him. The revenge was in September at Conflans, my favourite 10 km race of the season. I had started marathon training and was in better shape than earlier in the year. What promised to be a close event turned into a stroll in the park, with Nico not worrying me at all in this race, allowing me to recover in the series and now tying at 2-2. What was going to happen today ?

We met up at the club before the race so that we could go there together. Nico and Mireille were already there when I arrived and Miguel, as coach for the race, drove us in his car to Houilles. The banter began early with me telling Nico that he'd obviously enjoyed his Christmas lunch as I could tell be the size of his stomach and he answered in much the same vein. I could tell that he was stressed by the race as he was quieter than normal, and I was concentrated, telling myself that I was to do my best. My pronostics for the race results had already been posted: Gérald, Nico, me then Mireille. However, I wasn't going to go down without a fight, but I have to admit that having seen Nico in training and the space he creates in our intervals, I didn't believe that I was in the same shape that he is at the moment.

We arrived at Houilles and saw Eric and Gérald as we jogged around the 3.3km course. Gérald gave us the usual "I'm not in great shape, I'll be taking this easy" rubbish as we warmed-up. None of us were convinced though as we've seen Gérald in training and recently he's been flying. The next pleasant surprise was to see Laurence who come along to watch the race, wrapped up in a thick overcoat and 2 pair of gloves! This cheered me up no end and I promised her to do my best. We lined up for the start of the race in almost ideal conditions: dry, no wind and a temperature of about -1°C. It was cold but not as cold as predicted (-9°C forecast initially). The gun went, 4 times in fact andI thought for a moment it was a false start but since no-one slowed down, I wasn't going to be the only one to stop now. Mireille had started fast and was just ahead of me as we left the flat section and started up the hill for the first time. I pulled her in and ran up the hill alongside her. I made sure to stretch out down the hill as soon as we'd passed the top and at this point Nico came past me and we went through the first kilometre all together in 3:29.

We turned left onto a flatter section at this point and Gérald sprinted past to catch up with Nico. In my head, I was satisfied to be on target for a sub-37 minute time and happy for Nico that he was running a more aggressive race than usual. I was running with Mireille now, slightly surprised that she was runing at this pace since she struggled in the 10km race in St Germain and has been well behind in training recently. We passed through 2 km in just over 7 minutes and I began to feel the pace and when Mireille continued at this speed, I dropped a couple of metres on her. I could see Nico and Gérald about 50m ahead and now Mireille had gained 5m on me. We finished the first lap in this configuration and I threw my headband to Laurence as I went past. I wasn't cold at this speed and looking to be as easy as possible, the headband was just an annoyance.

I passed Miguel at the foot of the uphill section for the second lap; "Let the storm pass and push on", he encourages me as I pass. I'm in the red already and I can't help but smile at his words, does he believe I'm not trying here ? I negotiate the hill slower this time, running the kilometre in 3:44 but I can see from the Garmin that I'm still ahead of the 3:40 pace virtual partner by about 10 seconds so I focus on that information and keep going. This second lap proves to be the killer. I'm nowhere now, no group of runners in front of me to push me on and a lethargy begins to settle in. Unconsciously, I ease off the pace and run through 5 km in 18:25. Mireille has more than 50m advantage over me and I can no longer see Gérald and Nico. I'm on my own now and the usual thoughts of abandoning the race enter my mind, only to be banished rapidly as I don't want to let myself and Laurence down. I finish the second loop and Laurence shouts out to me that I'm nearly there. There's still a lap left yet, but I'm encouraged by the thought of only one more climb up the hill before I can run for home.

I pass Miguel again who shouts out encouragement and gives me a push as I go past. I egt to the top of the hill and suddenly I wake up. Another runner pulls alongside me and tries to overtake and I see that it's Myriam Akdim, one of Mireille's biggest local rivals. This gives me the boost I need to wake up and put some more effort in. She overtakes me and I stay with her. We run for a kilometre like this passing the 8km marker. As we round one of the bends, taking it as tight as possible, I accidently clip her heels and she holds out her hand as if to apologise. I will not give in and as the road bends downhill slightly I push the pace and pass her now. I don't ease off and her breathing in my ear is a permanent reminder of just how close she is. We head into the town centre and pass the 9km marker. 3 and a half minutes of effort I tell myself and maintain the pace. The finishing line comes into sight as we round the last bend. 200 metres to go and I begin to sprint. 2 men come past at a fantastic pace now and I breathe a sigh of relief as I thought it was Myriam. I finish and stop my watch - 37:29 for the 10km. Not bad for the course and I see Gérald and Nico ahead and find out how they've done.

