20 x 500m

It was that time again. The classic session in every marathon training that I've done for 4 years now: the 20 x 500m interval session. It's like a hump in the back of the marathon training programme, probably the worst session of the plan, and when you've done this, you can finally feel that you're over the worst.

It was hot (26°C) and I didn't want to start. I even felt pretty lousy on the warm-up with a pain in my inner thigh on the right leg. Nico was full of energy and running well and that just served to make me a little more despondent.

A 4km warm-up through the forest and then we began, having decided to let each other lead for 2 intervals each before swapping the lead etc. There was a little debate as to the recovery as I wanted 200m and Nico 100m. We finally agreed on 100m and 1'15" of recovery after each interval.

A quick hello to Momo, Mireille, Bruno, Philippe, Sébastien on the track and we were off. They went by fairly well with Ilyes accompanying us for the first 6. Times were as follows :

1'43", 1'40", 1'40", 1'39", 1'39", 1'37", 1'42", 1'40", 1'40", 1'39",
1'40", 1'40", 1'39", 1'41", 1'40", 1'40", 1'39", 1'39", 1'39", 1'39"

So very regular and a good pace. Happy to finish as the last 5 started to tire me out with an accumulation of fatigue on the legs.

17.7 km all up in 1hr20 and an average pace of 4'31"/km for the session.

Cross Toto

Well, what to say when Nico has said it all already ?

Back home in time to take part in the annual cross-country event organised by the club for the club members. 2 laps of a 3 km loop for the men with one loop for the women. I looked at the potential  competition when I arrived and I fancied my chances for the top veteran position since Bruno W and Eric weren't around and I remembered how comfortable my advance was on José at the start of the year in the cross-country races. Things were looking up.

We warmed up by jogging to the start of the race in the forest close to Poissy and Nico was there waiting. He'd just run 3 x 20' at marathon speed but apparently he'd overdone it and had been running at around 3'45 - 3'50 pace. He said he was tired and I just smiled and thought that I would be able to pull back a race in the Nico v. James challenge. I'll rephrase that: I thought I'd be able to win my first race in the challenge this year as at 8 races down, things were not looking good.

We ran another loop of the course so that the new-comers could see the route and the difficulties. These are few in that there is a slight rise towards the end of the first kilometre and then a couple of long drags for the last 800m of the course. The rest is flat or downhill.

I lined up next to Yoan, Jean-Marc and Sébastien as these were the favourites and after the gun went I settled in just behind them. I let them pull away slightly after 1 km and then for the second kilometre I was running by myself. I felt relaxed and wasn't pushing too hard as I couldn't hear anyone behind me and I knew that I had no chance against the 3 in front. 4th place and 1st vet was fine by me.

As we hit the rise towards the end of the first lap, I heard footsteps behind me and knew that it was Nico. Having run kilometres and kilometres with him in training, I recognised the footfall and didn't need to turn around to see who it was. He caught my foot as we pushed up the hill and I stumbled slightly. He then proceded to pull alongside me and mentioned something about not letting me get away so easily. I thought that I'd hang on to him as he must be tired and try and pull away again if he flagged. We finished the first loop and I heard shouts of encouragement for us and José too so I knew he wasn't far behind. This was bad news as I knew that I couldn't let up now and  had to maintain my speed if I was to keep pole position for that vet spot.

Photo of Nico and I neck and neck at the end of the first lap with José 10 metres behind.











Nico pulled ahead slightly now and I had to accelerate to keep with him. The slight hump in the track appeared for the second time and as Nico put on a burst, I dropped back and he gained the 5 metres that he needed to pull away from me gradually now. I couldn't fin the willpower to go any faster and I just listened out for José's footsteps behind me now as they got closer and closer with 1 km left to go.


Nico had a good 40 metre lead now and José overtook me on the first slope before the finsihing line. The track flattens out for 50 metres and then slopes up another 350 metres to the finish. I pulled back past him on the flat section and accelerated hard towards the finish. A young lad (Jérôme) came past me here but I was sprinting now ensuring that José stayed behind and was discouraged from pulling off a sprint finish of his own. And it worked! He finished 4 seconds behind me while Nico ended 7 seconds ahead. I ran 22:27 which is my best time ever by 37 seconds for this course so I was still well chuffed. Shame that Nico is still better as it would have done him the world of good to learn a little humiliation. Still, his head is so big now that it'll weigh him down for his next marathon attempt... let's wait and see. Good to see José back in shape too. We can look forward to some good cross-country races in the new year.

Nico's version of the story is here if you have the guts to stomach the self-glory. 20 km all up for the morning.

More recovery

Pentecost is a public holiday in France. Well sort of - it's a very French thing. Whenver you can take something simple and make it extremely complicated then you can be sure that it's done in France.

Pentecost was made a public holiday in France in 1886. Everybody enjoyed a day off work, except under special conditions for jobs which require permanent presence (police, firemen, air-traffic controllers etc.) Then in 2004, after the summer of 2003 which extreme heat caused thousands of old people to die in the country, the french government decided to cancel the bank holiday and make everybody work this day. Companies were required to pay a special tax as a contribution for the elderly financed from the extra productivty gained from having an extra days labour from their employees (I won't go into how this doesn't work anyway following the amendments to the labour laws following the introduction of the 35 hour working week, as that's a different story ...). What a great idea - everybody agreed half-heartedly. This is when the confusion began. Some schools continued to not work on Pentecost meaning that many parents took the day off to look after their kids. Nobody knew whether it was a holiday or not anymore and so it has continued.

