Saturday long run

I made the most of the fact that Nico was runing in Aubergenville the following day to concentrate on my mileage and to get another long run in before coaching Laurence and the girls over the half-marathon course tomorrow.

I decided not to make to many changes and headed off down the usual route to Corra. I'd had a couple of days off running and was feeling so much better than Wednesday night. It's amazing how much good a bit of sleep does to you and the 2 days rest did no harm either. I set off easily enough but after a couple of kilometres in the forest I was soon running at 4:10 pace and since I felt good, I just decided to see how long I could keep this up without feeling tired. In fact, there were only a couple of kilometres where the pace dropped and this was due to the narrowness of the track rather than fatigue on my part.

I ran around Corra and then back along the wall towards the far end of Maisons Laffitte, near to the racecourse. The track is very narrow here and particularly deserted so I only saw other runners when I got back to the park in Maisons Laffitte. I was still feelig good so I put in a couple of kilometres under 4:00 and ran through the half-marathon distance in 1:29. Not bad for a morning jog.

I ran back along the Seine towards home and then a lap around the house as I pushed to run over 24k to finish. 24.1km all up in 1:42 or an average pace of 4:17/km. Pretty much 3 hour marathon speed all the way around.