So official results are here for the club:

Eric 35:08 new PB for him
Gérald 36:20 new PB for him too
Mireille 36:53
Nico 36:59 new PB for him

Huge regrets from my part not to have been able to hang on to Mireille during the race but I couldn't take the pace when she left me. I was pleased that I ran a lot better race than last year, beating last year's time by almost 1minute 30 in the process. This is my best time for this course so no real regrets. Quality of the race was outstanding : 369 finishers in total and Gérald ended up in 101 place in 36:20! 13 runners ran under 30 minutes with the winner (Imane Merga) finishing in 27:47 beating Micah Kogo in the final sprint (27:48). These 2 are running at 21.5 km/h!

So, Nico wins the 2010 challenge and hats off to him for finally pulling his act together and showing the pace over 10km that he is capable of. We now have to decide the races for 2011 that will count. I have decided that we will need to race together over 5km, 10km, 15km, half-marathon and marathon to be able to determine next year's champion. All suggestions for races will be studied in detail ! Looking forward to it already and my new year's resolutions are fully prepared.

Thursday saunter

Missed the training session again on Thursday evening, stuck in another traffic jam on the motorway watching the minutes tick by and my chances of seeing everyone at the club for a last run before Houilles with them.

Ran from home and did an extended loop around Maisons Laffitte in the cold.

14km all up in 1:04. Felt good and relaxed, especially in the latter half of the circuit.

The loneliness of the medium-distance runner

I left early from work to get to the club session tonight. It has been a hard day/week/month/year, in fact all of these and sometimes it's good to leave it all behind and to liberate my mind from my business preoccupations and run with like-minded people. I find running allows me to evacuate all of these thoughts. I can step back from my problems and think them through more clearly, often finding solutions to problems that have been bothering me for hours. Today I got stuck in a traffic jam.

I had been looking forward to the session tonight. In fact, we had been planning it on Saturday with Nico and Miguel. The idea had been to run the last hard session for the week tonight, ready for Sunday's race in Houilles. Miguel had planned 3x1600m just so that he could time it easily around the track. I had been looking forward to pushing it as hard as possible and getting a good quality session in ready for the race. Last minute preparations to pick up some speed, readying myself to give it all on Sunday and especially to give Nico a run for his money. All these plans put to waste by a monstrous traffic jam on the Paris ring-road and then the St Cloud bridge.

I spoke to Laurence on the phone who had arrived at the club and was wondering where I was. She had my Garmin with her. She recommended that I go home and run from there since the track was slippy with the remainder of ice and snow from the weekend and had been declared off-bounds. I followed her advice and changed into my running kit at home and set out with the intention of doing the 3x1600m by myself, but without my Garmin to measure the distance.

I set off on the usual route down by the river and then began my first interval. I ran until the roundabout in front of Maisons Laffitte castle and then slowed down until the 3km marker and set off again. I ran the second interval better and then ran my 400m recovery before running the last interval, finishing this in Maisons Laffitte park. I didn't feel tired enough though and despite my efforts to push the pace, I still had some energy left in my legs. I decided then and there to run another interval through the park, down to the castle and then back again.

This was better. I was taking longer to recover and my pace was slower. I left the park and decided to give it one last go by runinng another kilometre at full pace down Rue du Gros Murger from one end to the other. Now I was tired - a quick jog home and I'm now ready for the race this weekend. Nico watch out!

12 km all up in 55 minutes.

More snow

It snowed Friday night, it snowed all day Saturday and there was so much snow Sunday morning that Laurence and I decided that taking the car was impossible to get to the club session this morning so we ran over to the clubhouse instead. It had stopped snowing during the night but it restarted again this morning and we left with thick flakes falling down around us.

We headed up through the forest towards St Germain at an easy pace, tired from our late night and the effort necessary to lift our feet, making the going tougher than normal through the forest. We stopped for a quick photo opportunity in the forest using Laurence's mobile phone and then carried on.



The forest had been transformed and the weight of the snow on the trees had forced their branches to the ground, disguising the usual paths through the forest and making us check twice before running down some paths.

