I announced last night that I would be running a 3-2-1 session the next day. Once it was announced there was no going back. It was official. Others had heard it. I was committed.
I got up and ran down to the Seine where I began the first interval. My 3-2-1 session is probably one of my favourites. It involves running a 3km interval in 11'30" then 3' recovery followed by 2km in 7'30" off 2' recovery and then the last interval in 3'30".
I started and I knew that this would be hard today. My thighs were still aching from the ekiden and I resisted the temptation to give up from the start. How could I ? I'd announced that I ws going to do this to everybody (well Laurence and Dad at least). I ran the first km in 3:44 then 3:49 and finally in 3:46. So I'd achieved the first interval in 11'19 under the objective and I was ready to begin the second.
3' later and I set off. It was hard. Too hard and after a minute, I pulled the plug and began to jog again. I just didn't have the strength or the motivation to continue and push hard. It was just all too much and I resigned myself to a recovery now back through the park of Maisons Laffitte and back home. I was so tired that I even missed the turn off into the forest and carried along the roads. Not what I'd intended.
12.6km all up in 54:08 or 4:19 per km. Disappointed with myself but should get over this lethargic patch soon.
I woke up with stiff thighs from the ekiden yesterday. I'm not used to racing the 10 km distance and I was paying for yesterday's efforts. Still, I needed to put some mileage in and a little run around town couldn't do any harm, could it ?
I ran the usual route around Maisons Laffitte kust taking it steady and forcing myself not to look at the Garmin as I ran. I really wanted to relax and enjoy myself and I knew that as soon as I looked at the splits on the watch, I would push myself just to run that little bit faster.
Beautiful morning again and a real pleasure to be out. I bumped into Sylvie in the park and she was looking good despite her injury so I ran a couple of kilometres with her before heading our different ways. I ran back through the forest to make a change and to enjoy the early morning daylight now that spring has arrived.
13.2 km all up in 57:24 or an average pace of 4:22 / km. Not bad for a recovery run without looking at the Garmin. Alright, so I might have had a peek every now and then, but who's watching...?
Running is a lonely sport. Most of the time when you train - you're by yourself; when you race - you are in your own world with your own objectives; when you're injured - it's even worse. It's an individual sport and even when you train in a group, you set your own objectives. You may exchange with your running partners but you fix your own limits and when you fail to achieve, you only have yourself to blame.
So when you get to combine an individual sport in a team environment and run and encourage each other, it's a refreshing change. I was down for the vets team in the Pontalut Combault ekiden, my third particpation in this event as many as the event itself. We had 2 other teams entered: our senior team (who'd also "borrowed" our 2 best veterans) and the female team.
I drove Nico and Dad to the ekiden as it meant that we could get a few extra minutes of sleep before the race began and besides, I was running the 4th leg and Nico the last for the seniors, so there was no real hurry. We arrived in time to get changed and to see the start with Jean-Marc setting off for the seniors, Nicoletta for the women and Daniel for the vets. Jean-Marc ran a good leg coming in 4th and setting the tone for the seniors from then on. Daniel and Nicoletta were a little behind and the vets team set off on the second leg with Bruno and Gaëlle for the women.
Dad and I were stood in the middle of the forest for most of this time since this was the point from which you could see most of the action. It was a beautiful sunny day, but extremely cold. Dad was beginning to regret wearing his shorts at this point and would have been happy with another layer on. The teams were still running well with Olivier ( our vet running for the seniors) putting in a good leg and bringing the senior team into 3rd place in the race. The women were also doing well in second place in their category with a real tussle between the first 3 teams exchanging places regularly.
I ran a quick loop of the circuit as a warm-up and then ran over to the transition zone ready for my relay. Fabrice came in and handed the relay bracelet over to me and I set off at what I thought was an easy pace. A quick tap on the back of Bruno and Nico as I went by and I settled into a steady pace and looked ahead at the runners I was chasing.
The problem with running the 4th leg is that the field is well spaced out and the competitors are either being lapped or are too far to catch. I concentrated on a couple of runners ahead one of whom I caught between the 2nd and 3rd kilometre and the other who I gradually closed down but who still managed to finish 20 metres ahead of me.
My plan from the beginning had been to run the first loop easily and then speed up on the second. However, the reality was that my natural fast start and hold on in tactic overcame me and my splits were as follows:
The 3:49 split was a problem with the Garmin and I think that I was running a very steady 3:45 rhythm by then which I only managed to speed up slightly towards the end as I desperately tried to chase down my hare. I felt good overall, not going into the red and still managing to keep some energy in reserve. I think that a classic race would have motivated me more and I could probably have pulled off a few seconds faster but I was still pleased to bits with a 37:07 time despite being the only runner in the race for whom the electronic tag system failed to work.
Nico ran a great final leg finishing his 7.2km in 25:21 and bringing in the senior team in 3rd place overall.
A great video of the race with my exploits can be seen here. Thanks to Gérald for the camerawork.
An easy run with Nico this morning as we were both down for the Ekiden the following day and didn't want to tire ourselves out. As we wanted a change from the usual Corra route and a slightly shorter run to keep fresh for Sunday and the ekiden we ran one of Nico's favourites: out to the Mare aux Canes and back through the forest.
It was a beautiful day and our run through the forest from Le Mesnil out to La Mare aux Canes was great. A slight uphill run heading out, before a slight downhill coming back.
We were also very reasonable in the pace we adopted, running around 4:45 pace out and around 4:25 pace back.
9.5km all up in 44:26 or an average pace of 4:40 per km. Good preparation for the race and feeling good again to come back from injury.
