1 hr @ 75% MHR

God it was early this morning. I woke up and pulled on my running kit and left the hotel in a daze. I ran in a daze too for at least 5 or 6 kilometres. The weather was perfect and it was decidedly cooler than the last few days. The moon was just setting over the horizon and it looked huge as I was running in my deamlike state.

I set off easily, running the first kilometre in 4'31" which is quite normal but I didn't speed up as radically as I normally do. The next kilometres were run at 4'24" pace and I decided that this would do me for this morning at least. I felt the fatigue from my previous sessions in my legs and running any faster was only likely to provoke an injury so I settled for this.

I ran my loop around Sedan, passing the swimming pool and the football stadium, before heading out past the station towards Charleville Mézières and the only hill of the day. Once I'd negotiated this, I'd already run 7 kilometres and the downhill gave me some pace and set me off anew as I clocked a few kilometres under 4'10". In fact I didn't go over 4'10" for the remainder of the loop and finished back at the castle in 1:00:23 and 14.25km. How's that for timing ?

4'14" average pace over the loop and a good deal faster over the second half compared to the first as I woke up and ran out the leg fatigue.