Easy morning

 I woke up early to go on an easy morning run around the usual route in Maisons Laffitte just in case I wouldn't be able to make it to the club session this evening. I gave myself a 15 minute lie-in only setting out at 6:15 am and then being surprised as day had only just broken. So days are already drawing in again and we haven't seen any signs of Summer yet. Both July and August have been complete wash-outs so far and the temperature has struggled to get into the 20s° C. Still it wasn't raining today so I thanked my stars for small mercies and set out on the run.

It was easy from the word go: starting at 4:50 pace and then gradually building up the pace as I ran to hit 4:30 pace by the end  with a last kilometre in 4:11 down the hill. I thought about how I used to run this slightly smaller loop through the park of Maison Laffitte and I would always try and achieve a 4:10 pace over the distance. Nowadays, I've slowed the recovery pace to about 4:35 - 4:40 and I tend to achieve this after a slower warm-up around 4:50 pace., I haven't noticed a deterioration in my race speeds as I still put in some interval work with the club sessions which helps maintain the speed. I have moved on from trying to beat my PB for the course every time I go out and concentrate more on my running style and movements - not that I've noticed much improvement in this, just a tendency to reduce my foot lift when I'm running easily.

10.3 km all up in 47:11 or an average of 4:34 per km.