Turned up at the club for the Tuesday night session and I was very wary about the plan for the evening. It was a lovely evening and the sun was still out with the temperature hovering around 21°C, so almost perfect conditions.
The turnout was down on the last few weeks and it looks as though most people have either finished training for the season or are easing off before Les Foulées 10 km race in 10 days time. Jean-Marc was there but is still injured and it looks as though if he participates in his first marathon ever in Normandy, it'll be off the shortest marathon training plan ever devised. Nico, Romain, Fréd, Ylies were there ready for action and Miguel was taking the session. Momo and Mireille arrived late, cruising in on their bikes already looking slightly peaked. Most notable absents were Gérald and Thierry, preparing some long runs somewhere most probably.
Miguel announced the plan for the evening 2 x 10 x 200m off 100m recovery. Nico and I were looking for a little longer intervals before the 10km race on Friday evening and we suggested 6x800m. A quick warm-up through the forest before Miguel ordered all of the track runners back to the stadium to do our intervals. Most decided to do the 200m, but the hard-core runners, including Miguel, changed the plan at the last moment to 4x500m, 2x1000m and 1x2000m off 200m then 300m recoveries. With the group I was with, I quickly decided that my only ambition was to stay ahead of Mireille for each interval.
We set off on the first intervals of 500m and I was soon at the back with Fréd. Mireille started fast and I was just trying to hold on to her. Luckily she probably set off too fast and eased slightly at the 300m mark, where I seized the opportunity to go past and to finish alongside Fréd and just ahead of Mireille. Miguel was a good 5 metres ahead and I wondered how he was managing to run so well, having been injured recently and lacking some solid training.
These 500m intervals went as follows: 1:38, 1:38, 1:37, 1:36. So very consistent and getting faster and faster. I was already suffering and my only consolation was to hear Mireille's breathing getting heavier and heavier. At least if I was suffering, I wasn't alone!
We attacked the 1000m next and Fréd moved ahead of me now. However, I was closer to Miguel and Romain at least for the first interval, droppping slightly behind for the second. Nico and Ylies were well in front finishing over 10 seconds ahead of me on each one.
3:22 then 3:25 for these intervals and then only the 2000m was left to do.
I flagged mentally at this point. I'd taken my top off with the heat and the thought of another 5 laps at speed was tough for my mind to cope with. I'd been hitting the lactic with the 500m then the 1000m and another 2km of torture was hard to bear. Everyone set off slower now and for the first 400m we were all bunched together. I lost it at this point and let them gap me with only Mireille behind. The small gap that started grew and grew until they finished almost 100m ahead and I was all alone. Mireille dropped out, so I didn't even have the satisfaction of finishing ahead of her. Still, I managed 7:18 and I was pleased given the efforts I'd put in on the intervals leading up to this. If I can pull this off over the 10km on Friday, I'll be well chuffed.
Laurence looked great on the track running with the girls doing their 200m intervals. She should run well on Friday too. Looking forward to a new PB from her over 10k.
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