I was working today. But apparently, I was one of the rare people in France to be doing so. Driving into work was a real pleasure - 30 minutes instead of my usual 1h20 drive. We arranged to go for a run at 7:00pm at the club to recover from the Paris St Germain race for most. Laurence, Nico, François, Sandra, Pascal, Philippe, Catherine, Stéphanie, Christelle, Nabil and Nicoletta also turned up for our easy run.

I led the group through the woods towards Le Mesnil from the clubhouse and then wound our way back through the forest back to the clubhouse. It was 10km in total and an hour's leisurely run at a very easy pace for all. A lot of banter and joking went on and if only every day could be a bank holiday like this, life would be so much more pleasurable.

10km all up in 1 hour. I'll let you do the maths for the average pace!

Long run

Nico was running the Paris St Germain course tomorrow and I wanted to put in some distance to try and achieve a 100km week. Sunday's run was going to be hard to fit in as Laurence was running the same race as Nico and I'd promised to accompany them both on the bike and make the most of the race as a spectator.

François agreed to come along with me and although he wasn't keen on doing the 30km that I proposed initially, he would run 20km with me. That was decided: I would run t the club and meet him there for a 20 km run together and then I'd run back. This way I'd get my 30km in and he'd run 20km with me.

With the prosect of the CCC approaching, I decided on running in Marly forest to put in some hill training. I ran through the forest to the club and picked up François there and we set off together in the direction of Princess Road.

It was a very pleasant run together at a very relaxed pace. François had eaten a large breakfast and this was obviously weighing on him to begin with but after the first 8 km, he began to feel better and the pace picked up. We ran around Joyenval golf course and then through the forest on the far side of the A13 before coming back and contourning around the south side of the golf course on the way back to the club. Realising that if we headed straight back to the club from the lycee horticole, we ran towards down some little paths through the forest back to St Germain golf club and then back to the club.

I left François at this point and headed back home. I'd been feeling great all of the way around the run despite having only eaten a cereal bar before leaving. All of a sudden, I could feel that my energy levels were running low and it was a relief to finally arrive back at the house. I still managed to run these last 5km between 4:00 and 4:20/km pace.

30.7 km all up in 2h30 or 4:55 / km on average.

Long Sunday run

I wanted to get the mileage in before attempting the Ecotrail at the end of the month. I'm very conscious that I'm running after 2 hares at the same time (French expression): I want to beat my record at Rambouillet and go under 1:20; secondly, I want to be able to complete the 80km run through the forests of western Paris. So on one hand I need some pace training and now to taper until the race next weekend, and then I also need to keep up the mileage so I don't suffer terribly on the long run.

I chose a compromise by heading out on my long run to St Gemme and St Nom by myself with the firm intention of taking it easy and not pushing the pace too hard. Laurence had told me that François and Philippe were running a 2:15 run from the club and as I ran through the forest from Le Mesnil towards St Germain, I thought it could be a good idea to stop at the club and then to run with them.

I did just this and said hello to the girls and Nico who were doing their own plans for the morning. Laurence and the girls were going for a 2 hour run, and Nico was doing the club session. The turnout was not enormous with the Paris half-marathon on this morning and Thierry and Miguel notably absent. I set off with Philippe, François, Antoine (a friend of François) and Pascal. We headed off to St Gemme too and they informed me that they were running 3 x 15' at marathon pace which suited me fine. We took it easily up the hill to the top of Princess Road before beginning the first of the intervals.

I assumed my pacing duties for François and we set off at 4:15 pace in order to be in line with his 3 hour marathon objective. We did the first interval pretty much in line witht he objective, in fact it was run at 4:10 pace, the start pace defined by François for the next marathon. We then had a 5' recovery during which we were overtaken by a mystery runner going at a fair lick which turned out to be Thierry. He said hi as he passed but didn't stop or chat. The next interval which was a lot harder as we had to run the uphill through St Nom to finish and I began to lose François towards the end as the hill began to hurt.

Another 5' recovery now and for the last interval I headed off at my own speed as I was feeling full of energy and eager to push the pace a little. The first kilometre was 3:56 which was resonable and then I was surprised to see the second in 3:49. The was a slight uphill now and I kept the pushing the pace to see if I could maintain this speed and managed a 3:51 before heading downhill for the last section. A 3:29 pace down the hill to top off the session for the day before the warm-down back to the club with the others.

30.75 km all up in 2:23 so an average pace of 4:40 which is fairly honest. I waited for Laurence to get the lift home from the club although I had enough energy to run the 5km back through the forest. 90km all up this week.

Long Sunday Run (LSR)

Ok, ok - LSR is supposed to be long slow run, but we all know that if you run with Nico this is just not going to happen. I'd texted him last night to see if he was interested in a long run and was pleased to see that he was with the only proviso that he was back for 11:00 am. I suggested a 2 hour run and he texted back that it was a good idea but we should include 2 x 20 minutes of threshold in the run just for the training.

We set out at 8:30 am as I allowed for a little slippage in our timing and didn't want to be held responsible for Nico missing lunch with the family at one of the best restaurants in Paris. Some people just have all the luck. We set off easily heading up inot the forest by Le Mesnil church and corssing the forest in the direction of the club. We gradually picked up the pace over these first 5 kilometres until we were running at 4:20 pace which I find is our natural pace.

We ran in front of the club and passed Laurence and friends off for a 30km run through the forest. Laurence pointed out that I was having a nosebleed which I hadn't noticed. The next bit of excitement was at the end of the road when we tried to cross, only to avoid being knocked down by Jean-Marc. This is probably due to the fact that he's now worried about how close Nico is getting to challenging him over 10km!

