Out and about

I spent most of the week travelling on business and as alaways I packed my running kit and trainers and made the most of the places and hotels where I was staying.

This week was mostly Lyons and Marseille :

Tuesday 12th June: my favourite run to Dardilly and back in the evening. Since I had no pressing obligation I was able to get to the very top of the hill in Dardilly beyond the church and admire the view. 15km all up and a very fast return which saw me completing the last kilometre in 3:24. Wish I could keep this up for 10km.

Thursday 14 th June : Marseill next to the airport and a very disappointing run where I struggled to find a decent road away from the traffic to run. I spent most of my time beside the airport running down the side of the runway. I'm sure there are better places to run around Vitrolles. 11 km all up in the early hours of the morning.

Friday 15th June: Headed back up to Dardilly and then explored slightly to the west getting lost in the fields and forest between Dardilly and Charbonnières. Lovely run and some steep hill training. 11 km all up at 6:00 am.

Saturday 16th June : trail training again with Nico, Pascal, Laurence, Katia and Sandra. Same route as last week up around Joyenval and along the golf course having passed under the A13. 25 km all up at a very steady pace.

Sunday 17th June: dopped Laurence off for her trip to the Auvergne and met up with Nico and his family and friends in Creteil for the marathon relay. Weather was milder than previous years and I managed to run a 8.5 leg in 31:29 before finishing with the others. A lovely meal and great fun chatting and messing around with the group. 16km in total for the day.

A total of 80 km for the week.

Catching up

It's been a busy time and I've found it hard to wite my blog these last few weeks. Whenever I'm not working or running I'm sleeping and trying to recover from work and running. It's definitely a Catch 22 situation. Joseph Heller eat your heart out!

Main objective at the moment is putting in the distance for the CCC at the end of August. The second objective is doing well in the club outing and beating Nico in the process. In order to achieve both of these I've been trying to complete 100 km weeks and this was the first.

Friday 8th June was on my own around town for 11km.

Saturday 9th June was running with Laurence around a long trail route around Marly forest that I'd run with François a week earlier. 25 km all up as I couldn't be bothered to run back this time

Sunday 10th June was the club event and I'd volunteered to cycle ahead of the race. To get my kilometres in I ran 19km early Sunday morning and then hopped on the bike to the St Germain terrasse where the race was set. I cycled ahead of Mustapha as he ran to victory in 30:34. A very pleasant pace to cycle at !

100 km all up for the week.

Last week's training

Not much to report for last week but I did manage to get to both club sessions (despite the heavy workload - but I've already mentioned that ;) ). It's amazing how I can manage to slip out of work to go for a run but I have a lot more trouble sitting down to write the blog. Anyway, ...

It was good to see Nico at both sessions and on Tuesday there was some attempt to get people to run 4x8' at marathon speed (José's idea in preparation for the ultra-trails coming up soon). Nico and Tom set the pace at the front and José, Nat, Simon and I followed. I pushed on to catch Nico and Tom and was running around 3:50 pace for the first interval and then 3:55 pace for the second. I didn't run any more intervals after these first two as both Tom and Nico stopped at this point and with the heat and the exhaustion, this was enough to convince me to throw in the towel too.

Thursday was more relaxing with a block of 15 x 30/30 organised by Thierry. With the upcoming race on Sunday, neither Nico or I were very motivated to make any effort and Gérald was injured, so relaxing behind. We only put a little spurt on when we took a shortcut and caught Thierry and Simon at the front and pushed them for the last 4 reps.

Saturday saw me out with Laurence and a couple of her friends as we ran towards Cora at an easy pace (5:45 average) and managed 13km before breakfast.

A very easy week which I'll need to build on now to start my marathon training shortly.

Weak week 11

After last Sunday's race, it was always going to be hard to fin the motivation immediately to get going again. This wasn't made any easier by a taxing week at work and having to travel to Madrid for business. So Monday morning it was up really early to catch a plane rather than go for my usual morning run.

Tuesday 16/03 - Finished the business presentation and decided to make the most of the clement Madrid weather and the sunshine to go for a run in the evening. After 2 days of inactivity, I had loads of running in my legs. I thought I was running easily until I looked at the Garmin to see that I was running at 4:15 per km pace. I headed out on the main road of town looking for some countryside and ended up at the airport ! I ran around the perimeter of the airport for 5km and then turned back. 10km all up in 43:20 and tired by the end.

