Hill session

Bank holiday today in France so the club session was at 9:00am instead of in the evening. I cycled in on my mountain bike and saw that the turnout was fairly scarce in the absence of both of our trainers Miguel and Michel. Still François, Philippe, Jean-Marc, Ilyes, Romain and others were there so there was plenty of runners for company.

We decided to respect the programme that had been posted by Miguel and head up to Princess Road to do 10 hill repeats. It was a long warm-up at just over 30 minutes when we reached the last section of the hill up Princess Road before the crossroads at the top. This is the steepest part of the hill and although it is just over 200m, it begins fairly shallow at first before reaching a gradient of around 10% by the end. Perfect for training.

The first repeats went well and although I was slower than Jean-Marc and Romain, they were slower on the downhill recovery and I was soon ahead of them and they would pass me on the uphill. Ilyes was well ahead and intent on running 12 repeats instead of the 10 for us mere mortals.

After 5 repeats Jean-Marc and the others called for a longer recovery before re-starting. I didn't feel that I needed this and it was a good incentive to keep going and to stay ahead. The last 5 were difficult with my breathing a lot shorter and tiredness settling in. The last 3 were hard as the lactic rose in my thighs and I wondered if I could keep running to the top. Happy to finish them and satisfied with the quality of the session.

Jogged back with Ilyes at recovery pace (4:30/km !) and got back to the club after 16.4km and 1h26. A short bike ride back home to finish.