Sunday club session

I turned up at the club to enjoy the Sunday session for the first time in ages. What with all of the marathon training and races, I haven't made it to one of these sessions for several weeks and it was nice to see everybody again. The turnout was not a large as usual due to Easter weekend with some people away but some of the usual faces were there including Nico, Gérald, Momo, Ylies and Nat. There was an even larger turnout for the women with Laurence and the girls running their last marathon training session together before next weekend's event.

A threshold session had been planned involving 8', 14', 8' off 3' recovery. After a 30 minute warm-up we began the session. I ran the first interval with Nico, Ylies and Eric feeling good and not too tired despite the pace which was around 3:45 per km. After this first interval though the second began and faster than before. I dropped off this front group as we ran up the "bumps" besides the railway line towards Maisons Laffitte and I never made it back from then on.

This second interval took us alongisde the railway line and then back up the path to the car park in Le Mesnil. I struggled up the hill, catching a stitch in the process, and running at 15 km/h. I was in no-mans land too with Nico, Ylies and Eric in front and the next group a good 300m behind me. I struggled on and was glad when the whistle went to end this second interval. I was tired now and even the last interval was a struggle too. It was the same story as before as I ran about 3:55 pace.

16.8km all up in 1:25 or an average pace of 5:04. A tough session for me and I suffered from yesterday's run and the fact that I ate breakfast too late before starting the run today. I should be aiming to run at threshold pace more often and made a mental note to try and include this in my weekly training schedule for the future.