We ran towards the other section of the forest now, towards the pony club and we both decided that trying to run 2 x 20' of threshold would be too much for both of us: Nico having run a hard session yesterday and me because I still hadn't recovered from my week in the Alps. We still had Princess Road to manage though, so as to push our bodies a little, I made sure that we ran up the hill as honestly as possible. Whenver I flagged, Nico would push on and when he eased, I would take over. I used to think that if I could run these 2 kilomtres uphill in under 5' each that I was doing well. We ran them today in 4:37 then 4:40 - the best I've ever managed and with a rucsac and water pouch on.

The road flattens out at the top so we hit marathon pace and ran the next 5km at around 4:15 pace before accelerating back down Princess Road and hitting 3:57, 3:40 then 3:52 in the process. A quick breather up by the horticultaral lycée and then we headed home at 4:20 pace.

27.25 km all up in 1:57, including the last 300 metres at 3:30 pace. Average pace over the loop was 4:19 so a pretty honest effort all up.

A photo of the scenery from the centre in the Alps. Mont Blanc is in the background on the left.

 Photo of me in action at the end of the cross country race in Les Mureaux

Drenched

I didn't manage to make it for an early morning run so I concentrated on making it to the club for the evening session. The weather was lousy and I mean really lousy. It was blowing a gale and the rain was falling sideways. I wondered why I bothered attempting to get out to go running in this weather quite frankly.

When I turned up at the club there wasn't a huge turnout which considering the state of the conditions outside was hardly surprising. Momo, Mireille, Fred, Jean-Marc and Ilyes were there though togther with José and Thierry so there was some chance of a decent session. Miguel announced that the training schedule was 2 x 2000m of slow/fast/slow. Since I arrived only just intime I didn't manage to hear what was being announced and besides, it was now chucking it down and any plans looked to be optimistic.

After a quick warm-up in which everyone managed to arrived drenched back at the stadium, it was decided to change the plan and to run easily around the track and then do some running up the steps of the stadium seating and back down. With Fred, Ilyes and Jean-Marc we created a renegade group and stayed on the track running 5x300m off 100m recovery and then a second set of intervals. This was our own interpretation of the initial training plan and it seemed fine to me. We did the first set of intervals and Ilyes ran well ahead whereas Jean-Marc, Fred and myself stayed together. At the end of this first set, Jean-Marc called it a day and went to run up some stairs while I decided to run 2km at 'active' recovery pace before attacking my second set.

Fred tried to stay with me but when he dropped off complaining that I was going too fast, I realised that my active recovery was 15km/h and after 8 minutes, I started a second set of intervals with Fred acting as a pacer.
We ran all of the 300m intervals in 55 -56 seconds and was very regular. I was pleased with the session which under these conditions was nothing short of a miracle.

13 km all up in 1:03. We didn't hang around before heading home!

Evening Session

Made it just in time, as is my wont, to the evening club session. There wasn't a huge turnout as it's the holiday season and many people are away. It's almost a pleasure driving into work at the moment with the roads empty of people who prefer to profit from their holiday leave, stuffing their faces at yuletide. Am I jealous ? - possibly.

What is most surprising is that these same roads appear to fill up magically in the evening and I'm faced with the same abysmal traffic conditions as usual when I try and get to the club on time. 20 minutes on the ring road last night before I could get to my exit and then another 20 minutes on the motorway, stuck in long queues. As a result, I arrived only just in time to get changed and to head out the door for the group jog as no intervals are planned. No coaches either, just Michel Z happy in his role as stand-in, ready to confuse everybody with a route he makes up as he goes along.

I jogged easily and chatted with Nic, Ilyes, Stéphane, Sandra, Pascal and Anne. We made our way easily through the streets of St Germain running just over 11 km in 1:07. It is now official that Nico's watch is completely uncalibrated as he measured over 12 kilometres for the same run. This clarifies some of the doubts we had recently when Nico claims on his blog to have run 20km in 1:19. His watch is actually recording 10% higher than it should. As a result 20km on his watch is actually 18.2 km and running this distance in 79 minutes equates to 4:20 / km. Perfectly logical for the rest of us but it must represent a huge blow to Nico who was satisfied with his post-marathon form and optimistic about the upcoming x-country season. How the mighty fall!

Myself, I'm still feling guilty about the lack of more speed sessions in my current training schedule and this will have to be remedied in my New Year resolutions.

Sunday run

Turned up at the club intending just to see the others and to take it easy. Miguel announced the session : 3 x 10' at threshold pace. I decided there and then that I would jog these intervals and catch the others while they were recovering.

There was a big turnout and Anis, Ylies, Nico, Gérald, Simon, Bruno etc. were all there. We warmed up easily and then the intervals began. I let myself be overtaken by everyone and ran at the back, picking up my jogging speed so as not to lose touch with everybody completely. Nico ran off to the front to challenge the leaders whereas I watched runners I don't normally run with overtake me and pull ahead.

By the second interval I'd had enough of this and pushed on slightly harder catching Régis and Bruno in the process and pulling Mireille on over the end of the interval. Gérald had given up mentally and was running behind me now. Then on the third interval, I gave it a bit more effort as I was back into the groove by now and chased down Nico who'd gone off too hard over the first two and was now paying the price. We were running at about 15.5km/h through the forest and this felt hard after all of my recent efforts. I was glad when it stopped to be frank.