We turned up at the clubhouse for 9:00am and were pleased to see that we weren't the only nutters who had decided that it would be fun to run in the snow: Nico, Gérald, Vincent, Delphine, Mireille and Philippe amongst others were all part of the 15 or so runners who'd braved it through the snow. Miguel was notably absent, probably suffering from the after-effects of yesterday's run. No other excuse is acceptable since Gérald had made it in from the same town.

Michel and Frank suggested the route behind the Légion d'Honneur school in St Germain forest and we set off in this direction. The idea was to run 3 laps of the cross Toto route doing the session that had been prepared by Miguel: 5', 10', 5' off 2 minutes recovery. We set off for the warm-up and Nico profited from the fresh snow to throw one of the most fantastic snowballs I've ever witnessed, hitting Michel in the back of the head from 30 paces.

We arrived at the start of the circuit and the snow was deeper than ever. There was now a good 15 - 20 cm of fresh snow lying on the paths and the going was tough to run as it was hard to push off an unstable surface and the depth of the snow meant that you had to lift your feet in order to avoid stumbling.

We set off for the first interval and I ran at the front with Nico, running at about 15km/h or 4:00 pace. Gérald caught us towards the end of the first interval as we found it hard to recognise the path around the course due to the wall of branches blocking the route in places. The next interval was harder and I fell off the pace, letting Gérald and Nico lead. I'm sure that the fact that they were both dressed in shorts, despite the cold and the snow, assisted their pace and my running tights held me back here. The fact that we headed back up the hill to complete the loop and the effort necessary to push through the deepest sections of snow was secondary to these clothing hinderances. The last interval was better as we were heading back down the hill again and the snow had been trampled now making the going ever so slightly easier. Nico nad I tried to lose Gérald by rushing headfirst through the branches, while he took more care losing 10 metres in the process. However, he caught up again in no time (he's in top shape at the moment) and as the interval ended both Nico and Gérald had gained 15 metres on me.

We waited for the rest of the group and headed back to the clubhouse all together where I met Laurence who'd gone back early in order to arrange the pick-up of Paul who'd spent the night at a friend's house, unable to get back because of the snow. No sign of Paul but we were able to beg a lift off Nico back to Le Mesnil, avoiding the 5 km back through the forest.

18.3km all up in 1:53. Hard running in these conditions and excellent cross-country training.

Still had to go and get Paul afterwards, cycling back out to St Germain and then running back 5km home along the roads while Paul pedalled alongside me. Knackered now.

Identity Crisis

It was a situation that could have been amusing. The sort of situation that they make films about or at least a 12 series sitcom. Delphine has been confusing Nick with Nico or vice versa, it all depends on your point of view. It all started because Nico (the Frenchman) and I ran to Cora and discussed runners at the club. Since I usually run to Cora with Nick (the Englishman) admittedly there was some scope for confusion but all my attentive readers out there realised the difference immediately. Delphine please pay attention! As a result, there have been some fairly confusing conversations at the club recently with Nico making references to the blog and Delphine thinking that he was talking about soemthing else etc., etc.

Anyway, none of this got in the way of our Saturday run, which following a discussion with Nico on Thursday night, started from the clubhouse with Miguel invited to join us. Nick is still injured and somewhere in the Alps at present watching his wife ski, run and generally exercise, while he is presumably propping up some bar, exercising his right arm and abusing the mulled wine.

It had snowed during the night and Saturday morning saw me arriving at the clubhouse in the car, only to miss the entrance to the car park and to skid 20 metres beyond, narrowly missing the kerb (which I'd already hit the previous night). I decided to park beside the road, giving up the carpark as a bad loss. Miguel arrived at the same time and Nico turned up 5 minutes later and, judging by the look of him, he'd only just made it out of bed.

After a quick discussion as to where we should run to, we set off in the general direction of Cora at an easy pace completing the first kilometre in 5:14. After this first kilometre warm-up, we crossed the St Germain road and ran through the forest on the Poissy side, upping the pace to 4:30 in the process. Miguel complained that he wasn't used to running at this speed and had been expecting a jog with us both. Nico knows better by now, having run a few times with me at this speed. I thought that running at between 13 and 14 km/h is normal training pace for standard sessions as nobody has ever told me different, but apparently this is a bit of an exception. Tom mentioned as much in his blog.