Wednesday - Got up early to use the treadmill and found that it was already occupied. Did a little cycling on the machine and then jumped on the treadmill when it was free. Managed 6 km at 13km/h as a recovery run.

Thursday - Back at home and an early start to do the marathon schedule for the day: 15 x 200m in 43 seconds. 200m recovery. An easy enough plan but it was hard enough to fin the speed at the start of the session. Fastest 200m in 38 seconds but most around the 40 second mark. 12 km all up for the run in 55:16.

Friday - early morning recovery run. Steady pace just to get the tiredness out of my legs. Not easy as the events of the week had been tiring and the late nights and early morning were beginning to take their toll. 13 km all up in 56:53.

Saturday - back to Cora by myself as Andy and Nick were both indisposed. I took it very calmly to begin with and then got into a rhythm of about 4:20 per km. Tired again by the end of the run, the half-marathon really drained me and the exertions were hard going. 15 km in 1:08:34 or an average of 4:30 per km.

Ended the week with a total mileage of just over 80km. Not bad considering I didn't manage a long run on the Sunday.

Wobbly week 10

Well the week started well enough but unfortunately it went downhill, almost pear-shaped from Tuesday onwards.

So to give you all the details, how did the week go exactly ?

Sunday 7th March - An easy Sunday run was planned for the club since most of the members were either running the Paris half-marathon or the Rueil half-marathon (and both races turned into a bit of a farce). I ran across to the clubhouse, catching up with Nick, back from his week skiing, along the way and had a chat together. We got to the clubhouse, only to find a very small turnout and no trainer. Instead of chickening out and doing the easy option of a jog around the route towards the railway track at Maisons Laffitte, we maintained the initial programme of some intervals 12', 10', 8', 6' off 3 minutes rest. I ran from the front for a change as Nico, José, Thierry, Bruno, Mireille etc. were all absent. I had Nick and Jean-Claude for company and I managed to run the intervals well without pushing it to the limit. We all ran back to the club and I ran an extra 4 km loop with Laurence before running back through the forst to home. 2h40 all up and 32km. A good long run and I needed a nap in the afternoon to recover.

Monday - skived as had to get to work early.

Tuesday - marathon schedule interval training planned for the day. 8 x 800m off 300m rest. The 800m were to be run in 3:10. I set out early and started the session after 1km warm-up. The first interval was run in 3:07 and I then improved on this for the following. Intervals went as follows: 3:07, 3:01, 3:05, 3:03, 3:02, 2:57, 3:06, 2:59. Good session despite the freezing cold. 12.6k in 56:09.

Wednesday - recovery run. Left ankle was playing up from the start. I had to stop a couple of times to stretch it and manipulate it to ease the pain. Every time I landed on my left foot it sent a jarring pain through my ankle causing me to reduce my stride and slow the pace. No fun at all and I was almost in tears with the pain and frustration. 10.4k in 48:14. Felt lousy.

Thursday - another recovery run to see if the ankle was better. It was less painful at the start but I could still feel it and had to shorten my stride to run. It was still bothering me and this showed in the time. 10.2k in 49:50. I had to stop running in the last 200m as the pain returned full blast. Decided that the time had come to change my trainers and to not run before Sunday's race.

Saturday - a massage session at Chambourcy. Fully appreciated a gentle rub down of the legs and some manipulation on the ankles. He plugged the Compex on to my thighs for the end part of the session sending the muscles into spasms in different rhythms and speeds. Quite interesting. I think I would have preferred a harder rub down, but great anyway. No shoes from the Marathonien at Sartrouville in the morning: Mizuno Wave Ultima. Felt good to run around the block in. Will see how they work out over the next few training sessions.

66k for the week so a little less mileage this week to taper for Sunday's race.

