Injury

Today was a recovery run and I was supposed to take it easy for an hour.

To celebrate this fact, I chose my favourite route around St Simon which is about 9km and I thought that I would extend this by running through the centre of Aurillac and doing a loop the other side before heading back.

I had a slight niggle in the small of my back, above my right buttock before going out. I started running and I expected this to disappear as I warmed up and sure enough, this is exactly what happened. The first 2.5 km are mostly uphill and so I took these easily. On reaching the main road, heading back towards Aurillac on the far side of St Simon, I strecthed out and just enjoyed the pace and the positive feelings from that high you can sometimes get when the scenery is fabulous, the running's going well and everything smiles at you. The pace quickened to 4:20, 4:16 then 4:10. I still felt very easy and despite running at marathon pace, this didn't feel as though it was any great effort.

Disaster struck as I ran through Aurillac. The little niggle that had worn off initially now returned with far greater force. In fact, so painful that it almost forced me to stop. I slowed down, concentrating now on just finishing the run and getting home.

13.8 km all up in 1:02 so a good run.

The pain didn't disappear and persisted throughout the afternoon. After a night's sleep, it would appear to have abated slightly so I'll skip the run today and do the session tomorrow instead. This is the message that I can't push the pace and the mileage eternally.

Horror reps

This was the session that I'd been dreading, the horror movie of my marathon training sessions, the Nightmare on Elm Street, the Scream, the Hammer House of Horrors.

The Bible stated that today's suffering was programmed as 12x600m and that each rep was to be run in 2:10. I decided to do this off 200m recovery.

I set out for the training early this morning, braving the elements that were, admittedly, decidely more clement than they have been recently. The thermometer had even managed to rise to -2°C. I started off by running up the road to the allotments and then by running a small loop around these gardens 3 times, soaking up the early morning sun as it rose over the hills. This was all very pleasant but I had a job to do, so I headed back down the road to the track in Aurillac.

The track here is very different to the St Germain track. At St Germain, the track is a tartan track with a lovely bounce to it and most enjoyable to pound out a few hard intervals. Aurillac track was made several years earlier from tarmac and with age, cracks have appeared that have never been repaired. To make matters worse, the far corner is hidden from the sunlight by the high conifers and there was a 30 metre section of snow and ice on the back bend. I can't say that I was eager to start, but I thought it was best to get the thing over with.

I set off doing the intervals and managed the first in 2:09. I ran the 200m recovery and tried to improve on this time, as is often the case on the first, I felt that I'd kept a little in reserve. The next few intervals went better but I could feel the tiredness in my legs. This, of course, got worse as I continued and on the second series, I really felt like giving up. I don't often get this way, as once I've started, I enjoy these sessions, especially if I feel that I'm doing well. This wasn't the case today and I don't know if it was down to the skiing yesterday, the altitude, the cold or the track conditions. Whatever it was due to, the series were very hard. I only managed to find the motivation to continue from the marathon and the thought that I wouldn't give up on that.

The reps went as follows:

2:09, 2:05, 2:05, 2:07, 2:07, 2:08, 2:07, 2:08, 2:10, 2:12, 2:10, 2:08

So I was under target except towards the end when there are 3 that were distinctly slower. This was a shame.

17 km all up. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's recovery run.

Sunday run

And the Bible said "Thou shalt run for one hour at an easy pace and then thou shalt put the the turbo on and run for 20 minutes at marathon pace before slowing down again to run the last 10 minutes at an easy pace." That was the message from the good book anyway and so I set off with good intentions in my heart and Mizuno on my feet.

The good intentions didn't last very long. It was -7°C when I set off with Laurence for the Sunday run each intending to do our own thing. My plan was around 20km based on the above whereas Laurence was running for 1h30 at an easy pace. I thought I would do the tour of Aurillac. This is a 20km route around the outskirts of the town and it seemed ideally suited for today's schedule.

It got off to a bad start. As I left the road by the stadium after 500m, there is a steep section up a little path between the fields. I had run 5m when all of a sudden I found myself flat on my belly with my gloved hands in the middle of a stream. I had slipped on the ice and put my hands through the ice into the stream beneath. I was wondering how long I had at -7°C before the water froze in my gloves causing frostbite necessitating amputation of the fingers. Luckily this didn't happen as my hands were sufficently warm to stop the water from freezing but it wasn't a good start.

After this things improved and I ran the next few kilometres at about 4:30 pace through the streets of Aurillac. At around half way, there is a long slope uphill and the second half of the course is much tougher. Sod the marathon pace stretches, my lungs were almost bursting with the effort of the uphills, trying to maintain a pace faster than 5:00 per km. I failed over 2 kilometres at 13km up a long hill (5:05) and at 16km up a really long, steep, bastard of a hill (5:08). Relief to have managed to run up both of those without resorting to a walking pace.

Total distance of 20.75km in 1:39:32 or an average of 4:48. Pleased considering the uphill involved over the course. Good session which will stand me in good stead for the speed training this week.