We carried on until Croix de Noailles and then crossed back over the road into the forest towards Maisons Laffitte. As official route finder, I got slightly confused at this point and we ended up at Croix de St Simon. I realised that apart from the main road, the only way to cross the railway line was to back track towards the bridge opposite Pavillon de la Muette and so it was in this direction that we now headed. The forest was absolutely fantastic in this weather. We were running in fresh snow that was between 5 - 10 cm deep. It was not so deep that it hindered your movement or running style but quietened the forest, and left everything looking clean and white. The effort was easy with the conversation and notably Miguel chatting about his race experiences and professional runners he'd known from the past. I chatted less, concentrating on the route and the paths we were taking.

We ended up at Pavillon de la Muette and having run 7.5km now, we decided by general consent to head back, leaving Cora for another day. I took them back via the usual Saturday route from Cora, heading in the direction of Maisons Laffitte. We slowed slightly at this point going from around 4:25 pace to 4:40 pace and it was only when we arrived at the outskirts of Maisons Laffitte that I realised that we still had another good 5km to run and we'd already done 11. This was going to be longer than expected.

Miguel began to tire now and fell off the pace slightly at this point. Nico and I pushed on for home as both Nico and Miguel recognised the more familiar paths in the forest around St Germain and there was no longer any risk of losing somebody in the forest. We both eased up at the end to wait for Miguel after La Mare aux Cannes having picked up the pace again slightly to 4:30 speed.

16.7 km all up in 1:19 or an average of 4:45 per km. This was slow since I didn't stop the Garmin for either of Nico nor Miguel's toilet stops that they both pretexted to catch their breath. Great run and lovely in the forest.

Funniest part was seeing Miguel limp down the steps from the clubhouse restaurant (thanks Nico for the coffee!) as if he'd just completed a marathon. He definitely needs to get out more often!

Thursday club session

Managed to make it to the club session tonight and there was a fairly good turnout with Miguel taking the session for the faster runners and Michel the slower section.

Our planned session was 1km, 2km, 1km, 1km off 300m rest. The weather was lousy with 5°C but a bitter wind and horizontal rain. We warmed up around St Germain and Jean-Marc, Nico, Gérald and myself left most of the other runners behind as we ran out at around 5:30 pace. The rest of the group was running a minute per kilometre slower.

Mireille, José, Mohammed and Bruno were also there but Bruno was taking it easy as he's still recovering from his 2 marathons. Still no sign of Nick who is probably still out with his back injury. Hope to see him back in training soon.

We set off for the first kilometre and I ran to the front for the first 400 metres and then let Nico come past, closely followed by Gérald. We were running this first km at max VO2 pace and I managed to finish in 3:25 (not exact as I messed up with the Garmin).

Next up was the 2km which I ran in 7:14, just managing to hold off José this time. But by the end of this one I was cooked and the recovery time was feeling very short. I suffered on the next kilometre but still managed to run this in 3:36 however a long way behind both Nico and Gérald.
The final kilometre, I had Mireille tailing me and I just managed to hold her off over the last 200 metres to finish in 3:35.

A really good quality session and I was pleased with my performance, even if I trailed both Gérald and Nico by a way. José and Jean-Marc were just ahead but I'm sure that my performance is better than at the same time last year.

12 km all up in 1:01 or an average pace of 5:07 per km.

Best part of the evening was after the race with a drink to celebrate the succesful Corrida that we held in St Germain and to thank all the volunteers for the marshalling and supporting the event. Delphine let us into the secrets of how she managed to obtain such a cushy timetable at her school. Sorry but the details are too sordid to be revealed here !

Wednesday tempo

Not much time for a run this morning before meetings at work so I decided to make it short and sweet.

I ran my old route down by the Seine, up past the castle at Maisons Laffitte back through the park and then up to Le Mesnil past Leader Price. Having little time to train this week and needing to get some quality in, I decided to beef it up a little by making it a tempo run and seeing just how fast I could run this route at nowadays.

It's hard for an old geezer like me to start at a decent pace for a training run now. A couple of years ago, when I just started running, I would run all my training runs like this : step out the gate, set off at full pelt, get tired, slow down, finish on my knees. I've matured (at least for running) and nowadays, I set off slowly, think about speeding up, decide against it and put it off to the next day, and finish in fine fettle.

