Corra and back

Arranged to run with Nico this morning to Corra and back on the understanding that we'd be taking it easy. I'm running 5 km in the ekiden tomorrow with the vets team from St Germain and I didn't want to compromise my race too heavily by blasting today's session. Anyway, the marathon training plan for today was to run 1 hour at 75 / 80% of max HR which I figured equates to 4:25/km or nearabouts which was fine for me.

I waited for Nico for a couple of minutes in front of his house before he appeared. The weather was still warm for the time of year with the thermometer showing around 13°C even at 8:30 am. Nico announced that his plan was for 1h15 at 75/80% of max HR with the last 15 minutes at marathon pace. Still he announced that we'd take it easy. And we did, for the first kilometre at least, running this in just under 5 minutes. And then we ran into the forest and a slight downhill, and the easy flew out of the window at the same time.

I was just out of my comfort range as we came out of the forest and although my breathing was easy, I could feel the tiredness and a little strain in my legs, notably my thighs. The problem when we run together is that Nico and I tend to like running just a shoulder ahead of each other. I feel relaxed when I'm just in front and I get the feeling that he does too. The result is that the pace gradually, almost insidiously, builds up and before long we were at just under 4:10 pace running through the forest. I pointed this out to Nico and we agreed to slow down which we did for 1 km before starting the same process again. At least I understood why I was not quite comfortable, but the only solution to reduce the pace was to drop back from Nico and I just can't let myself give up that easily.

Respite came after 6km when he felt the call of nature and had to stop and I ran on slowly. A kilometre in 5:09 before he caught me up and we ran the next exactly a minute faster!  After running around Corra, I tried to keep up the same pace up the hill to Pavillon de la Muette and we succeeded fairly well at around 4:20 pace before Nico sped up again along the flat and the last uphill section back to Le Mesnil. I let him go this time and he gained 15 metres on me before I put in a little more effort and kept the gap constant. It was just after this that I asked him what his HR was: 83% of max with the uphill at 90%. So much for the 75 / 80% in the training plan.

We stretched out through town to finish at just above 16 km/h and to complete the course in 1:04 exactly for the 14.9 km. This time would have been a record at the start of the year for me but now it feels almost comfortable. It's over this circuit that I'm able to judge the extent of my improvement since I began the marathon training and I can confirm that I'm running better than I ever have before.

The big event is the ekiden in St Amand tomorrow and I'm running the 5km first leg for the veteran's team against Nico who's running for the senior team. The objective is to beat 18 minutes and another target from Nick's "free beers all evening" bet of a few months ago. I've got to fit this into the marathon training plan which calls for 1h30 tomorrow too.