16.5 km all up in 1:30 so no great shakes for the average time but it was good to be abck at the club and running with the others.

Champion's return

A special effort to get out of work in time for the club session last night in order to go and soak up some praise from my fellow athletes after the resounding victory over Nico at the weekend. I almost got stuck in traffic but I arrived at the club just in time to be welcomed by a round of applause as Miguel was giving the pre-run chat. I made the most of it and put on my most modest face even though I was brimming with pride.

I was only up for a warm-up jog with the group accompanied by Fred, Gérald, Ilyes and Simon who all congratulated me on a great race. I got back to the track to be met by Régis and Dominique who joined in on the congratulations and wanted to hear how the race went. Of course, I told it how it was, with no embellishments, especially the part where Nico crossed the finish line distraught and full of anguish following his humiliating defeat, or something to that effect...

A few laps around the track and Gérald joined me at the end and we discussed tactics for the race at Conflans on Saturday. I'll see if I can keep up with him around the course and help him to the 90 points he needs now to clinch his 3rd place on the podium in the departmental challenge.

All in all, I must have run 9km without the Garmin at a very easy pace. Just what the doctor ordered.

Bike and run

Struggling to find time to write up my training runs at the moment what with odd-jobs to be completed around the house and the workload for my job. However, this is no excuse for not keeping a track of what's been going on in the exciting world of running here in Le Mesnil.

Laurence is training hard, preparing for the big event in June when we head off to Britanny to run a 58km trail in Guerledan. She's been building up the mileage and mentally I've never ever seen her so strong. When we first started running, she'd prepare herself for a run by saying that she'd run for 20 minutes. If we weren't back at the house within those 20 minutes all hell would break loose. This evolved afterwards into running for 5km and then 10km and so on. If I dared suggest that we add in an extra loop or anything involving a little extra effort that she hadn't prepared for a week before mentally then she'd become furious with me and then sulk for the following week (there is a slight bit of literary exageration in this desciption - but believe me, it's minor).

Recently though, I've been noticing some major changes. A little extra loop to fit in a scenic detour? No problem. A few extra kilometres to keep up the mileage? Why not! It must be the three shredded wheat in the morning that are doing the job. Laurence has become seriously addicted to runnning and charts all of her mileage in copy books that are full of colours indicating different efforts, paces, weekly mileages and outings per week. She decided that it would be nice to go out together last Sunday for a long Sunday run. Since her biggest regret in life is not to be able to run a marathon in under 3 hours, we decided that the easiest way to spend time together on a long run and to enable both of us to obtain maximum benefit was to do a bike and run.

We packed a camelbak and planned my long 35km running route into sections of around 5km. Laurence ran the first section, beginning slowly and then building up the pace to 5:30 kilometres. I enjotyed the forest scenery, peddling easily beside her on the mountain bike. I ran the next section of 6 kilometres finishing at the top of Princess road after 2 kilometres of uphill achieved in in under 10 minutes (a good gauge of my fitness is to beat this time so I was well chuffed). Laurence set off on another 5 km section running faster than ever at around 5:15 - 5:20 pace. And then I took oever again.

The sun had risen by now and the morning that had started coolly was beginning to warm up considerably. Laurence was running faster and faster and I was wilting in the heat. I ran 5km to St Germain terrace and decided that 16km was enough for me. I finished at 4:40 pace along the flat, dehydrated and deprived of energy. Laurence took over and since her goal was to run 26 km in total she ran the last 11km back home in a convoluted loop from St Germain. Not only did she manage the distance far better than me, she was running at 5:20 pace at the end which she considers to be marathon pace. Impressed ? I would have been even more impressed but I was too busy feeling sorry for myself and my sore bum, unused to riding a bike for so far and for so long...

3h35 of effort in total to cover a marathon distance. I was well and truly beat.

Club session

Made it to the club session after all. Since I'd done a session this morning, I decided not to push it and to just do a recovery run with the guys who'd raced the 10k at Aubergenville on Sunday. Nico, Romain, Jean-Marc and Simon were all part of this group while Bruno, Philippe, Nat and Thierry headed back to the track for some marathon training.

Miguel was taking the session and since the guys had run well it promised to be a relaxing session. We headed out to the St Germain terrasse before heading down to Le Mesnil along the road. There was plenty of complaining going on athis point as several runners (me included) wanted to head into the forest to make the most of the lovely weather this evening. We ran into Le Mesnil and then turned towards Le Pecq along the road. As we headed back beneath the terrasse in the direction of Le Pecq, we picked up the pace and were soon running at 4:15 pace.

This speed didn't last long as we headed up some steep steps back up to the terrasse and then back down some steep steps when we couldn't run any further in the St Germain direction. Another couple hundred metres later and we ran back up the steps into St Germain itself. There was a race up the steps but despite my initial enthusiasm, reality soon hit me and the others left me easily up the steps.

I was tired now with the combied effects of this morning and the hill-climbing but the pace picked up from here. Miguel did his trainer act of who has the biggest "cojones" and the pace picked up further and soon the front runners were running at 3:25 pace and I just had to let them go. I managed 2 kms in 4:10 then 4:05 before the front group split up and I caught some of them at the end. Miguel did his 'I need to stop for a pee' trick when the going got tough which is just as well as he's got the pace but not the endurance at the moment.

11.5 km all up in 1:02. So much for an easy recovery run. Will do that tomorrow now!

St Germain terrasse from Le Mesnil end looking towards Le Pecq

Thursday track and scandal ...