So, full pelt it was. Well actually, at -6°C it's hard to go at full pelt without having warmed up the muscles so it was a pace designed to keep out the cold. First kilometre in 4:02 and then second in 4:12. This one fast, one slower carried on for the rest of the course as I kept dozing off and then speeding myself up consciously in an attempt to keep the pace reasonable.

7.73 km all up in 31:51 or an average of 4:07 per km so a good pace overall.

P.S. actually just found my course record over this route which stands at 30:43 or over a minute faster. I can't believe it. I used to be fast in the old days: blog here.

Tuesday morning

Just a quick write up about the training this week as Nico thinks that I'm using this as a secret weapon to beat him in Houilles by hiding all my training from him.

Easy run around the usual loop first thing on Tuesday. Weather wasn't too cold (around 0°C) and I ran at a steady pace, having recovered from the exertions over the weekend.

12.8km all up in 57:53 or 4:31 per km average. So I wasn't hanging around but no great shakes either.

Sunday club session

Turned up for today's session at the club with Laurence, not knowing what had been planned and expecting to see a reduced contingent with the start of the cross-country season at Sartouville and the corrida at Issy. Actually, there was a large turnout and Jean-Marc, Gérald, Thierry, José and Vincent were all there from the fastest members of the club The most notable absentees were Nico, Bruno, Mireille and Nick (still injured), not to mention Miguel who was probably at Sartouville with Nico and Mireille.

The session was announced by Thierry as 2x15' at threshold pace and we were avoiding the muddy forest tracks after the thaw and sticking to the roads. The plan was to head up the Princess Road and then do a small loop towards St Gemme before heading back the same way. I chatted to Gérald and Adrian as we warmed up Princess Road. We stopped half-way up and then Gérald and I continued our conversation and were just behind Laurence with some friends when we realised that the first interval had begun and the leading group was already well ahead up the hill.

Gérald had told me he was taking it easy until year end but the temptation to accelerate a little and to catch up other runners from the club was too great (actually it was more a question of impressing the female runners) and so Gérald and I took off up the hill in pursuit. I don't know actually how fast we went up this hill but it was pretty impressive and the Garmin showed 4:59 for the kilometre when we had started during the kilometre in question. We reached the top of Princess Road and along the flat towards St Gemme and Gérald was pushing the pace further. So much for taking it easy - we obviously don't have the same definition of threshold pace. We were running at 3:54 speed now and catching the group at the front.

Gérald left me at this point as I just couldn't stay with him. I fixed my own objectives on some runners in front and went past Laurent and caught up Jean-François just as the first interval ended. 3 minutes rest and then we set off again. This time I was better prepared and at the front with Thierry and José. Gérald stayed on my shoulder for a couple of minutes before taking off again leaving all 3 of us standing. "Don't worry - he doesn't know the way", I shouted and Thierry and José let him go. Well to be precise, letting him go was relative since we were running at 3:44 pace and he was still extending his gap. He's in impressive shape at the moment and well capable of further improving his current PBs.

A kilometre later and I had to ease off the pace. José and Thierry gapped me here and my pace dropped to 15 km/h. This was probably due to the after-effect of yesterday's run and the effort it had taken out of me. My other surprise was to be encouraged by a runner going in the opposite direction at this point who shouted out "Vas-y James". I didn't have time to see who the mystery runner was but it's nice to know I have some supporters! It was only when we started to go down Princess Road again that I was able to speed up slightly. Bruno passed us in the opposite direction now, running quietly up the hill by himself. He's still recovering from 2 successive marathons sub 3 hours in the space of 3 weeks, so he's legitimately excused.

Interval finished with Thierry about 30 metres ahead and José and Gérald another 50 metres ahead of him. I was really pleased with the session as I still have some speed and the endurance is not too bad compared to previous years at the same time.

18.8 km all up in 1:41 or an average of 5:24 per km.

Cora slush

The snow and ice had virtually disappeared and the temperature had risen to 5°C to almost autumnal conditions rather than the severe winter weather we've been experiencing lately. I decided to celebrate by putting on a pair of shorts and leaving the running tights in the drawer.

