Sunday club session

So having suffered Friday night, the big test was this morning to see whether the ESWT had done any good as I was going to the club session with Laurence to run for 90 minutes.

Nico had contacted me to see if I was interested in an easy run this morning. Too right I was, but very apprehensive as to how the ankle would behave after 45 minutes of pounding the road. We agreed that we'd go to the club to meet the others and just take it easy, avoiding the intervals and running at 12km/h. There was a good turnout at the club : Thierry, Bruno, José, Philippe, most of the trailers and Delphine, Christelle, Aude, Catherine amongst the women. Miguel was taking the session and leading the 10km training session with 3 blocks of 10 minutes and this was the group that we'd be joining while the marathoners headed off for a 2h40 session with 4x20'.

We ran easily out to the Princess Road and the different groups separated at this point. Nico and I ran with Gérard, a seventy year old from the club who's still running 1h43 half-marathons, well down from his sub 1h20 record and 2h50 marathon bests. We let the women go for the first interval and then sped up to stay with them over the second. Nico was able to realise one of his fantasies by staying just behind the group, admiring their posteriors while I stayed in front acting as a hare for them. We were running at 4:35 pace now and when this interval finished, Nico and I continued on running and chatting until Anis and Nabil caught us on the last interval. Miguel caught us too at this point and since he was looking tired already, we rubbed salt into the wounds by picking up the pace and urging him to pull his finger out. I was tired now since we'd run 11k and the lack of recent training was felt, so it was a relief as he turned round to pick up the women and Nico and I headed back down Princess Road towards the clubhouse.

We ran down the Princess Road at 16km/h (3:45) and I felt great. It was such a pleasure to be out on a sunny Sunday morning and able to run without pain. Sure my ankle was making itself felt, but the sharp pain had disappeared and it was more like an old bruise feeling at the base of the calf. We chased down Ephrem together and ran the last 3 kilometres back to the clubhouse as just below marathon pace (4:20 roughly).

So I managed to run 18km in 1:31 and I was over the moon. The distance is the longest that I've run since before my ankle problem started and the sense of achievement and hope was immense. Life is looking up and I'm already planning a run tomorrow morning to celebrate.