Another close run thing to make it to the session. I was out of breath by the time I got to the changing rooms having got the TGV back from Nancy, run for the metro, run for the RER, run to the car-park and panicked in all of the intervals. They were late anyway, so I finished changing just in time to leave for the warm-up with everyone, and there was a large crowd tonight.

I am pleased to announce that the club is getting younger. From the fastest members of the club, all the youngsters were out tonight: Momo, Nico, Gérald, Jean-Marc and Jérémie. At least I wasn't alone with Bruno and Nick B, but no Thierry or José, obviously running the x-country took more out of the veterans than the younger participants. By the time we got to the track, I really wasn't looking forward to the session Miguel had concocted up for us: 400m, 1000m, 800m, 1600m, 1000m off 300m recovery except 100m for the first interval. I was easily the slowest of this group and I knew it was going to be hard.

The 400m was probably the best part as I set off hard and tried to keep it as constant as possible until the line. Nico finished just ahead and Gérald just behind. So I felt fairly good about this, however the 100m recovery wasn't enough for my heart-rate to come down and the 1000m afterwards was tough. This was supposed to be at 10km pace less 5 seconds, so roughly 3:37. I fell off the back of the group now with Gérald coming past after 400m and the others leaving me from the start. It was just a battle to maintain the pace until the end. This was the same for the remainder of the intervals.

They went as follows:

400m - 1:15, 1000m - 3:36, 800m - 2:45, 1600m - 5:52, 1000m - 3:33

So another tough session and my main reason to be pleased is the shortened recovery times before I'm able to set off again.

13.2 km all up in 1:10.

Oh, and the scandal. Well, this is all related to the first round of the x-country races which is the departmental challenge. A young lady of the club apparently promised a kiss on the lips to the first senior male from the club to cross the finish line last Sunday. Anyway, Momo (having finished 4th in the race and first club member by far) turned up tonight at the training session to claim his prize. News has not yet filtered back whether said prize has been awarded or not as yet. But be assured, you'll be the first to hear it here as soon as this is confirmed. There was further discussion this evening as to whether to up the ante for the next round of the championship, but that could be considered below the belt ...

The last crusade

I amde it to the club session again last night and another full turnout awaited me. Well, when I say awaited me, I was actually a few minutes late and the only person who was waiting was Laurence. She had kept the changing room key for me and I got changed quickly and we warmed-up together until we met the rest of the club on their way back round the warm-up route.

The usual warriers were there: Thierry, Jean-Marc, Gérald, Momo, Jérémie, Romain, José, Bruno, Mireille - so basically all of the fastest runners in the club. But hold on: there was a little area of Gaul that resisted vainly - Nico. When the going gets tough, the tough are nowhere to be seen! Apparently, the speech made by Miguel, the trainer, before the session was to explain that after a lengthy exchange of mails, our "tough" boy Nico had decided that last week's training was too hard for him so he decided to stay at home. Award for big girls blouse of the week is no contest this week. He's even got a special title now: big girls blouse with lace.

Miguel had decided that tonight would be an easy session (too easy for Nico apparently) of 2x12' with 3' recovery around the track. The initial idea had been to run this along the road, but the vast majority preferred the track option, so track it was and 10km pace decided. The crusaders lined up at the start didn't include Momo and Mireille who were doing 400m intervals instead and as prepared to go I wondered who I'd be able to run with.

We set off and I saw that I ran the first lap in 1'26 which is slightly faster than 16km/h but still not sufficient for me to be able to stay with Jean-Marc, Romain, Jérémie, Thierry and José. I let them go as I considered that 12' effort was too long to stick to a pace close to VO max. Miguel and Gérald joined me before Gérald got bored and sprinted off following Momo on one of his 400m intervals. We were steady now at 90" per lap (16 km/h) and I felt almost relaxed. This was 3'45 per km and well above my usual training pace. Miguel dropped out after 2km and I ran the last 3 laps by myself, completing just over 8 laps in the allotted time.

3' recovery and off I set again, this time with Gérald and Thierry who'd been left by the leading group. I ran at the same pace, leading both of the others with Thierry breathing heavily on my tail. Gérald was obviously comfortable and decided to run with us but ran wide around the bends to push his pace slightly. The pace was very steady at 16km/h and it was only with 3 laps to go that Thierry took the lead and increased the pace slightly, meaning that I had to make a little effort to keep up. I counted the laps down now and forced myself to stick with him until the finish. Another 8 laps and a bit and I was done; tired but satisfied. Jean-Marc, Jérémie and José finished 250m ahead in their little group, Romain having dropped out.

Another great session and I feel that I've improved distinctly for a year ago at this time. Too bad that Nico wasn't there, not man enough to take the pain. This bodes well for Malakoff when I can show him that there's life in the old dog yet.

13.5km all up so 25.6km for the day. Not bad going.

The killing fields

Remember the film set in Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge take power and commit atrocities in the deep mud - well that was today's session. We had mud, guts and glory this morning.

I ran over to the club as promised this morning after a late night last night and a few whiskies too many. I left Laurence in bed as she tried to make the best possible use of her time under the duvet! As soon as I left the front door and began to run, I knew that I was in trouble. My thighs had not recovered from yesterday's training and even at a slow pace I was still hurting.

I ignored the pain and hoped that as I warmed up that this would ease. I gradually sped up as I ran through the forest going from 5:10 pace to 4:45 pace by the time I got to the club. OK - it wasn't exactly fast but it was a distinct improvement. A big turnout at the club with all the blokes from cross-country training present plus a few more: Gérald, Bruno, Anis and Robin. Fewer women today as all the ladies from yesterday had gone missing. I even wondered if Laurence hadn't fallen back asleep but she wandered in after the official start time, looking slightly worse for wear.

