Cora

Woke up to a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining brightly in a clear blue sky and the temperature had risen a good few degrees during the night to be around 15°C. Laurence and I had planned for a run to Cora and back before she heads off with the school to China tomorrow.

I ran with Laurence for 4 km until the entrnace to the main part of the forest and then ran on to Cora and around the lake before running back up the hill to meet Laurence at Pavillon de la Muette where she had run to by missing out the loop around the lake. Having run the first 4 kilometres at around 5:30 pace, I ran the next 7km at as close to marathon pace as I could manage. These kilometres went :

4:14, 4:17, 4:21, 4:19, 4:22, 4:36, 4:46

The second last kilometre was up the hill to the pavillon and the last as I met with Laurence and slowed down. If truth be told though, I was just not ready to run marathon pace today. The first kilometre at 4:14 tired me considerably and I slowed down deliberately in the second kilometre to catch my breath back. It was one of those days when you're just not ready to put everything into your training. I felt alright about this as it's been a busy week and I've worked hard during the evening sessions. I also feel good about treating the ecotrail as a long run and not such a hard race that I need to ease off the training severely to let my body recover. I'll make up for this tomorrow when I go training with the club.

Having met up with Laurence again, we ran back to Le Mesnil, on to the townhall and along the river and up the small hill to finish at the house. All of this was done at 5:30 pace again. Both Laurence and I were tired after the course so probably both need a little more sleep.

16.25km all up in 1:22. Fantastic day.