Dardilly

I was in Lyons on business at staying in the Holiday Inn on the outskirts to the west of town. As a well prepared runner, I had all of my training kit with me and decided the night before to imrpove the preparation by actually looking for once where I would run the following morning. A quick look on Google maps and I decided to head off over the motorway and towards the north west of the city so that I could catch a glimpse of some scenery quickly and leave the urban sprawl behind.

At 6:00 am the next morning I almost changed my mind. Lack of sleep, extreme weariness, and little motivation almost saw me climbing back into bed but I forced myself to get my trainers on and headed out of the hotel. It was one of my first runs back from injury and I spent the first 3 kilometres thinking about my calf and the aches, sprains and other slight niggles I could feel down there. Apart from that I was enjoying the scenery and heading up out of town towards Ecully, then in the direction of Dardilly.

I soon realised that the countryside around Lyons is not flat. I'd been climbing for 3 kilometres now and there was still no sign of any respite in the uphill. The rare downhill sections only lasted a few hundred metres again before I found myself climbing uphill once more. A scary moment at 3 km when I saw my life flash before me as I was almost run over by a Securitas van - how ironic! - and then I was running back uphill into Dardilly a lovely village on the west side of Lyons overlooking the Lyons basin.

I turned back after 6.5 km and ran back exactly the same route that I'd taken on the way out, bar a little incident when I got lost in Ecully losing a few hundred metres in the process.

Times out:

5:33, 4:40, 4:48, 4:35, 4:32, 4:42, 4:41

Times back:

4:07, 3:54, 4:25, 3:51, 4:02, 3:53, 3:51

So a total distance of 13.6km in 1 hour exactly. Average pace of 4:25 over the course. Excellent hill training but a real effort first thing in the morning. Legs are back to normal and felt good by the end of the run.