Club session - Threshold

Another good turnout at the club tonight. I don't really know if this was for some quality training as promised by the training schedule sent out by Miguel, or rather for the Beaujolias Nouveau which was organised for after the training session. All the usual alcoholics runners were there: Jean-Marc, Momo, Ilyes, Stéphane, José, Bruno, François, Pascal, Nico and all of the girls too.

I ran around the warm-up with François talking about our next race in Normandy, an 80km trail on the Saturday. I'm fairly relaxed about this one and the idea is just to finish and to collect 2 points for the Mont Blanc trails next summer. If I manage this, then I'll have all 7 points necessary to qualify for the UTMB, the 170km tour of Mont Blanc with around 10 000m of uphill.

We finsih the warm-up and I agree with Mireille, Wilfried and José on the pace for tonight's session of 2000, 1000, 2000, 1000, 1500 off 200m recovery. We'll run the 2k's at 3:45 pace and the 1k at 3:30 pace. To finish we'll run at 3:40 - 3:45 pace. We're all agreed so we set off. I'm very comfortable for the first rep just on the shoulder of Wilfried with José, Mireille and Jérôme just behind. We end this rep and I ensure that the recoveries are kept honest and we push on for the 1k now. This is the same story except that it's José who leads this one and I stick to his shoulder as we go around. I can feel the increase in the pace and it's just a little harder on the legs and breathing but I definitely do not feel unduly tired when this rep ends either.

I check the time with José on this one: 3:28 he assures me. Alright we're pretty much in line with what we were forecasting so we carry on. The session ends the same way with me following whoever takes the lead and then ensuring that there is no slacking off the pace once it's set.

The reps went as follows:

7:22, 3:27, 7:11, 3:24, 5:15

So much faster than we initially envisaged but I felt good all of the time and really satisfied by a good workout by the end. Nico joined us for a warm-down having done some plodding on his own (4 x 2000) prior to Florence. Good to see Laurence back on the track too with some intervals despite the fact that she's vary wary about pushing it at the moment to avoid further injury.

14.9k all up. And the Beaujolais went down very nicely too. In fact, so nicely and such a good turnout that they ran out!

Club session - 10 x 500m

I went down to the club with Laurence tonight to do the 10 x 500m session that had been programmed by Miguel. Laurence was going to the club for the first time since her injury and it was nice to see how many people came up to her to welcome her back :)

There was a good turnout at the club with François and Pascal along. The good runners were out in force too: Momo, Ilyes, Jean-Marc, Sébastien, etc. and a couple of new runners that I didn't recognise. I was relieved to see a fellow vet with both José and Bruno present so I had somebody to run with. Gérald was back too - not yet in top form but better than I've seen him in a long while.

We warmed up and I chatted to François about the forthcoming trail in Beuzeville in December. We agreed to take a hotel room so that it would be easier for the race which starts at 6:00 am. At least this way we can get some sleep and a decent breakfast before the start.

Back to the track and the serious stuff begins. I tell José and Mireille that I'm wanting to run the 500m in 1'40 and we can run together if they're interested. We set off and José runs to the front and I follow about 5 metres behind. This feels fast and I'm not used to it. I feel a slight pulling behind my right knee as I stretch tendons that don't normally get this sort of treatment. I finish in 1:39 and I tell José that we're a little fast.

Guess what ? the second one is faster and the third faster still but I'm up and running now and the pain and the breathlessness is not too hard to bear. Better still for the morale is that I'm in front of José on each one now and only just behind Jean-Marc and closing on the final straights. The last couple are tough but I grit my teeth and we're done. Splits went as follows:

1:39, 1:36, 1:34, 1:35, 1:34, 1:34, 1:34, 1:33, 1:34 and 1:31 to finish.

Another great session and I'm flying at the moment. Nico turned up at the end moaning about another marathon session where he had to jog for an hour. He really needs to man up a little. Laurence was suffering from a sore knee which has nothing to do with her previsous injury. This didn't stop her doing a session but she'll need to watch this situation carefully.

13.5km all up.

3 x 12' threshold

Nico drove me to the club on Sunday for his last long session before the New York marathon. I came along as I have more time available now and I'm able to make it to all of the weekly club sessions. What's more, my speed is improving and I'm feeling a whole lot better about my running. The time in the Amsterdam marathon really helped me to regain my motivation and want to pull out all the stops.

We listened to the brief about the session - 3x 12 minutes at threshold off 3 minutes recovery and then set off on the warm-up jog. There were not many people out for this session despite the fact that there weren't any big events on either. It was the start of the school holidays and perhaps many had left for a short break. Nico and Anis were there together with Bruno, José and a new guy, Sébastien. The warm-up lasted for just under 30 minutes and we found ourselves by the cabin in the forest, ready to begin the exercise.

A little discussion with Nico ensued as to which path would lead us to the car-park in Le Mesnil but José convinced us of the track to take and we set off. Nico and I agreed that we would run at 15km/h or 4'/km since he was running the marathon and wanted to run at marathon pace and I didn't want to tire myself out after Amsterdam. This was soon out of the window though as I told him that we were running too fast and he carried on nonetheless.

3:48, 3:44, 3:36, and then 4:00 pace for the last 200m.

Admittedly, the last kilometre was downhill but we were above threshold. I decided that I would tone down the effort and Nico and José announced that they would only run 2 blocks and not 3.

We set off again and this time Nico took the lead and I couldn't follow if I tried.

3:52, 3:46, 3:43 and then 3:53 pace for the last 200m.

This section was harder as we ran over the bumps and then uphill alongside the railway line in the forest. I decided that I would really ease off for the last block as both Nico and José (although he was already well behind) were pulling the plug. So off we set and I followed Anis and Sébastien :

4:09, 3:55, 3:53

So a great session in which I put some effort in over the 3 blocks and was realled pleased with the result. I felt good running too and I'm definitely back in shape after this summer and the achilles injury.

17.6km all up in 1:25 and just over 60km for the week with another 100km almost of cycling.