Club session

Turned up at the club tonight not knowing what to expect. Really pleased to get out of work early for once and not arriving in a panic as usual. The sunshine was present and the skies were blue and the thermometer was steady at 19°C. A fantastic spring evening.

Good turnout at the club with the nice weather bringing out all of the runners. There seem to be more and more at these mid-week sessions and a good turnout of women too. The usual suspects were also there: Nico, Jean-Marc, Thierry, José, Bruno, Nat, Laurent, Philippe etc.

I set off for the warm up with Nico talking about his race at the weekend at Voisins. A great run from Nico to put in a 56:57 for a 15k - I'm a little scared that he's moving into a different league from me at the moment. This is almost a couple of minutes faster than my time in Conflans before Christmas over the same distance and a week after he ran Rambouillet - pretty impressive. I also tried to extract some information/gossip after his evening at the pub after training last week, but he was unable to talk because ears were around. I need to corner him sometime to get the full banter.

We got back to the track and I had the option of a hard session with the likes of Jean-Marc, Nico, José and Thierry or a marathon session with Bruno, Nat and Laurent. It was like choosing between a rock and a hard place. Speed or a slog - I chose the slog. A couple of straights to warm-up and the guys lined up for the off.

I set off content to stay behind Nat and Laurent, shoulder to shoulder with Bruno. I wondered what the session was as Nico had said 10x1000m but when we went through 1000m and showed no signs of slowing I thought that something was up. Perhaps it was 5' intervals but that too was short-lived but then I caught something about 2000m intervals. I ran to the front now with Bruno and Nat following just behind. I felt very comfortable and we finished the first 2000m in 7:44. 200m recovery and we set off again.

I ran to the front from the start this time and Bruno hung on to my shoulder as we went around the track. I could hear his breathing so knew that he was suffering and since I was feeling good I put in a little accleration to pass another group doing separate intervals. I dropped him here and carried on to finish this interval in 7:49. Another 200m recovery and we set off for the final interval. On this last one I ran from the front from start to finish and left Bruno and Nat behind by a good 100m. I was beginning to tire now butI still had enough energy to complete the 5 laps in 7:47. I waited at the finish line for the others. I was about to congratulate them when Bertrand and some others said that they'd had enough. Me too but apparently it wasn't over. The session was 4 x 2000m not 3!

I jogged the 200m and set off again for the last time. Everybody else had finished their sessions now and were watching us complete the laps. I counted down the laps as I really could feel it now. My breathing was shorter and my relaxed style at the start of the session had degenerated into a grimacing 'grin and bear it' frantic pumping of the arms and legs style. Still, I was well in front of the others so I tried to look as cool as possible, especially when I passed in front of the women. I sped up to cross the line in 7:36 - not bad for a last interval having 6k in my legs already.

Really pleased with the session and even more so when Nico told me that he'd not been able to complete his intervals. So much for the big hard man act, telling me that he'd be lapping me several times during the course of the evening. There's life in the old bugger yet.

14.5k all up and rest now before the Ecotrail on Saturday. Got to be mad to do this.