Amazing - a conference call with the States that finishes bang on schedule, a quick good evening to my boss, I pack my bags and say good evening to the team before rushing to the car and heading off into the evening traffic and the club session. I arrive with 2 minutes to spare and Jean-Claude has kept the changing room open, used to my late arrivals.
There's a big turnout but by the time I get out of the clubhouse, they've all gone and I've not even had the chance to say hello to Laurence. Only a few unsavoury characters are still hanging around: Nico telling me that I've got a track session lined up for this evening. My stomach drops. I was hoping for an easy evening after a tough tempo run this morning. There are 2 others that are (eager?) to do the track session too: Fred and François. Laurence had told me about François a V2 (50-60 yo) cyclist turned runner. He started off with his first marathon in 4:40 began running with the club, discovered a talent and the fact that he could push himself harder and harder without collapsing and is now aiming for a 3:15 - 3:30 marathon in Florence. Fred and he were planning to run 8x1000m at marathon pace while Nico was planning on 10x400m. It was like choosing between a rock and a hard place.
The temperature decided it for me. It was around 24°C and I couldn't see myself sprinting around the track trying to keep up desperately with Nico. 8x1000m it would be and I'd drop out when the going got too tough. We warmed up around by the swimming pool and then headed back to the track.
Fred is aiming for a 3:00 marathon in New York and his training plan for this evening was every 1km in 4 minutes with a 2 minute or 200m recovery. We set off and left Nico to complete his warming up before he chased us around the track running a good 20 seconds per lap faster than us. We ran the first 1000m in 4:03 and it felt easy. Despite telling Fred that I'd follow him, I took the lead early on and kept the pace honest, listening to Fred as he called out the 200m splits. We ran the second interval faster in 3:58 and from then on each interval went faster and faster. François dropped off after the third as the pace was too quick for him and he settled down to 4:15 pace whereas we accelerated to 3:55 and then 3:54.
Nabil joined us from the 5th interval onwards and we continued to run 3:54 then 3:53 before getting excited when the PSG girls joined the track and we pushed the pace harder to 3:48 for the seventh interval. Only one to go now and despite feeling a little more tired at a pace under 3:50, I was still leading Fred who'd be on my right shoulder on each interval. He asked me if we were going to blast the last one to which I replied no and that we'd keep it steady. We did this but Fred came past me and was pushing so I followed before accelerating 200m from the line and ending with him and I in a sprint finish and the last interval in 3:32.
I was cooked but delighted to have been able to keep going until the end. Nico congratulated me before launching into a tirade about how he was going to beat me soundly in Paris-Versailles, Marseille-Cassis and the marathon in Florence. This was worry talking now and I can tell that he's beginning to have doubts while mine are dissipating rapidly. He ran 6 laps before stomach problems stopped him. He thinks it's due to the heat and the exertion, but although I'm no doctor, I could tell at a glance that this is just anxiety caused by my improved performance.
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