The session today was 3x10' at threshold pace off 3' recovery. I told Nico that I wouldn't be pushing it today and would keep to the programme : threshold pace and not 10k pace. He told me that he was suffering slightly and had been in the wars. Apparently, he'd taken a hit to the crotch (although he claimed he was unaware of the cause ...) and was in need of medical assistance. Miguel told him to ask a member to sort him out (fnarr, fnarr) but he refused when he was told that he couldn't choose which one.

After this period of comic relief, at least for Gérald, Miguel and myself as Nico wasn't in any mood to laugh, we got down to business and started the first interval. We set off easily enough but then Jean-Marc ran to the front and started to show us that threshold for a serious runner such as himself is a good 2 km/h faster than my own perception. Gérald, not wanting to let the side down, sprinted off to catch him up and that set the others off too... José, Nico and Thierry. I had to respond and followed at a reasonable distance of 10 metres. Having set off initially at around 13km/h, by the end of the interval we were at almost at 16 km/h - so much for threshold. We corssed over into the Poissy side of the forest and started again.

This interval was worse as we started immediately at 3:40 pace and Gérald chased Jean-Marc from the start. Nico, Thierry and José followed close behind and built a small gap on me immediately. We left the forest and the muddy paths to hit a road section, heading slightly uphill. I flagged immediately and was caught by Anis (who was only jogging !!) and Miguel. I stuck to Miguel as he came past and we then ran together, chasing the group ahead and staying very steady at 3:50 pace.

Last interval and Thierry had tired of running at the front and ran with Miguel and I while the usual suspects stayed in front. Both Miguel and Thierry upped the pace at the end and made a few metres on me while I ran steadily at 3:50 pace to finish. Another hard work-out on muddy paths, with little grip in the forest. My biggest problem is the uphill where even the slightest of inclines causes me to flanch and to slow. I need to work on this mentally.

An easy run back to the club where we crossed one of the usual female forest workers and Nico almost stopped to request some professional assistance for his war wound. We were able to encourage him on and made it back to the club and then I carried on to run the last 5km home back through the forest.

26.1 km all up in 2:13 making the tally 80km for the week. Good quality sessions all week which has left me tired but in a satisfied manner. The real battle will be in the mud next weekend with Thierry.

3 x 1500m + 1 x 600m

I managed to make it to the club session last night for the second time this week. It was a close run thing though - the motorway out of Paris was completely jammed so I had to carry on and use the alternative route, praying that no speed cameras were in my way. I rushed into the clubhouse when I arrived, only stopping to say hello to Gérald and a general hello in direction of the girls waiting by the radiator. I get changed and wait in the hall to listen to the instructions by coach Miguel and see Nico who I'd actually confused with the girls when I'd entered. Apparently, he's vexed by my accidental slight and announces that the fact that I've made it twice in the same week to a club session obviously indicates that I've been sacked!

A very good turnout for the evening with Nico, Gérald, Thierry, Mohammed, Jean-Marc, Bruno and all the women, including Laurence, Mireille, Pascales, Anne, Delphine, Christelle. We are given the plan for the evening: 3 x 1500m at 10km race speed and then 600m to finish at VO max all off 300m recovery.

We quickly run our warm-up as the rain is falling steadily now and the wind is most unpleasant and then head back to the track to begin the session. Thierry asks me if I'm feeling alright and if I'm ready to beat the chrono tonight. He knows that I've targeted him as the man to beat for the cross-country and this has boosted him to show that he's not ready to lie down just yet! I'm uncertain of how the intervals are going to go and who I'll try and stay with to run them regularly. I tell Nico that I'm aiming for 3:40 pace which equates to 5:30 per 1500m. He's aiming for 5:15 pace so I'm unlikely to be able to stay with him for long on each one. Momo is in a league of his own at around 3:10 pace and Jean-Marc and Gérald will be close to Nico. That leaves Thierry, Mireille and a new guy, Robin to place.

I set off on the first interval just behind a trailer, Laurent, and since no-one else looks eager to go to the front I push the pace a little and take the lead. This doesn't last more than 400m as Momo comes flying past and then Nico, Gérald, Jean-Marc and Thierry follow. I maintain a constant pace, not trying to follow them and explode and finish this first interval in 5:13. That was tough already, now we have to go again after 2:45 of rest. The second interval is a lot harder and I count down the distance left to be run. After the first 300 metres, I'm already aching and a lap later I feel like dropping out. The last lap is a killer with the lactic acid rising through my legs, tying up my thighs and making me feel as though I'm running in a swimming pool. Nico, Gérald and Thierry have been ahead from the start and Momo starts later so that he can chase us down. My only consolation is that Jean-Marc is closer on this interval and must be tiring slightly. I finish in 5:19. I'm shattered now and wonder how I'm going to manage another. Even the thought that it's the last 1500 is no consolation.

It takes 3 minutes to run 300m for the recovery now and we start again. The others leave me immediately and I try to find a rhythm that will let me get to the end of the distance without collapsing. Mireille and Miguel go past me after 200m and I try and hold on to them. They stay just ahead and we continue to run like this until 1000m when Miguel drops out leaving me with Mireille. Try as I can, I just can't stay with her and a small gap appears. I think about giving up and dropping out as my legs are numb. 400 metres to go and I'm just trying to contain the pain and coasting, incapable of increasing my effort. Hit the final straight at last and finish in 5:25. Thank god for that.

