Sunday club session

Don't yell. I'm having a bad hair day.

For somebody who has very little hair this is bad news. I rolled up at the club this morning extremely tired from lack of sleep, still suffering from an excess of alcohol and stiff from yesterday's jog with Nico around Cora. I was happy to see Nico arriving in the same state. I didn't want to be the only party pooper at the training session this morning. 

Miguel announced the session to the runners present, fewer than usual due to races at Rosny today. 3 x 5' was on the menu off a 2'30" float at 10km race speed. This seemed reasonable until Miguel said that the stronger runners could do more if we felt like it, all the while looking in Nico and my direction. We looked behind us to check that he really meant us and I thought that noway was I going to do any more than the strict necessary.

Mireille, Vincent, Ilyes, Delphine, Catherine and Nat were out too and we jogged up to the Lycée Hortical and into the forest by Joyenval golfcourse before starting the session. It was sunny again but not quite as warm as yesterday which was a relief. My symptoms were already bad enough without having to add sunstroke into the equation. The first interval began with Nat and Vincent charging away with Nico and Ilyes following while I tagged along on Mireille's heels. Luckily, both Nat and Vincent took a wrong turn and their initial enthusiasm having come to naught, they calmed down after this.

Nico and Ilyes were ahead now and I followed them at a safe distance, but accelerating a little from the starting speed. We ran up the hill to the road and then finished the first interval on the road towards the farm. We looked around but there was nobody, only Nico, Ilyes, Vincent, Nat and myself, the rest of the group having carried straight on into the forest, along the track and avoiding the road. We set off on the next interval after them, running up some serious hills at speed. I followed Nico and Ilyes until Vincent pulled alongside me and then I accelerated away as the path flattened out. Problem was that Nico and Ilyes didn't know where they were going and I had to yell out to them to turn left to get back to the track. Second interval over and we were catching the rest of the group during the float.

Set off on the third interval just at the start of the large downhill. I ran down like a looney, passing everybody on the way, and overtaking Mireille just at the foot of the hill. I was on a roll now and I knew that Nico and Ilyes would have problems getting past everybody so I decided to push it on this last interval. Almost made it to the end of the 5' before being caught by Nico, but he overtook before the road and was away. I was running 3:44 pace along this section so the 10km speed was respected. 

I ran another interval with Mireille afeterwards as she had decided with the others to run 4 instead of 3. I followed at a safe distance as I was too tired now to push any harder.

15.4 km all up in 1:26 or an average speed of 5:36. 75km for the week so fairly pleased. Looking forward to the ekiden next week where I'm running the anchor leg for the veterans team. Our main objective is to beat the second senior team including Gérald on first leg as the first team is beyond our reach.

Found this on the web and thought it was highly appropriate :

Have a good week.