Sunday club session

Nico had persuaded me to do the club session today as it fitted in fairly well with the marathon training plan. There is now 1 week to go and it wasn't feasible or reasonable to do a long or a hard session. The club session today was for 1h30 with 3 x 10 minutes at 85% max HR. Compared to the 2h00 marathon training plan with 45' at marathon speed, this seemed a viable alternative. The clincher was that neither Nico nor I believed that 2 hours training was strictly necessary this last Sunday and having checked last year before Toulouse marathon when I didn't run at all on the last Sunday, this is probably true.

The marathon training is all but over now and the ingredients have been thrown together and we just have to see how long it takes in the oven and whether the result is comestible or not. These last runs are more to reassure ourselves about our condition than for any tangible effect on the final result. Havig said all of this, I have become accustomed to longer runs and the thought of a "mere" 1h30 run with the club and all of the stopping and starting that this generally involves convinced me to run through the forest to begin with at an easy pace and then do the training session with the others afterwards.

I ran from the house to the club at a steady trot, just under 5' per km and when I arrived the turnout was not huge. There were plenty of other commitments today with the Boulogne half-marathon, Nice - Cannes marathon, the 4 castles race, and the maxi cross-country where Gérald was taking part in his quest to hold on to third place in the Yvelines department challenge. Biggest surprise was not to see Nico there already and I was wondering whether I would have to run back home too when he turned up late.

No official trainer today but the route we would be taking explained and the 3 x 10' exercise outlined. I ran with Nat and Nico chatting about the ultra-trail in the south of France where Nat took part for 116km. He managed to block his knee in the process and had to walk the last 50 km. Frankly, you have to be nuts - a marathon is nothing in comparison. we waremed up easily and then there was a little confusion about whether we should be running another 30' at endurance pace before the 3 x 10' intervals or whether we should start immediately. I just followed Ilyes and Jean-Marc, happy to let them build a slight lead and hearing Nico and Simon just behind me. The 2 behind put on a spurt just before the end of the first 10' and caught me but I wasn't bothered as I'd been prepared mentally to carry on at that pace for 30' if necessary!

The second interval was more serious and Simon took the lead and the pace to just above 16km/h for the 10 minutes. We weren't at 85% max HR but closer to 90% in my books. Anyway, I was happy to stick in this leading group with the 5 of us and when the 10 minutes were up we doubled back to let the others catch up. A final 10' now and Nico took to the front with Jean-Marc and Ilyes following. I dropped off the lead pace despite a kilometre in 3:38 - this was too fast a pace for me a week before the marathon and the aim had never been to run myself into the ground. Jean-Marc suffered too, dropping off the lead group with 4' to go and Simon and I caught him just as the interval ended. Nico proved his great shape of the moment and even Ilyes was struggling to stay with him.

21.5 km all up in just under 1h50 or an average pace of 5:04/km. I tested my new Nike trainers and a new almond paste energy bar and both proved conclusive. I'm still not too sure about the chalk climbing bag that I used to test as a carrying pouch for the bars and whether I'll keep this in Florence. To be meditated upon...