Everyone is tired now and there's still the 600m to be run at full pelt, VO max speed. Sod that I tell myself, I'm just trying to survive. We start and my male pride kicks in and I refuse to let Mireille get past me this time. Momo and Gérald have gone off like bullets and I can see them streaking away from me. Tough, and I hit 200m and tell myself that there's only a lap to do. All thoughts about a full blown sprint to the end remain just that : thoughts. My legs are shot, not so much with the lactic on this interval but the after-effects of the previous 3 intervals. Mireille is still on my shoulder and as I enter the last 200m, I up the ante and push the pace just to discourage her from coming past. This works and I can't hear her behind me any more. 100m to go and it's the sprint, suing my arms to power me down the home straight. Miguel encourages me on, from the sidelines and I finish in 2:00 dead.

A warm down and the session is over. 12.5k in 1:07. A very hard session, on top of the tough session on Tuesday. Legs are aching like hell today. Cross-country training tomorrow should be fun! Thierry finished ahead of me yesterday and was running well. I have improved tremendously since last year and am looking forwards to these next races where I think that I have a good chance in the mud against him.

24 x 200m intervals

Made it to the club session and there was a good turnout : Nico, Gérald, Bruno, Jean-Marc, Romain, José and the surprise return of Régis (Crossman!). Laurence was well acompanied with the women too: Pascales (E and A), Anne, Delphine, Christelle, Aude amongst others.

The programme for the evening, announced by Miguel, was 3 blocks of 8 x 200m off 100m recovery and 300m between blocks. We ran our warm-up around St Germain, chatting with Régis, who has only just come back from a back injury to be able to run again after 6 months, and so won't be running races for a little while yet. On arrival back at the track, we ran a few straight lines before getting down to business. I knew I wasn't capable of leading and I tucked in behind Jean-Marc, Nico and Romain on the first series, before Jean-Marc dropped behind me on the second series (returning from injury too) and finishing in the same configuration at the end.

The splits were as follows:

36, 38, 38, 38, 38, 38, 37, 37
37, 37, 37, 37, 38, 38, 38, 38
38, 37, 38, 38, 38, 38, 38, 37

So I was very constant and my recovery times were constant too at around 40 seconds from the beginning to the end.

Really pleased with the session as it shows my shape as being pretty good when I compare these times to where I should be in terms of VO max performance.

Laurence ran with Pascale around the track and she looked good too, churning out 2 blocks of 8 x 200m intervals at around 43 -44 second pace. A little more race practise and she'll soon be flying.

15km all up in 1:20.

Sunday club session

In order to boost my mileage, I ran over to the Sunday club session today from Le Mesnil. I didn't have much time as I was not too eager to get out of bed this morning, and by the time I left the house it was 8:35 and I only had 25 minutes to run the 5km through the forest before the session started.

The legs were tired after yesterday's effort and although I was telling myself to take it easy, I was running even slower than I thought: 5:15, 5:10 and then 4:58 through the forest before I began to warm up. Having got to the club, I was pleased to see a really good turnout with Nico, Gérald, Thierry, José, Laurent, Bruno, Philippe and numerous women: Christelle, Pascale E, Pascale A, Murielle, etc. We even had a surprise guest when Jennifer Tave, over from California for the holidays turned up to participate. She took part in Houilles last weekend to finish 6th woman in 35:26, so a very capable runner.

The plan was to run towards Maisons Laffitte and the bumps before starting a series of 30/30 intervals for the keen runners, while tose recovering from an excess of alcohol on Friday night were given an easy recovery run instead. We started theseries of 12 intervals at the top of the bumps and I was neck and neck with Nico on the first 2 intervals before losing a little ground. José ran with Nico from this point on and I stayed with Thierry, determined not to let him gain a mental advantage before the first cross-country race in a couple of weeks time. We were running the intervals around 19km/h and although the first seemed easy by the time we hit double figures, I could feel the lactic rising in my legs. Gérald had decided to be chivalrous and was running with Jennifer just behind on this series, rather than assuming his usual position at the front of the pack.

We ran back to the clubhouse and I asked Jennifer about her usual training schedule: 120km per week on average, with some serious interval sessions, recovery runs and a long run on Sunday after the races on Saturday. A fairly gruelling schedule, but there's no secret: if you want to be good, you need to train hard and put in the distance. This is what this year's has in store for me as I try and improve my training quality and quantity. She also told me that following her excellent run in Houilles, the organisers had the cheek to call her up the next day and to ask her if she was sure she'd run 3 laps instead of 2!! They also asked her if she'd lent her chip to a male runner. All of this because she managed to beat a good number of female runners who'd been paid to attend by the organisers.

I ran back from the clubhouse to home with Nico. We celebrated our fine shape at the moment by taking it easy running the last 5 k with the following splits: 4:59, 4:24, 3:58, 4:23, 4:02 ! So much for an easy jog back home.

26.4km all up in 2:12 or an average of 5:02 per km. Good run and great to get the distance in. I'm feeling very good at the moment with plenty of energy and the desire to push it during the sessions. Long may this last.

Final interval session 2010

Before I begin my write-up for last night's training session with the club, I wanted to just express a few words of sympathy for one of my former readers. I have 4 followers on my blog. Discovered this week that one of my followers actually died in September and I now only have 3 followers, one of whom is my wife. People just don't know what they're missing!

