St Simon - steady run

The old classic to finish our short stay here in Aurillac. It's been a tough week running-wise and I didn't want to force it with too long a run today, especially before the drive back home.I thought that I would give it a shot at running the St Simon loop at speed to see how I was going and to see if I could approach my PB for the course.

I soon realised when I set off that it wasn't to be. My legs were tired and my heart wasn't in it after the distances covered recently. I went well enough to begin with: 4:36 for the first kilometre, then 5:11 up the hill, but then when I should have been stretching away down the hill towards St Simon, I just had nothing left.4:17 then 4:32 into the village for the next 2 kilometres and I knew that the PB was unachievable today.

From St Simon back I just tried to run as steadily as possible without pushing it too hard. I covered the 5 km back along the main road in 4:49, 4:26, 4:18, 4:07 then 4:10. So I managed to build up speed along the way back feeling comfortable as I ran.

9km all up in 40:34 or an average of 4:30 per km. Total mileage for the week is around 105km. Good tough week and IO now need to take it easy before the long trail next weekend in Britanny.

Laurence ran by herself this morning doing the same loop. She was trying to beat her PB too and managed 46:32. Still waiting for official confirmation but it looks like a new PB by some 30 seconds.