Sunday club run

A longer night's sleep and Laurence and I headed off to the club for this morning's session. We both had very different objectives though: Laurence was in marathon recovery mode and was going to run with Katia and Stéphanie for an easy 45 minutes; whereas I was planning to run whatever session that Miguel had concocted for the day.

There was a fairly small turnout today with the Easter holidays and post-marathon recoveries having reduced the numbers for this morning's workout. Nico, Ylies and Jean-Marc were there along with Thierry and Philippe for the men (François having decided to put in a few miles on the bike instead). Laurence met up with Katia, Stéphanie, Delphine and Aude from the female contingent of the club. We all ran together for the warm-up for the first 25 minutes before the marathoners turned back and I carried on for a 2 x 15 minute threshold session off 3' recovery.

Nico was still tired after another evening out and getting up early to man one of the St Germain polling stations in the French presidential election. We were running at 15 km/h to start and he was already complaining about the pace. I was feeling good, probably due to the lack of mileage this week and when I felt that we could run faster than this. I took the lead and ran with Ylies and Nico just behind me before they overtook me towards the railway line and then gapped me as the path went slightly uphill and then onto the bumps. I felt the pace now and eased off slightly, looking at the Garmin to check how long was left to go. Another 3 minutes, so I gritted my teeth and stuck in and then pushed a little harder as we came off the bumps and then uphill alongside the railway line. First interval was over with Nico and Ylies 25 metres ahead and Thierry and Jean-Marc a good distance back. I'd been averaging 3:45 pace over the interval with 2 kilometres at 3:35 pace along the flat and then downhill.

The 3 minute recovery passed quickly and we set off again, with Nico left behind as he was caught short relieving himself against a tree :)  This wasn't enough though to put him off as Ylies took the lead and Thierry followed shortly behind with me tagging onto Thierry's shoulder. Nico came past after a few hundred yards and ran on with Ylies down to the St Simon cross. Thierry gapped me and mentally I didn't have the willpower to stay with him and it was only on the last straight to Croix de Noailles that I began to reel him in. I averaged 3:50 pace on the second section and overall I was pretty pleased with my performance but still slightly concerned as Ylies and Nico gapped me significantly over the second interval.

17 km all up in 1:28 and it was good to get back to the clubhouse and have a nice coffee with Laurence, Katia and Stéphanie in the bar to relax. Good start to the day.