Nick still being injured and Nico racing in a cross-country tomorrow, I decided to set out on the Cora run by myself and to enjoy the peace and quiet of the forest first thing in the morning. I left the house with Laurence and then ran on, leaving her to go for her run with a friend. I set off very easily and then as soon as I got into the forest, I picked up the pace. The tracks were very soft with the remainder of the snow melting rapidly, leaving large pools of slush lying around. I couldn't avoid all of these and very soon my feet were soggy from my trainers having absorbed a jug of water in each shoe.

After that first kilometre, my pace had already increased to around 14km/h with each kilometre being covered in around 4:25. When I saw that I'd managed to complete the 4th km in 4:17, I pushed on still, trying to catch an old man on a bike and completing the 5th km in 4:03. I eased off from then on but still managed to run each kilometre in 4:20 or under. I definitely had the energy for the run despite the ground conditions.

Nothing remarkable to report on the way back. Not many people were around in the forest this morning and I only spotted a couple of runners. Made it back to the house in 1:07 which is probably one of the fastest times I've done over this course, especially since I took the long way back through Le Mesnil along Ave Pasteur.

15.2 km all up in 1:07 or ana average of 4:27 per km. Lovely morning and great run.

Friday thaw

I was this close *shows no gap between fingers* to not getting out of bed yesterday when the alarm rang at 6:00am. I had just under 7 hours sleep which was almost 2 hours more than I'd managed during the rest of the week and my body was telling me that it had had enough. But a commitment is a commitment and I was glad to be able to get out for a proper run (jogging around in the snow for 7k on Tuesday night didn't count) and to put in a bit of mileage before the weekend.

The weather was warmer as the temperature had risen to 0°C ! I pulled on my kit and went outside. The car was in the drive as with the retreat of a little of the snow, I'd finally managed to get it up the slope. Unfortunately, we hadn't been so successful with the electric gate which had refused to work as soon as the thermometer dropped below zero. I had to yank it open and stepped onto to the road to wait for the Garmin to pick up the satellite signals.

The road was still very icy, although there was less snow, it had been compacted and had turned to ice in places. I started running along the road as the pavement was virtually unuseable. It felt great to be out and exercising again after a really hard week at work. I started out at a reasonable pace despite the conditions underfoot: the ice and compacted snow causing my feet to slip and slide and preventing me getting a firm grip to push off with.

I decided to make up for the 7km run earlier this week with at least 13km today. I ran the first kilometre at 4:35 pace and then continued along the river at this pace for the next few kilometres (5 extra in fact). I then hit my magic 6 kilometre mark, realised that I'd warmed up and then set about picking up the pace. I accelerated to 4:30 then 4:25 before finishing at 4:15/km pace.

13.3 km all up in 59:57 or an average of 4:31 per km.

Having managed to get the car up the drive, I couldn't turn it around when I left for work so Laurence and Henry had to push me. They were most pleased !!

Snow

Managed to get out of work at a reasonable time and made it to the club session just in time. Just in time for what exactly? Well I turned up but we were only a handful (well 11 precisely) to have made it in. I don't know whether it was due to the snow or to the after effects of a hard weekend but very few people had turned up.

Luckily Miuchel had turned up to act as coach for the evening so we were all saved. Since there was a good 5cm of snow lying on the ground, he decreed that we should all run into the forest along the large tracks as the snow would light up the way. There were no disagreements as nobody wanted to trudge around town, so we all set off.

In fact, it wasn't so bad an idea as I had at first imagined. It was pleasant running through the forest along the tracks and the snow lying everywhere helped reflect what little light there was making it perfectly possible to see where you were going and where you were putting your feet. It was a very easy pace as we didn't want to lose anyone so we were running at about 6:30 pace per km.

We went around the forest once before heading towards the swimming pool and then back to the club.

7km all up in 47 minutes. Very easy evening all around but very pleasant. Shame that no more runners had turned up for the session so as to push the pace a little more.

Sunday recovery

Laurence and I made a special effort to get up this morning to go running with the club. It wasn't that the club was running earlier than usual, just that we'd got to bed at 2:45am and were still determined to make it to see the others and burn off the excess of alcohol/starters/cheese/desserts (delete as appropriate!). It was no easy job to rouse my wife, whereas I was as fresh as a wilted daisy. No breakfast, jumped into our kit, jumped into our shoes and jumped into the car and got to the club just in time for the morning brief.

