3-2-1 Lightning

Another session with Les Foulées de St Germain this evening but this time it was in the rain.

Just to add a little excitement to the evening session, we began by the warm-up run in the drizzle. By the time we had crossed the main road and headed into the forest in the direction of the St Germain golf club, the drizzle had turned to rain. Another couple of hundred yards and we were stopped short by a bright flash of light and almsot instantaneously a huge clap of thunder.

This wasn't the most reassuring of signs as we continued running between the trees, waiting for the next lightning strike. I thought of all I had read about it being dangerous to run in a storm and worse running in a group in a storm. The increased distance between the legs when running reduces the resistance of the body and the lightning can leap from person to person away from the initial point of impact. Gulp ...

Luckily, tonight wasn't the night and the storm moved on, leaving us with the task of running a 3 x 6 session in the forest. This session involves running 3 minutes fast, 2 minutes recovery, 2 minutes fast, 1.5 mibutes recovery, 1 minute fast followed by 1 minute recovery. Then repeat another 2 times.

I was at the front of the group, running with Bruno (?) who I had run with on Tuesday. Jean-Marc is the fastest runner in the club and he was well in front, but Bruno and I fought it out behind him. He's also running the 10 km race in Conflans on Sunday and I predict that he'll finish 30 seconds ahead of me. It was a good session but I didn't feel as tired as the session on Tuesday. I could feel the lactic building up at the end but it was easier mentally than the 30-30.

Caught back up with Laurence on the run back to the changing rooms and she'd enjoyed the outing too. It'll be good to see the impact that these sessions have on my race performances.

12.1 km all up in 1:15. I was running the quick sessions at around 17-18 kmh except for the last one where I maxed at 18.7 kmh.

Easy run

I thought I'd take it easy today, having run a hard interval session last night. My body hadn't really had time to recover when I woke up at 6:45 and pulled on my running kit. My brain certainly wasn't ready to go mentally when I stood outside the house in the dark, waiting for the Garmin to pick up the satellite reception.

I headed off at a reasonable pace and felt very comfortable. I hit the 2 km mark in 8:43 and was quite pleased with myself for my self-restraint and not trying to push the pace any harder. I ran through Maisons Laffitte park at first light and had to dodge all the horses that were being taken for their early morning walk. Horses, in my opinion, are far more dangerous than cars on the road as they tend to be more unpredictable and need to be given a far wider berth.

Having successfully survived the horse ordeal, I left the park at 28:12 for 6.5 km. This was a nice surprise as I had expected to be even slower. A quick jog through town and soon I was running back along Blvd Pasteur, thinking about the home stretch and my breakfast. A car pulled along side me at this point and a cheery "Bonjour James" was aimed in my direction. I attempted a cheery hello back, but with snot hanging from my nose, and completely out of breath at this point, the end result was a miserable gasp and a wave of the hand. Sorry Catherine !

I finished steadily, with the remainder of my dignity, and managed a time of 47:17 for the 11.1 km. Not bad for an easy run.

30-30

Well, it was the day of reckoning today or rather the evening anyway. I'd been reading about the 30-30 session in the running magazine we subscribe too and this was my first occasion to put it into practice.

Laurence and I attended our first ever training session with the St Germain running club: La Foulée Royale. Before you start, the name of the club is rather pompous, but the people we met this evening were really nice and friendly. There was a large group at the start of about 40-50 people in total and having listened to the president give a short speech, mainly addressed to the newcomers, we set out.

The first 25 minutes was a warm up and I haven't run this slowly in years. We were averaging about 9 kmh. Then we stopped and split up into 2 groups: a faster group with some of the more experienced runners and a slower group for the newcomers. I decided to join the fast group with Nick and we began a 30-30 session where you run flat out for 30 seconds and then jog to recover for 30 seconds before repeating the process 10 times and then take a minute break before starting all over again 10 times, then another break before finishing with another 5.

It all began quite easily and I wondered what all of the fuss was about but by the time that I'd done 5 fast runs, I began to struggle to keep up with the leaders on the fast runs. We finished the first series and then began the second series. The fast sections felt longer and longer and when we finally finished the last 5, I was sweating heavily and beat.

Nick had hung back a little on the second series before catching up at the end and Laurence had decided to run in the slower group from the start. I was really pleased with the workout and look forward to some more training with the group. Some of the runners are very capable and it will push me more to train with them.

12 km in all for the session in 1 hour 12. Great workout, but I don't think that I have the courage to do this by myself.

Sunday run

Met up with the crowd at the Church in Le Mesnil le Roi for the start of the run this morning. It was a fairly good turnout, probably due to the local triathlon that is approaching fast. Pierre-Henri, Sophie, Ralf, Louise, Nick and Emmanuel were all there when Laurence and I turned up with Henry on the bike.

We set off slowly and then gradually Nick and I sped up and soon left the others behind. We built up the pace steadily to the half-way point which we reached in 21:50. When Laurence arrived at the barrier, she stopped in some pain, suffering from a tendinitis in the groin area which she had contracted yesterday on a long run. She cut back to the start by the quickest route, while Nick and I continued through the forest to finish the 10.4 km loop in 46:42. This isn't the fastest ever time but it's up there with one of the quickest and I felt very easy all of the way round.

