Another recovery

I don't know if calling these recovery runs fully conveys the effort necessary to run in conditions such as these: -10°C, hills everywhere, early morning after a day's skiing, and ice on the roads. Whatever, I'd set the alarm to 7:00 am and I was going to run for an hour, just like the programme stated.

I almost changed my mind when the alarm rang and it was barely daybreak outside. I put on my skins, a couple of tops, some gloves and my new running hat. I headed out in the direction of Monday's route, up the back roads to Megevette, along the valley and then back down the main road.

The start was similar to Monday with the first kilometres run at 5:00 pace and then 5:30 up the hills. Once the uphill behind me, I was running along the valley at 4:30 pace. I reached the main road, this time avoiding the traipse across the snow-covered field, and coasted back down the hill to Onnion. There is a real difference in temperature between the plain at Megevette and a few hundred metres lower in the valley towards Onnion. This was really appreciable as I raced down the last section of road to the centre. At least I avoided frostbite where it hurts most.

11.7 km all up in 54:47 or an average pace of 4:41/km. Now for the cross-country skiing again.

8 x 1000m

The marathon training plan says 8 x 1000m at 80% max HR. I've never really tried to work out what this session is all about and I've mostly tried to run this as close to max HR as possible. Today, I was taking a morning off skiing to find a flattish stretch of road and run these intervals at 3:45 pace instead. My reasoning behind this was that with the altitude and the cold, I'd have to compensate in terms of pace.

I programmed the Garmin for the intervals and set off up to Megevette along the main road for my warm-up. I was still tired from last night's recovery run and I hadn't been looking forward to this morning's session anyway. My worst fears were confirmed from the start: this was going to be tough.

I left Megevette on the main road and thought that I'd better start here. The road beyond this village is a long straight section over 1 kilometre long and after a fairly flat start it then rises gently before heading up to a col some 4 kilometres after this. I set off and tried to push the pace, imagining that I was on the track at St Germain and chasing Nico, leading Fred and Thierry and in shape. Unfortunately, this didn't translate into any performance today on the road and my legs started to tire after a couple of hundred metres. I looked at the Garmin and saw 580 metres .Great, I've only got 400m to go, just a lap of the track. I looked again at the Garmin a minute later and saw 190m. Marvellous, it works as a countdown and I still hadn't finished my first interval. I finished the first and looked forward to the slight downhill back. The idea was to run this up and down 3 times and then continue for the final two intervals back down the road towards Onnion and benefit from the downhill. It was a real relief to complete that third uphill interval and for me, the sesssion was virtually over from that point on.

The intervals went as follows:

3:54, 3:40, 3:55, 3:37, 3:52, 3:40, 3:44, 3:34

You can spot the uphills easily in the times above. The temperature was a good -10°C and I was a real sight with frozen snot around my nose and mouth by the time I got back, completely shattered.

16.2 km all up in 1:14 or an average pace of 4:36 / km. This was a tough one.

New Faces

First Sunday run in the New Year and what a cracker it was.

Laurence and I prepared as usual with a quick glass of orange before we left and a glance at the thermometer just to check what clothing was necessary: -7°C. Ran back upstairs and added another top before venturing outside. The shock after leaving the warmth of the house was huge. The cold took your breath away and it was actually a relief to start running to try and get some warmth back through the limbs with the blood circulating fully.

We ran up to the Church, the usual meeting point, before deciding that the cold was excessive and took shelter inside Sophie and Pierre-Henri's kitchen instead. Ralph and Louise arrived and then Philippe so we left the house and we joined by a new face, Fabrice. We had met Fabrice at a prty the night before and soon began to talk about running so we invited him along - must be keen to venture out at sub-zero temperatures. We set off slowly and Paul caught us up, having returned from his Christmas break the previous day, so 9 of us in all.

It was too cold to hang around so we ran the first 5km as a group of 4: Paul, Fabrice, Philippe and myself. Philippe set the pace most of the way at around 4:20 per km before I picked it up and pushed on to 4:15 pace. I got to the barrier in 21:30 which is one of the fastest times ever, thanks mostly to the fast start and consistent pace. I went back to find Laurence and Louise and accompanied them to the barrier, before running the second half of the course with Paul at a more moderate pace.

All up 13.5km in 1:04. Laurence arrived back with her hair all frozen and glistening white with the frost. She could have played the starring role in the Ice Maiden.

Good to see Paul again and to chat about marathon training. This begins in earnest for me at the end of the month, using a 10 week programme aimed at achieving a sub 3 hour performance. This is my main goal for the year, with a sub 1:24:30 for the half and a sub 37 10km race as extras !