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.