Doubling up

Since my last post in early December following the Conflans race, I've been finding it hard to keep up. Not with the running, which has been generally going fine, but with balancing the workload between work and blogging. Since work brings in a regular salary and my blogging skills are not yet sufficient to keep me in the manner to which I've become accustomed, I've been concentrating on the former.

Despite the regular runs, I've lost a little focus since the marathon and the lack of a formal training schedule is not helping. I've been slacking into my old ways and enjoying my runs rather than pushing the interval work, lengthening the long runs and generally exhausting myself completely. I'm still on the early starts since I've no alternative but I run them at a comfortable pace and then some.

So after Conflans, I ran an easy 51km week with a run in Brussels while I was on  a work trip. The following week I increased to 63km with a few more mid-week runs and then last week I managed 89km with a Tuesday session doubled up and then a couple of runs with Laurence over the weekend, including a lovely Christmas morning run when there was just the 2 of us running through the forest and not a soul in sight - fantastic.

This week is a lot quieter at work with many people away between Christmas and the New Year, leaving us to close the accounts in relative serenity. I ran my usual course around Maisons Laffitte this morning before work and really enjoyed my run. The temperature has got a little colder, which is about time for the season, and it was nippy this morning without dropping below freezing point though. I ran easily to start with and once warmed up, I pushed the pace a little running at around 4:10 pace through town and back to the house. This was fast enough to keep me warm and I was surprised by how fast I managed to recover this morning once I arrived back at the house. I won't go as far to say that it feels comfortable at this pace, but it's not the huge effort it used to be.

I was able to get out of work at a reasonable time this evening but unfortunately this evening's traffic was a lot heavier than this morning and I only arrived in time to change as the others were leaving on their warm-up. This meant that I had to catch up 4 - 5 minutes on the warm-up so I chased them around St Germain at 15km/h ! Having managed to catch them up half-way around the St Germain loop, I jogged back with Nico, Momo, Simon, Mireille and Ilyes to the track. The session for the evening, without any coach in attendance, was 20 x 200m. I was happy enough knowing that Wilfried and Simon were doing this so it meant that I wouldn't have to attempt to stay with Nico and Ilyes over the intervals.


We started off together but Simon was soon dropped, despite the taunts launched by Nico about being a big girl's blouse (or something to the same effect in French). I would start off the interval then Nico and Ilyes would come past finishing 5 metres ahead while I held off Wilfried on my shoulder. I ran every 200m in 36 seconds off a 38 - 40 second recovery. After the 7th interval, Wilfried pulled out claiming that he'd had enough. For someone used to running 100km races this was a bit of a disappointment. Frankly these younger runners just lack the stamina. To prove my point, Nico dropped out after 16 without any explanations. In fact, he didn't really need to explain as with the jet propulsion he'd been firing for the last few intervals, stopping was a relief for everyone. No wonder Ilyes made that extra effort to stay ahead of him. I just lack the speed and had to breathe in the equivalent of a day's pollution in Paris city centre and it was quite frankly a huge relief when he pulled aside. Too much turkey and foie gras over Christmas methinks.

So 20 intervals at a very regular pace 35 - 36 seconds and I was pleased by the fact that I managed to stay the course after the run this morning. I'd been worried that I 'd been slacking recently but this little session showed me that I'm still in shape and ready to take on Wilfried and Simon any day. Nico is still ahead but running a 35:35 at Houilles just showed his recent form and potential too.

No sign of Gérald so looking forward to seeing him improve in the New Year and getting back into shape too.

25 km all up for the day and a 90 km week is on the cards.