I was in Lyons on business at staying in the Holiday Inn on the outskirts to the west of town. As a well prepared runner, I had all of my training kit with me and decided the night before to imrpove the preparation by actually looking for once where I would run the following morning. A quick look on Google maps and I decided to head off over the motorway and towards the north west of the city so that I could catch a glimpse of some scenery quickly and leave the urban sprawl behind.
At 6:00 am the next morning I almost changed my mind. Lack of sleep, extreme weariness, and little motivation almost saw me climbing back into bed but I forced myself to get my trainers on and headed out of the hotel. It was one of my first runs back from injury and I spent the first 3 kilometres thinking about my calf and the aches, sprains and other slight niggles I could feel down there. Apart from that I was enjoying the scenery and heading up out of town towards Ecully, then in the direction of Dardilly.
I soon realised that the countryside around Lyons is not flat. I'd been climbing for 3 kilometres now and there was still no sign of any respite in the uphill. The rare downhill sections only lasted a few hundred metres again before I found myself climbing uphill once more. A scary moment at 3 km when I saw my life flash before me as I was almost run over by a Securitas van - how ironic! - and then I was running back uphill into Dardilly a lovely village on the west side of Lyons overlooking the Lyons basin.
I turned back after 6.5 km and ran back exactly the same route that I'd taken on the way out, bar a little incident when I got lost in Ecully losing a few hundred metres in the process.
Times out:
5:33, 4:40, 4:48, 4:35, 4:32, 4:42, 4:41
Times back:
4:07, 3:54, 4:25, 3:51, 4:02, 3:53, 3:51
So a total distance of 13.6km in 1 hour exactly. Average pace of 4:25 over the course. Excellent hill training but a real effort first thing in the morning. Legs are back to normal and felt good by the end of the run.
Due to the bank holiday, the Tuesday club session was at 9:00am this morning. Laurence and I headed out for the clubhouse with the missus intending to do a 12', 10', 8' workout at threshold pace while I was aiming for Miguel's session of 12 x 1'/1'. All in all, I preferred the VO2 Max session to the threshold anyday.
There was a reasonable turnout and all Laurence's running partners were there: Sandra, Katia, Stéphanie, Muriel, etc. She was going to be in good company. On the blokes side Nico and Ylies were there along with Momo, Anis (back from Boston), Jean-Marc and Bruno. I decided there and then that I wasn't going to kill myself today, especially after yesterday's efforts.
I almost changed my mind about the whole affair as I ran the warm-up. My right knee started playing up and every stride felt awkward and painful. It was if the joint was misaligned and jarring every time I put my foot down and I wondered if I'd be able to run at all. We got to the Charmilles park in Poissy where the session was to begin. I thought that I would run with Bruno as I couldn't see myself staying, or even attempting to get close to Nico today. However, this was harder than I thought it would be.
Bruno has been improving rapidly after a couple of half-marathons and having come back from injury. I thought that I was taking a soft option but I soon discovered that the difference between us today is minimal. I lacked the pace to make the difference and the motivation to push myself hard. The only spots surprisingly where I got the upper hand was on the slight uphill sections. Who'd have believed it?
Jogged back to the clubhouse with Nico and pushed the pace at the end, running in at 15km/h. 13.6 km all up in 1:11 or 5:15 / km. Good day and far too warm for an over-jacket. Spring temperatures have finally arrived.
Decided on the basis of these last 2 days that I'd take part in the ekiden on Sunday. Will probably run a 10km leg with Bruno running the other. The objective is to qualify the vets team in a time under 2:50 with a realistic objective of 2:45. Could do better but the seniors have pinched our 2 best vets - slackers!
It's certainly frustrating to be forced to retire from running for a while. Mind you, there have been that many business trips and early starts recently that even if I had wanted, finding time to get a run in would have been difficult enough anyway. I had compensated by doing a couple of mountain bike rides, but this had only resulted in me straining the base of my back and walking around like Quasimodo for a few days. I told myself that I would take it easy over the weekend and then start again today with Laurence agreeing to accompany me on the bike.
Laurence had been worried about letting me go out for a run on my own, thinking that I wouldn't be reasonable and continue running even if my calf started hurting. She proposed an alternative: a bike and run whereby she'd accompany me on the bike and if at any time I felt that I needed to stop, rest or take it easy than the bike would be there to take me home while she ran. This sounded like a sensible proposal and I wasn't sure how my calf would hold out so I seetled for this.
It was a fairly nice day although the clouds were looming and the rain didn't seem to be far off. I put on a waterproof top (later discovered that this was a mistake) and set out with Laurence in the direction of Corra. I ran the first kilometre easily enough although the Garmin was playing up and beeped at least 100m beyond the usual spot, recording 5:30. As is often the case after an injury, you focus largely on the areas of the body where you've suffered and I spent the next 20 - 30 minutes analysing internally every little ache and pain coming from either leg. The calf was holding up though and despite a few pulls every now and then, there was nothing untoward and I was happy with how it was doing.
I felt good along the path towards Corra and I stretched out to see in what sort of shape I was after 2 weeks of forced rest. My breathing was actually not too bad but my legs were finding the going harder, especially in the thighs. I ran 3 kilometres at 3:55 pace before easing off towards Corra and dropping down to a more sedate 4:15 pace. I tried to maintain this pace up the hill to the Pavillon, running in 4:20 and then accelerating again to 4:13 then 4:08 back up to Le Mesnil.
We took a longer alternative route back home, running past the church in town before getting back in 1:04:45. I reckon that this equates to just under 1:03 over the usual route. 15.3 km all up or an average pace of 4:15 /km. Good to be back and although I didn't feel as fresh or as easy as I have been recently, I was pleased with this run as it shows I haven't lost too much pace.