Looking forward to the 10 km race next Sunday. I'm not going to try and beat my record as I'm focusing on the marathon at the end of next month but I am aiming to beat F-X over the course. I saw that he managed a very respectable 1:25:31 for the half-marathon yesterday and am hoping that this will have tired him out for next week ! Time will tell.

The best news today was that we managed to convince Herny to participate regularly on Sunday and even start running the course. This would be really good news as I'm sure he has the potential to be a good runner someday.

Group session

Met up with Andy and Nick this morning for a run down to the track at Maisons Laffitte. Hadn't seen Andy for a while so it was good to catch up on what had been going on over the Summer holidays.

It became quickly apparent that Andy had spent some time training over the Summer as we were going a lot quicker down to the stadium than our last session earlier this year. I personally think that he wants to regain his title as triathlon champion in a couple of weeks, hence the increase in the training schedule - we'll have to wait and see what mid September brings. It was 5km down to the track for me and then we let Andy decide what the punishment was to be. He had met up with some old friends in the States and had been reminiscing about earlier years and track records from his youth. We decided that we would run 1000m flat out just to see what we were capable of nowadays and go on from there.

We warmed up for a couple of laps and then set off. I hit start on the Garmin and then didn't look at it until the finish line. Nick and Andy were just behind me over the first lap and then I began to pull away slightly. The last lap was just a question of holding on as I could feel the lactic building up in my legs. It was a relief to hit the finish line in a time of 3:17 with Nick finishing 10-15 seconds later and Andy just after him. I was beat and couldn't believe that my youngest brother runs 10km at this pace. 1 km was ample for me. We always knew that he's a better runner than me - this just proves that he's 10 times better !!

We warmed down for a couple more laps and then decided to race a 400m. I set off quickly again and this time I heard Nick breathing down my ear all along the back straight. We went around the final bend and he pulled wide to go past me. I couldn' pull anything out of the bag and despite a feable attempt to pick up the pace down the last 40m, he beat me by a metre. All up in 70.1 with Nick finishing in 69.9. Can't believe that I once raced 800m in 2:13.

We ran back slowly to Andy's after that as he had to be back early. I carried on with a loop of the normal Sunday course which I went around at about 13.5 kmh pace. So all in all, I managed 23.8 km in just under 2 hours. Still determined to do well in the marathon at end October.

Fighting fit

Usual early morning run this morning, but the motivation is getting harder to find with the sun rising ever later. Dawn was just breaking as I set out this morning and I didn't have the same spring in my legs for the beginning as I ran down by the Seine. I went through 2 km in 8:24 and sure enough the time was slower than Tuesday. So much for running a personal best today.

As I was running, pondering this over, the running magazines that I had been reading the previous night were present in my mind. The articles in question concerned 30-30 training and how all training schedules should include sections where you run at max speed (but not sprinting) for 30 seconds and then run for 30 seconds at a recovery speed. This process is then repeated for about 8 times in a cycle and you should include 2 cycles in the run. I had told Laurence that I would try this out this morning but mentally, I just wasn't up for it.

Damn it, I couldn't just give up like that and since I want to improve my times further in this new season, I upped the pace. I wasn't ready to do the intervals but I was still ready to push the pace beyond my usual relaxed training speed. I could definitely feel the impact that this increase had on my breathing and general effort but it wasn't too tiring and I left the park in 26:05 after 6.5km. This was a real boost to the morale and I knew that I was on for a good time if I could keep it up.

I ran up to the end of Blvd Pasteur and the garmin showed 34:15 so I was maintaining the rhythm. Another boost and the downhill to the town-hall and through the 10km mark in 41:12 followed by a long stretch to finish and the 11.1 km route managed in 45:17. A new personal best and an excellent result at an average pace of 4:06 per km. Thoroughly chuffed !

Change of direction

"A change is as good as a rest", as the saying goes. Well, I've changed job inside the company and am now looking after the sales and marketing side of the business. I don't seem to be getting much rest at the moment though. So I'm writing this blog late in the evening and have almost forgotten about this morning's run, it seems so long ago now !

As I got up at 6:45am this morning, the first thing I noticed was that it was still dark outside. This is utterly depressing since it means that the Summer is almost over before it even began. Second thing noticeable was that the ground was all wet. Damn, not only dark but raining too.

I slipped my kit on, left the house and started up the Garmin. The rain had just stopped, the first glimpse of daylight had appeared and the temperature was moderate - perfect for a run. I started off down the road and was surprised at just how fast I was going. This sounds ridiculous, I know, but when I start running most mornings, my legs determine themselves what speed to go. This morning felt fast, even more so compared to usual since it was dark too. It was no surprise therefore to see 8:18 on the Garmin as I went through the 2km point.

I seemed to slow a little from there on through the park, but when I glanced at my watch on leaving the park it showed 27:26 which isn't too bad. I ran to the corner of Blvd Pasteur and I was only just outside my PB at this point. I stretched away then but didn't force the pace too much and just enjoyed the end of the run. All up in 46:26 and 11.0 km showing on the Garmin. This, I don't understand as the Garmin previously showed 11.1 km and then 11.04km for exactly the same course. Must be to do with the accuracy of the positioning to 7m from the satellites and the combined errors that this can create. Gmapped at 11.1 km so I'll stick with that. This gives a time of 4:11 per km which I'm pleased with and only 21 seconds off my personal best.