Snow trail

No time to run yesterday as I was too tied up at work and then we left in the evening to go on holiday for a week (this is why you won't be able to call us at home bros over the next 10 days).

We are in Aurillac for a few days and as we arrived in the car late last night it was to a wintry scene with a good 15 cm of snow in the fields and 5-10 cm of snow on the roads. I got up this morning and thought about where I would run for 75 minutes for my marathon training today. I settled on heading up the old road to St Simon and then up the hill past this village and onto the mountain bike trail that contours around the valley to Rouffiac before coming back on the main road. I had a rough idea of the mileage but was relying on the Garmin to help me.

I set out slowly to begin with and felt the tiredness in my legs. I put this down to the altitude and the fatigue from the trip. Garmin didn't pick up the satellite reception immediately and missed the first 400m, so first km in 8:02 ! Uphill after so 2nd in 5:12. Afterwards a nice downhill to speed up and then more uphill. I left the road then and followed the trail with some steep uphills and ankle deep in snow. This slowed me down further, completing a kilometre in 7:01. Back down to Rouffiac and finally back onto the main road back to St Simon and Aurillac.

I felt great now, the scenery was fantastic with virgin snow everywhere and the sky was bright blue. The temperature was around 2°C but I'd warmed up nicely and the road was easy compared to the fields and snow before. I stretched out and completed the next kilometres in 4:38, 4:25, 4:22, 4:18, 4:25, 4:12, 4:02, 4:16. I was flying, loving every minute of it and not feeling tired in the slightest. Absolutely fantastic.

Great way to forget the stress and fatigue from work. Vive les vacances!

Thursday VMA

I arrived a bit late for the session tonight and interupted the president in his speech to the runners prior to warm-up. Laurence told me afterwards that I received comments as to how elegant I was, which is always good for the ego.

The ego took a bit of a battering afterwards when having got changed and chased the others down over the warm-up, we finally arrived back at the track. The marathon session for tonight was 10x500m as a VMA (VO2 max) interval session. In the absence of our trainer, Miguel, it was Thierry who was calling the shots and he declared that it was a threshold session instead.

I decided that there was no way that, having prepared myself mentally for VO2 intervals, I would be doing threshold pace instead. I decided to run the 500m with José and Thierry. Luckily for me, Thierry was running 20 x 500m and I only had half to do. I set off with José and we ran ahead of Thierry for the full session. José did a couple more with Thierry after the 10 and then dropped out.

The intervals went as follows:

1:46, 1:49, 1:46, 1:46, 1:45, 1:44, 1:43, 1:43, 1:43, 1:42

I was pleased with the increase in speed as we went through them. On the last 4, I was by myself as José pushed the pace to under 1:40 and I couldn't follow. I checked in the training plan to see what speed was expected over 500m and for the 3 hour marathon it stated 1:45 intervals so I was well under this by the end. Felt good but tired on the last 3.

Good session.

Dawn run

Early start for this morning's run as I was out of the house at 6:30 am. I hadn't fully recovered from last night's efforts so I took the start of the run easy in order to regain a good feeling in my legs and to enjoy the workout.

The good feeling never really happened. I exagerate a little as by 7 km I was feeling fine and picked up the pace slightly from the 12 km/h I had set over the first kilometre.

I could feel all sorts of aches and pains in my legs as I ran this morning and it was a reminder not to overdo things. I just took it steadily and my mind drifted to other things.

13.3 km in 1:02:24 or 12.7 km/h for the total run. 4:42 per km so a good endurance run. I sped up at the end and did the last 2 kilometres in 4:30 and 4:19.

Not looking forward to the VO2 max session tomorrow.

Tuesday session

I arrived at the club all psyched up to do my 10 x 600m VO2 max session tonight. On the club training calendar, nothing special had been planned, just a simple 45 minute endurance session. However, all of the other marathon runners were following the club's marathon training plan which involved 2x 2000m + 3x 1000m. I decided to switch sessions and run with the others, putting off the VO2 max session until Thursday.

25 minutes warm-up and we were back at the track. 5 of us were going to do the session at my pace (around 4:00 / km) while Nick and Philippe were going to do it just a little slower. The 5 of us were: Régis, Fabrice, José, Me and another guy that I didn't recognise.

96 second 400's were called and they asked me to set the pace. I set off, glad to be in front as this is where I'm happiest. I like the sound of the others just behind me and being able to push the pace slightly just when they get too close. We did the first lap in 94 and this set the tone for the evening.

The intervals went as follows:

7:39, 7:42, 3:47, 3:49, 3:46

So very regular and I was feeling great. Oh yeah, and the others dropped off after the first 1000m interval saying that they'd had enough for the night. So much for running with others.

The other factor that made the performance more impressive was that the track began to freeze after the first 2000m interval and so the bends on the track were as slippery as hell after that. This made you expend even more energy than was necessary on a dry surface.

14km all up for the evening. An early night now to recover.