Week 9

So much for the interesting titles on the messages I'm posting at the moment. I'm into my 5th week of marathon training and I'm beginning to feel the benefits of the interval sessions and the increase in the weekly mileage. So what happened this week:

Sunday 28/2 - woke up at 6:00 am to hear the storm that had arrived from the west coast. Wind was blowing at well over 100km/h and I was worried that we were going to lose the roof or at least most of the tiles. Laurence decided that the wind was far too dangerous for anyone with half a brain to go running and she preferred to stay in bed. Marathon training has obviously had some serious effects on my mental capacity and I decided that wind or no wind, I would go running with the club. When I arrived I saw that plenty of other runners were affected by the same conditions as myself, and had decided to go running too. However, just to show that we're not completely mad we decided to run along the roads through the forest and not along the paths as initially intended. I ran with Miguel, Nico and Nabil and we headed a group of 20 runners who wanted to do 1:40 with a 12', 15', 12' interval session off 3' recovery. Nico soon took the lead and I struggled to keep up with Miguel alongside. It was tough going up the hill to the top of Princess Road and then along towards St Gemme with the wind in our faces. At times, it was almost as though we were running on the spot. I felt heavy at the end of the first session as I'd eaten too much at the restaurant the night before. The second session we turned left and had the wind behind us now in places. We began to fly: Nico was still in front, but not by much and I was second just ahead of Miguel. I eased off a little towards the end and Nabil came past. Final session saw us ending down Princess Road with a following wind. Same positions with Nico in front and Miguel was just behind me, so close that he caught my foot at one point and almost sent me flying. Great workout. Running at around 3:50 pace on the flat, and got up to 3:24 down the hill at the end. 20.3 k all up in 1:41.

Monday - Recovery run through the park early morning. 11.1 k in 50:49. Nice to take it easy.

Tuesday - Same route as Monday through park at same time. Programme was to run 3km in 12' then 2km in 8' off 3' rest. I ran 2.5k to warm up then ran my first 3k. I had problems getting up to speed to begin with but finished overall in 11:59 (4:03, 4:02, 3:54) then ran 2k well under target in 7:43 (3:46, 3:57). 49:26 for total circuit.

Wednesday - Recovery run over a slightly longer distance as I added in a loop though the main street in the park (Avenue Albine). 13.6k in 1:01. Another good run.

Thursday - the day I'd been dreading. The schedule stated 20x500m in 2:10 off 300m rest. I wasn't bothered about the speed of the intervals, but the total distance (at least 16k with a warm-up and warm down on top) was excessive before work. I kept the intervals and reduced the recovery to 200m. Intervals went well with first in 2:07, then another 4 at 2:00 then the remainder at between 1:55 - 1:58. Last interval in 1:48. Total distance of 16.1 km (1km warm-up and 1k warm down) in 1:10

Saturday - Cora by myself as Nick and Andy were on holiday and Laurence was running with a friend. Set off easily enough and then as I got over the other side of the railway line I caught up with another runner just slower than me. He upped the pace and we ran together to the lake. I felt great, having had a rest day on Friday and I ran very easily at 4:15 - 4:20 pace. He stopped at Cora and I carried on pushing the pace a little harder to get to 4:07. Finished the run in 1:04, which is probably the fastest I've ever run this course. Average pace at 4:18, due to the slowish start.

87.3 km for the week so increasing the mileage steadily. Feeling good and looking forward to the next big test in Rambouillet next week over the half-marathon there. Nico is running so there should be some tough competition.

A quick mention to Fabrice, who set the pace to beat running 1:22:35 at Paris today. Congratulations to Paul too who ran 1:29:37 in the same race. Anne, Hélène and Brigitte also ran but had a few more complaints regarding the organisation and especially the finish, where some runners struggled to cross the line to have their times recorded. The organisers, ASO, are under fire on the forums for their poor organisation now.

Week 8

Another week and more pain. It's definitely getting harder but I'm beginning to feel the benefits (more about that later). So what happened this week.

No running Monday as I was in Lyons for the day and had to start early.

Tuesday - 8 x 1km interval session first thing in the morning. It's been a little warmer this week so not quite such an effort to get out and go running but the thought of these intervals was not a huge motivator. After a short warm-up, I ran each km interval in between 3:49 to 3:52. This is not quite 10k speed but for an interval session at this time in the morning, it wasn't bad going. 15km in just under 1:09.

Wednesday - Only early morning runs during the week so I won't go on about how hard these are, how tired I feel, how dark it is, how lonely I feel, ... OK I'll stop now. Recovery run this morning. Most pleasant 13.7km in just over an hour. Felt good to enjoy a run.

Thursday - Short VMA session planned this morning: 12 x 200m in 42-43 seconds off 200 recovery. I started on pace and quickly sped up to run the intervals in 39 - 40 seconds. The idea was to be above marathon pace but not to tire yourself out too quickly. Probabaly could have run a second block of 12 at the same pace or thereabouts so not completely exhausting. Find I recover fairly quickly at the moment. 10.5 km all up in 48 minutes.