Aaargh - first disappointment: no Thierry, no Miguel but Michel who was the self-appointed coach for the morning with his usual clarity and quickness of mind, he explained what we were supposed to do. We had a special guest in the person of Dominique Chauvelier, the patron of the club's 10km corrida last night, who was kind enough to come and run with us all this morning.

José, Nico, Bruno, Jean-François were all there and despite the fact that Laurence and I had turned up expecting a 90' easy recovery session, 2 blocks of 10' threshold training were announced. We warmed up easily enough and then began the session proper. I set off with Nico to begin with but soon felt the efforts from yesterday's race in my legs and let him pull away with José in tow.

The second interval was harder still since both Nico and José were ahead from the start. I was following them at a distance when I heard footsteps behind and "Chauchau" caught me. I told him to catch the others and he tried to let me latch on but I lost energy and motivation in the slight uphill section after the bumps. He cruised on easily to catch José and Nico and to push them to the end of the interval. His ease when he runs is most impressive.

We let everyone catch up at the end of the interval and then ran back to the clubhouse. This run back was supposed to be easy but with our "guest" we all got carried away and were running at 14km/h for the last 5 km back home.

16.4 km all up in 1:24. Nice run but not the recovery that I'd initially intended.

Berges de Conflans - 15km

Some days you just don't want to know. You wake up and you feel under the weather. Something is not quite right: lack of sleep, onset of a cold, too much stress from work. Choose any one of these and then combine this with freezing temperatures and the onset of a heavy snowfall and the thought of heading out into the weather with a ball and chain of other woes and concerns and frankly, any alternative is more tempting.

Paul B. called me at 11:30 to ask what shoes I was going to wear for the race. This question is normally not necessary. The 15km at Conflans is a road race with about 300m along some tracks but the vast majority is on the road, running alongside the river Seine until it meets the river Oise. However, 10cm of fresh snow had just fallen and the thought that trail shoes might actually be useful was mooted. Having discussed this possibility we also discussed our lack of motivation to participate. Admittedly, my motivation was stronger since 5 members of the club had signed up for the race, the minimum necessary for the club to score points in the championship whereas Paul B still wasn't entered. A commitment is a commitment and an Englishman's word is his honour and all that b****cks - so we went.

Picked up a mate of Paul's on the way, another Englishman named Nick and having got changed we warmed up together around the start of the course. Again, warming-up is relative and with an ice cold wind and temperatures below freezing, I was wondering seriously about heading back to the changing room and just waiting there until the last moment before the race. Nick asked me what my race plan was at this point and I explained that I only had 2 objectives: beat the hour and a guy called Fred in the process. I was going to start easily (remembered all too well my race 3 years ago where I set out too fast and suffered from km 4 onwards) and start pushing the pace after the hills around the town centre, from km 6 and after alongside the Seine.

About 550 people were lined up for the start, including one nutter only in shorts and running vest. Most were dressed with long sleeved tops, tights, gloves and hats. I'd left my hat on as a concession to the cold, but regretted my thick ski hat compared to the thin fleece affairs that the rest of the field had adopted. The gun went off, not too soon enough for my liking, and we were off through the residential streets around the stadium.

Despite all my race plan theories about setting off slowly and building up speed after the town centre, I ran the first kilometre in 3:34. I felt easy though as I was fresh from not having run hard since previous Tuesday. The first 3 kilometres are flat and I ran these more steadily after the first at around 3:50 pace, only quickening over the 4th kilometre as we dropped down the hill to the Seine and towards the town centre.

I kept my eye on the runners around me and tried not to let them distance me or be caught by others from behind. Just before the 5th kilometre, we began the climb up the hill into the town and to the castle. I was overtaken on the first steep section by a runner but that didn't worry me as my aim was to keep as constant a pace as possible and in fact as we dropped down slightly to attack the second climb, he came back to me as he suffered from his initial effort and I was able to cruise (well more accurately: plod) past. We made a quick loop of the castle grounds and as I left, I saw Paul enter and shouted encouragements to him. It was then a steep icy section downhill and down to the river again. Well, this is what I imagined but I'd forgotten that they bring you up another hill before you can finally coast on down to the Seine.

