Freezing

No rest for the wicked and the marathon training programme imposed a run for today. As usual, I ignore the schedule for the Monday run and go and run a recovery around my 13km route. It's hard enough to get out of bed at 6:00 am to go for a run with the thermometer hovering around -10°C, but to have to run at tempo pace too is just too much to bear.

It takes me longer than usual to pull my clothes on due to the extra layers and perhaps due to my lack of motivation to leave the warmth of the bedroom. I get outside and the cold instantly registers: the cold grips you all over your body and squeezes the breath out of your lungs. It is very cold and I jog from the house to get moving as quickly as possible.

I run at 4:30 pace to begin with but then as I near the park in Maisons Laffitte, I speed up a little and down Avenue Albine, I'm running at 4:10 pace. There aren't many other souls about and even the woman I normally meet in the park walking her dogs is nowhere to be seen. The cold is too much for everyone and they're all insides for once, keeping warm.

12.8km all up in 55:00 or an average pace of 4:18. Too cold to hang about.