Friday - Recovery run. 11.1k in 50 minutes. Very steady and enjoyable. Weather is definitely improving.

Saturday - Since it's the school holidays and both Andy and Nick are away, I arranged with Laurence to run a little later than usual and to go to Cora and around. Laurence was supposed to skip Cora while I ran and caught her up afterwards. As it turned out, Laurence encouraged me to leave her earlier on and that we would meet at Pavillon de la Muette as she wanted to cut the run a little short. I took off at this point and ran hard to Cora at Marathon pace. I managed 8 km at around 4:15 pace (bar the uphill section to Pavillon de la Muette in 4:33) but was feeling full of energy after a good night's sleep. 15.4km all up in 1:14. First time in a long time that I've been able to run so far at marathon pace. I interpreted this as a good sign of the benefits from my recent training and it's encouraging me to push it further.

80 km for the week despite the lack of a long Sunday run due to the cross-country. Pretty good effort.

Week 7

Another week into the training schedule for the marathon. Time passes so quickly at the moment that I find it hard to beliwe that I've already finished the third week's training. So how did it go.

Sunday - Ran over to the club to run the Sunday course with the others. It was a long run with 3 intervals planned of 12', 15', then 12' off 3' rest. I started well, running at about 3:48 pace for the first interval. Second interval was longer and harder and I was at about 3:54 pace when disaster struck and I fell down on the ice going around a corner. I came down hard on my side and totally winded myself and restarting I didn't have the same energy or motivation. The last interval I struggled again as Mireille and Bruno were ahead and I was running now at around 4:04 pace. Ran back home to complete 27 km all up.

Tuesday (skived Monday as tired) - Early morning intervals of 4x 1500m off 3 minute recovery. Ran each interval at 3:52 pace and was very steady. Hard work by myself but pleased to achieve the session as planned.

Wednesday - Early morning recovery run of 11km around the park and down by the town-hall.

Friday - More intervals planned. 10 x 400m off 100m recovery. Schedule stated to run at 1:35 per interval. I ran all in and around 1:31 so at about 16km/h. Didn't feel too tiring a session and probably could have run a few more. 10 km all up.

Saturday - A lovely daylight run (!) with Nick to Cora and back. First sign of sunlight in my training schedule this week which made a change. Weather was slightly warmer too at around 2°C but the ground was still frozen in the forest. 15km all up in 1:11 which is a good average time for the Cora run. Nick is back from injury and beginning to run well again. I felt good this morning so I hope that this bodes well for tomorrow's cross-country race. Can't say that I'm really looking forward to it.

74km all up for the week.

Week 6

Still finding it hard to find the time to write up my runs. Work is extremely intense and if I'm not working then I'm sleeping or running. Life needs to slow down a little if I'm not going to burn out in the next few months.

Still doing the marathon training schedule and I set off on my second week of the training after the cross country race on the Sunday.

Monday morning - 11km around through the park and down by the town-hall at an easy pace. Recovery session after the race.

Tuesday- Long intervals first thing in the morning. Short warm-up followed by 2 x 3km off 400m recovery at marathon pace. Normal route through the park for 10km.

Wednesday - Recovery run around the park for 11km first thing in the morning. Easy pace.

Thursday - Club session which had been officially cancelled but for which 20 odd people turned up anyway. Warm up around St Germain followed by 6 x 1000m off 2 minutes recovery around the outside of the stadium. Nico, José, Thierry were ahead and I couldn't stay with them. Miguel and Bruno were just behind at about my pace but off longer recoveries. Good session. Km intervals were run in 3:34 - 3:45 pace. 14 km all up.

Saturday - Race. Race report follows in separate message.

61 km all up for the week.

Week 5

Another tough week at work and the start of my marathon training for the Paris Marathon in April. Thierry, club president, had created training schedules catering for just about everyone from the club who is entered. Schedules from 2:45 ambitions to 4:00 ambitions.

I started on the 3:00 schedule.