Back alongside the river again now and the serious pacing begins. There are now 5 kilometres of flat as you run to the meeting of the 2 rivers (Seine and Oise) and back along the Seine in the direction of the start before you pull up another hill and run in to the finish. I seemed to find myself alone at this point with a couple of runners behind me and some individuals ahead. I concentrated on the runners in front and began the process of chasing them down. I felt good in my legs and very steady in my pace. I was at a point, similar to the marathon, where I felt that I had the energy and the pace to go faster but knew that there was still plenty of running to be done.

I caught a couple of runners now as I got to the turning point and was heading back home when I heard shouts of "Come on Fred" just behind me. A runner caught me now and it was Fred who I'd not seen at the start of the race but was my challenge for the day. I stayed with him as he pushed on and we quickly caught another younger runner. I had time to listen to his breathing and compare it to my own: he definitely didn't sound in any better shape than me which gave me encouragement and I figured it might just be my day. I looked at the Garmin and the virtual partner showed that I was 40 seconds ahead of schedule. I figured that this was just enough to manage the hill ahead and still finish under the hour. I pushed on.

In fact, this effort was so good that it took me past Fred and I started on another couple of runners in blue tops (Andrésy and Achères). The hill to leave the river was approaching and I was calculating how much time I could gain before this last effort. I caught the 2 runners and overtook them before attacking the hill. This hill lasts for about 300metres and is around 15% gradient. I shortened my stride and slowed my pace as I ascended. I was convinced that I'd be overtaken here as hills are not my forté, but I managed to make it to the top without being caught and I made a conscious effort to lengthen my stride and get back into a serious rhythm.

Damn! I heard foosteps behind me and knew without looking that it was Fred who'd caught me again. He came past and shouted "Relance (Kick again)" as he came past. I gave all I had and stayed on his shoulder. We ran the last 2 kilometres like this with me trailing him by 2 metres as we headed back to the stadium. As we entered the stadium, I was prepared to push him right to the end and I was just on his tail as we ran the last lap of the track, in fact so close that I clipped his shoe. My problem was that there had only been one lane cleared of snow and to attempt to overtake meant running onto the snow and ice and at this speed there simply wasn't the traction to allow a burst of pace.

The inevitable happened and he accelerated over the last 100 metres and finished 2 seconds ahead of me.

So, out of my 2 objectives I had achieved the first (58:48) and failed the second by 2 metres. I was still very pleased with my run and the way I'd managed the race. The course was good and the competition was intense. I'd caught a good number of runners in the last 7 kilometres and that had felt good too. I was actually quite glad that I'd made the effort and run the race after all.

Paul finished just 3 minutes behind, having overtaken Nick in the final stages of the race, to finish in 1:02:41. Nick ended up 20 seconds behind and then promptly spent the next 30 minutes coughing his lungs up from the effort!

Good race and a new record for 15km in the process despite the hilly course.

Photo of Fred and I in the man to man battle!

Wednesday recce

I couldn't trun down the invitation from Nico to go and do a recce of the St Germain corrida course on Wednesday evening. Work meant that a run on Thursday was impossible, so a nice easy jog around St Germain in the evening sounded very pleasant.

When I arrived in the town centre, there were already a couple of runners waiting: Gérald and Jérémie and both were wearing shorts. I'm not a fairy myself, but when the temperature drops below zero and there is snow and ice on the ground, I tend to avoid shorts. Gérald went one step further and was sporting a t-shirt too. He's obviously got some northern blood in him as the typical Frenchman goes into cocoon mood and pulls on several layers when the thermometer begins to fall.
This was confirmed a few minutes later by Nico when he turned up in tracksuit bottoms and 3 layers on top. So even Nico, renowned for his immoderate use of basketball shorts even in the coldest temperatures had resorted to tracksters. Mireille showed up a minute later and we set off to measure the course for this weekend's race.

We made a small loop to begin with starting from the market place and looping around back to Place de la Victoire. We then set off on the big loop of the town which was to be run twice to complete the 10km. This headed down from the marketplace towards the Place Royale but cutting off right before the square. The route then headed off downhill past Laurence's school and then turning right with a slight incline before a steep downhill section past the museum and then a hard pull uphill befoe turning right again and completing the circuit. When we ran it was slippy, icy and the uphill sections looked hard work, especially if they were to be run at 10k pace.

It was good to see the course before the race, despite the fact that I wasn't taking part as I wanted to be able to judge the performance of the athletes on the day.

10km all up in 47:50. Nice easy run to finish the day.