Thursday Tempo

Merger talks at work are on-going and increasing and workload is increasing exponentially as a result. Will try and get to the club tonight to take part in the session but since there are no guarantees that I'll make it, I decided to put in an early morning session just to keep the legs turning over.

When the alarm rang at 6:00am, I had been waiting for it. I'm full of energy at the moment and it was almost a relief to get out of bed and to go for a run. Hold on, I did say 'almost': there is still that lingering temptation to stay in bed and snuggle under the covers, blocking out the outside world for another hour or so. And it's dark. Positively night-time in fact.

I crept outside, leaving sleeping beauty still under the duvet, dreaming of ultra-trails, marathons and PBs, and was surprised to find the temperature relatively mild at around 15°C. Plan was to run the same route as Monday morning and put in another 12km. As I was sticking to the roads, I put on the new Saucony Kinvara (I hope I'll get a commission for all the praise and publicity I'm giving them here) and headed off up the road. These shoes are a real pleasure: light, dynamic and very comfortable. I loved my Brooks ST2 racers but these are even better.

I set off easily, taking care not to slip and break my leg running down the track to the Seine in the dark. Did I mention that it was so early that it was still night-time? Once past the first kilometre, I picked the pace up slightly (actually I was running 4:14 but I didn't discover this until looking at the Garmin analysis over breakfast - basically because it's too dark to see the watch at this time now. Did I tell you that it was dark?) and felt easy running along by the Seine. It was just after my fifth kilometre that I thought I was tiring and decided to ease off the pace slightly. I still had no idea of what pace I was running and it was purely by feeling. I took it easy for a kilometre (4:20 pace) before speeding up again as I hit my favourite patch in the park in Avenue Albine as I ran down to Maisons Laffitte castle.

I knew I was running well as I ran through 10k in under 43 minutes and this spurred me on to push the last 2 km aswell which I did finishing the last kilometre in 3:40. Totally knackered at the end but well pleased with the result.

12.1 km all up in 51:00 precisely or 4:13 per km. Good wake up call for this time in the morning. did I mention that it was dark?