Sunday, I ran with the club again. I ran 5k to the clubhouse and then we set out ot the Joyenval golf course and ran around the back of the course in 2x15 minute workouts off 3 minutes rest. I didn't push too hard on the first interval, letting José, Nico and Thierry go closely followed by another good new runner, Olivier. Olivier owns the running shop in Sartrouville, where I bought Laurence's Gore top for Christmas. I figured that if I let him stay ahead I might get a better deal next time. In fact, with Régis and Miguel pushing me from behind and Olivier coming back towards us on the uphills, I began to move a little quicker. The second interval was even better, as we finished the hills shortly into the interval and then we ran down some slopes and along the flat to finish the session. I felt great and both Régis and Nico finsihed behind me on this one as I caught back my breath and started running easier. A quick run home for a 28k workout.

Tuesday, I began the marathon schedule with 2x2k supposed to be run at threshold - 5 seconds. Threshold is around half-marathon pace so I set out with the intention of running just under 4:00 per km pace. I managed the first interval in 8:05 (due to the slight uphills on this section) and then 7:52 for the second. So pretty pleased overall. 10k in 45:19.

Wednesday recovery 10k in 44:38. Felt easy.

Thursday: club session and 12x1x1 was programmed. Luckily, runners particpating in the corss championships on Sunday were excused and allowed to reduce the number of reps. I ran 8, reaching about 19-20km/h for each interval. It was hard work though and only José, Nico and Adrien were there to push me on. Régis refused to particpate as he didn't want to compromise his race performance in the cross-country.

A shortened, easy run towards Cora with Nick and Andy this morning to wind up the running for the week. 11k only today as I din't want to overdo if before the race tomorrow and Andy and Nick are still both recovering (Andy from the flu and Nick from back pain)

69km for the week.

Week 4

Started the week with a long Sunday run with the club.

Since I know that I'm going to be running the marathon again in the not so distant future, I am determined to build up the mileage again and the main aim is to include a long Sunday run in every week's training schedule until April. I started here by running to the clubhouse and meeting up with everybody there, so that was already 5k under the belt. We set off towards Le Mesnil, retracing virtually the path that I had taken to get there ! I was running with Thierry, Nico, Bruno, Régis and Mireille. I wasn't talking to Régis as I hadn't got over his victory over me at the cross-country championship (just a joke - of course I spoke to him: just to tell him never to do that again!) . The plan was to run 10min, 12min, 14 min at threshold off 3 minutes rest. It was a great session: I tried to hold on to Thierry, José and Nico but they lost me on the second interval and quickly made 50 metres or so of gap which never reduced. On the final interval, we lost Nico and José who turned left instead of right and I fought it out with Régis, Mireille and Bruno and none of us would give in. It was supposed to be threshold but I was well in the red and very glad when we stopped after 14 minutes.

The initial intention was to run back home at the end of the session, but due to the quality of the session and the fact that when we got back to the clubhouse, I'd already run over 25k, I decided to call it a day. Good quality workout.

Monday and Wednesday I went for an early morning run. Monday I took it easy (45:49) but Wednesday I picked up the pace a little (43:25) .

Thursday, I mentioned to get out of work early and make it to the evening club session. 8x800m: I couldn't have chosen a better night. Suffice to say that I ran with Fabrice and Mireille and was glad to hold them both off after a really hard track session. Intervals went as follows:
2:44, 2:49, 2:50, 2:50, 2:51, 2:51, 2:52, 2:50. Boy was I glad to finish. Real hard work and lactic was running high on every interval after the first.

Saturday back to Cora with Nick. Nice run to finish the 15k in 1:12.

75km for the week.

Back again !

The blog is back ! No miserable excuses now as you haven't got time to read them all as you're all far too busy anyway. Suffice to say that I won't be able to write up my blog on a daily basis for the near future but a weekly entry should be feasible.

So what's been happening ?

Well loads really. I had a weak moment a couple of weeks ago and accepted to take a bib for the Paris Marathon in April from an injured runner. Training began in earnest at the start of this week.

But to be sure that I don't miss out any essentials, I'll write up a week by week account for the last 4 weeks.

10th January - 16th January

Ran with the club on Sunday and we ended up doing hills. 12 of them in total for a killer session. I was pleased with my run as Nico and Thierry were only just ahead and Jean-Marc just behind towards the end. 20k all up in 2 hours.

2 early morning runs onTuesday and Thursday around the 10k course alongside the seine then the racecourse back through Maisons Laffitte park and home. Tuesday in 43:10; Thursday in 44:00.

Saturday run with Nick and Andy towards Cora. Cut it short as it was the departmental cross country championships the following day. 11k in 58 minutes so an easy run.

52 k all up for the week.