Long Sunday run

I wanted to get the mileage in before attempting the Ecotrail at the end of the month. I'm very conscious that I'm running after 2 hares at the same time (French expression): I want to beat my record at Rambouillet and go under 1:20; secondly, I want to be able to complete the 80km run through the forests of western Paris. So on one hand I need some pace training and now to taper until the race next weekend, and then I also need to keep up the mileage so I don't suffer terribly on the long run.

I chose a compromise by heading out on my long run to St Gemme and St Nom by myself with the firm intention of taking it easy and not pushing the pace too hard. Laurence had told me that François and Philippe were running a 2:15 run from the club and as I ran through the forest from Le Mesnil towards St Germain, I thought it could be a good idea to stop at the club and then to run with them.

I did just this and said hello to the girls and Nico who were doing their own plans for the morning. Laurence and the girls were going for a 2 hour run, and Nico was doing the club session. The turnout was not enormous with the Paris half-marathon on this morning and Thierry and Miguel notably absent. I set off with Philippe, François, Antoine (a friend of François) and Pascal. We headed off to St Gemme too and they informed me that they were running 3 x 15' at marathon pace which suited me fine. We took it easily up the hill to the top of Princess Road before beginning the first of the intervals.

I assumed my pacing duties for François and we set off at 4:15 pace in order to be in line with his 3 hour marathon objective. We did the first interval pretty much in line witht he objective, in fact it was run at 4:10 pace, the start pace defined by François for the next marathon. We then had a 5' recovery during which we were overtaken by a mystery runner going at a fair lick which turned out to be Thierry. He said hi as he passed but didn't stop or chat. The next interval which was a lot harder as we had to run the uphill through St Nom to finish and I began to lose François towards the end as the hill began to hurt.

Another 5' recovery now and for the last interval I headed off at my own speed as I was feeling full of energy and eager to push the pace a little. The first kilometre was 3:56 which was resonable and then I was surprised to see the second in 3:49. The was a slight uphill now and I kept the pushing the pace to see if I could maintain this speed and managed a 3:51 before heading downhill for the last section. A 3:29 pace down the hill to top off the session for the day before the warm-down back to the club with the others.

30.75 km all up in 2:23 so an average pace of 4:40 which is fairly honest. I waited for Laurence to get the lift home from the club although I had enough energy to run the 5km back through the forest. 90km all up this week.