Cora again

I dropped Laurence off at school so that she could begin her trip with the class to Shanghai and drove to the running club to see who was interested in a long run.

Actually, not many people had turned out as several were running the 10km race at Aubergenville and a large part of the remainder will be running Paris marathon next weekend. Then as Thierry addressed everyone before setting off, I learnt that there were 2 options on offer: a 2h15 long run, or some 10km training for about 1h40. I volunteered to accompany the runners on the long run and found myself in a group with Jean-François, John, Jean-Michel, Brigitte, Jocelyn, Michèle and several other runners that I didn't recognise or know.

We set off through the forest to the cabin, a well-known reference point for many of the club's runs, and then the group split up into the long-runners and the 10k trainers. I ran with Jean-François and Michèle down to the bumps and then along the railway line before reaching Pavillon de la Muette. I then led our little group down back along the path that I'd taken yesterday with Laurence in the opposite direction down to Cora. We ran around the lake and then waited as the group met together again as we'd left some of the slower runners behind. I was then told by Franck that we hadn't followed the route as initially planned and my diagonal cut down to Cora had shortened the route (at least this allowed us to do a lap of Cora and meet up with the others without wasting any time).

We ran back along the proper paths to Pavillon de la Muette and back to the clubhouse, having run 23km in total. I'd been running at the front with Jean-François and I struggled towards the end to keep up. The weather was a lot cooler than yesterday and very overcast. Whatever the reason, I found it hard going and consoled myself with my mid-week runs. This consoling business is becoming a bit of a habit and I'll need to pull my finger out soon and get some real effort in!

Having got back to the clubhouse, I dropped the rucksack and my jacket and headed back out again to put in another 7 km or so to run more than 30km in preparation for London. I ran in the direction of St Germain terrasse and then decided to run the triathlon loop and finish at the swimming pool before heading back to the clubhouse. I picked the pace up slightly and was running around 4:40 per km now, as opposed to 5:00 - 5:20 with the group.

I got back to the club having run 30km exactly in 2:35 or an average of 5:10 per km. So no speed but some endurance training and a long slow run before London. I saw Nico, Jean-Marc, Jérémie and Gérald on the carpack as they'd just come back from Aubergenville. All had beaten their records with Nico running 36:10 and beating Mireille in the process by a second. Jean-Marc ran 34:29 or thereabouts with Jérémie only 30 seconds behind. Disappointed I wasn't there to take part but pleased for all of them on such fantatsic performances. Nico's time has me doubting now as to whether I'll be able to beat him over this sort of distance. I'll run this marathon and then start some more speed training to beat my own records.