Turned up at the club last night to find a small group of runners, despite the fact that there was no trainer this evening and a quiet jog was on the menu. Nico, Gérald and Mohammed were there, together with a good turnout from the women: Laurence, Delphine, Anne, Murielle and Pascale amongst others. Nico, Gérald and Momo were keen to run some intervals and asked if I'd join them. With this group, I knew that I'd be pushing it hard but since that is what I need at the moment, I accepted.

We ran down under Michel's guidance to Poissy and alongside the railway. This was the 5 km warm-up and then we decided that we'd run back to the clubhouse doing the intervals. 2' of effort for a 1' recovery was agreed and we'd run as many as we could before running out of road.

I had the Garmin and quickly programmed it for this session and off we set with me in the lead since I had the watch. This first section was mostly downhill and we weren't pushing it too hard to begin with - 3:40 pace for the first interval. Nico took over for the second interval and it felt hard right from the start. I was just telling myself not to give in and to stick with them despite the pain. I lost about 3 metres on them just towards the end but I was pleased to have pushed it - 3:25 pace for this one.

We passed back under the railway line now and started the next interval led by Gérald. After about a minute we hit the main road and a good uphill section which forced us to slow down somewhat. The heart was beginning to feel all of this exertion and the pace was still sustained - 3:40 for this section. Another uphill section again and we were running along the path beside the main road in the pitch black. I followed the group of 3 ahead and just stuck with them over this section. The pace was not quite as sustained and I could see that Gérald was also tiring a little which gave me a spark of hope ! 3:35 pace here. I took the leas for the next interval and pushed as hard as I could with Momo encouraging me as I was at top speed. There's nothing more disparaging than busting a gut trying to push the pace and having somebody speaking to you easily telling you to push it harder ! I could feel the lactic in the legs now and the last 15 seconds were long.

The last interval was an interval too far and I dropped off the pace rapidly, watching the 3 others leave me easily. I really felt that I was slow now and it was a surprise to see that even this interval was run at 3:45 pace. Unfortunately the others were still at 3:20 pace which explains the gap.

10km all up in just under an hour. Good, hard session and I need more of these next year. Great to run with Nico, Gérald and Momo too as there are no excuses to hang back.

A little thought for Christelle at the club last night who had written to Father Christmas requesting a Garmin 405 to help accompany her in her running and racing, having seen mine and the functionalities that it provides. Father Christmas gave her a pot of anti-wrinkle face cream instead. I think Father Christmas's cheeks are still smarting from the blows !

More snow

It snowed Friday night, it snowed all day Saturday and there was so much snow Sunday morning that Laurence and I decided that taking the car was impossible to get to the club session this morning so we ran over to the clubhouse instead. It had stopped snowing during the night but it restarted again this morning and we left with thick flakes falling down around us.

We headed up through the forest towards St Germain at an easy pace, tired from our late night and the effort necessary to lift our feet, making the going tougher than normal through the forest. We stopped for a quick photo opportunity in the forest using Laurence's mobile phone and then carried on.



The forest had been transformed and the weight of the snow on the trees had forced their branches to the ground, disguising the usual paths through the forest and making us check twice before running down some paths.

We turned up at the clubhouse for 9:00am and were pleased to see that we weren't the only nutters who had decided that it would be fun to run in the snow: Nico, Gérald, Vincent, Delphine, Mireille and Philippe amongst others were all part of the 15 or so runners who'd braved it through the snow. Miguel was notably absent, probably suffering from the after-effects of yesterday's run. No other excuse is acceptable since Gérald had made it in from the same town.

Michel and Frank suggested the route behind the Légion d'Honneur school in St Germain forest and we set off in this direction. The idea was to run 3 laps of the cross Toto route doing the session that had been prepared by Miguel: 5', 10', 5' off 2 minutes recovery. We set off for the warm-up and Nico profited from the fresh snow to throw one of the most fantastic snowballs I've ever witnessed, hitting Michel in the back of the head from 30 paces.

We arrived at the start of the circuit and the snow was deeper than ever. There was now a good 15 - 20 cm of fresh snow lying on the paths and the going was tough to run as it was hard to push off an unstable surface and the depth of the snow meant that you had to lift your feet in order to avoid stumbling.

We set off for the first interval and I ran at the front with Nico, running at about 15km/h or 4:00 pace. Gérald caught us towards the end of the first interval as we found it hard to recognise the path around the course due to the wall of branches blocking the route in places. The next interval was harder and I fell off the pace, letting Gérald and Nico lead. I'm sure that the fact that they were both dressed in shorts, despite the cold and the snow, assisted their pace and my running tights held me back here. The fact that we headed back up the hill to complete the loop and the effort necessary to push through the deepest sections of snow was secondary to these clothing hinderances. The last interval was better as we were heading back down the hill again and the snow had been trampled now making the going ever so slightly easier. Nico nad I tried to lose Gérald by rushing headfirst through the branches, while he took more care losing 10 metres in the process. However, he caught up again in no time (he's in top shape at the moment) and as the interval ended both Nico and Gérald had gained 15 metres on me.

We waited for the rest of the group and headed back to the clubhouse all together where I met Laurence who'd gone back early in order to arrange the pick-up of Paul who'd spent the night at a friend's house, unable to get back because of the snow. No sign of Paul but we were able to beg a lift off Nico back to Le Mesnil, avoiding the 5 km back through the forest.

18.3km all up in 1:53. Hard running in these conditions and excellent cross-country training.

Still had to go and get Paul afterwards, cycling back out to St Germain and then running back 5km home along the roads while Paul pedalled alongside me. Knackered now.