Training Log Archive: AC

Régionale 3, Marly-le-Roi. Quite a long course today in a pretty mixed forest - some areas of lovely open forest, with large areas of grotty brashings and saplings. Lots of tracks, but with 25 controls there was a bit of track running on the longer legs. Mucked up the first control by not really reading the terrain properly and changing my mind about the route halfway to the control. Not too bad from there on with the exception of 13 (control tucked behind a stump in a very green area) and 18 (a rather overgrown clearing in a green area). Caught up to Didier Groshens in the last half of the course and managed to beat him to the finish - a rare event these days. Pleasing run - not stellar, but managed to run the while way and to finish strongly, and ran up most of the hills.

Had to give the Parkrun a miss as I had to take Freya to her tennis lesson at 9.45. So did a Mona fartlek session instead. Felt surprisingly good given the lack of running the last few days and focused on maintaining a good pace during the intervals and keeping up a slightly higher pace during the rest periods. Seemed to work and managed to cover an extra hundred meters during the 20 minutes.

Interval session of 4 x 1km with 2 min rest between each. Glorious day for a run. Warmed up with a group heading for a longer run, then peeled off and headed back to the little lake in the Bois (paradoxically called Lac Superieur because it is actually higher than the much larger Lac Inferieur, which is right next next door). It is 1.1km around the lake, car-free with a nice gravel path to run on - ideal for 1k intervals. Had been planning to do them at around 4.15/k, but did the first one in 4.07 and the second one as well, and it felt okay. The third one was certainly harder, but still managed 4.08. the fourth one hurt quite a bit, but lept it at 4.08. Kept seeing Doug (from work) doing his 500m intervals in the opposite direction around the lake, and then we jogged back to work together when we were all done. A good workout and hope it will start to make a difference to the parkrun races!