Training Log Archive: AC

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!

Nice hilly run in Parc de St Cloud. Drove most of the way there to reduce the amount of dead, boring running. Tried to keep up a decent pace going up the hills and mostly succeeded. The Parc was quite busy with a big fun run being held for a cancer charity.

Warm up jog on way to the parkrun. Glorious morning for a run ...

Parkrun #2. It wasn't supposed to be this way - 30 secs slower than last week! After a good couple of runs during the week, I felt in pretty good shape and was hoping for a faster time than last week. No really fast guys here this week as the Paris-Versailles 16k race is on tomorrow. But quite a decent turn out all the same, with teh usual smattering of overseaas visitors taking in a bit of Parkrun tourism - this time from UK, Sweden, SouthAfrica, Australia (the Director of the Sydney Parkrun no less!).

Started okay and was going along steadily up to 2km (4.20, 4.24 for the first couple of km). Passed a couple of the early fast starters and was feeling pretty good. Then my arms started to get very sore and heavy and tired, and started slowing down badly up the hill around 2.2-2.5km. Not feeling great at all and felt like I was really just jogging at that stage (I was just jogging!). A UK guy in a black shirt came past me there and he looked like he was going really slowly, which just depressed me. Picked it up a bit in last km and started making up a bit of ground, but it was a hopeless task and so just struggled in to the finish.

Bit disappointing, but was traveling for work last week and have had quite a few late nights. Should have lined these excuses up before Saturday morning. But will re-focus for the next one and perhaps do some more 1km intervals to try and get some speed endurance going ...

Jog home.

In Dublin for work and headed out for a morning run around some of the tourist sights of the city. Quick lap around the quadrangles of Trinity College to check out where they keep the Book of Kells (which I visited later in the day before heading to the airport), Dublin Castle (not really a castle, but more an old building), a nice park, Temple Bar area (still a few revelers heading home). Glorious autumn morning for it. Nice town but horrendous traffic jams, even at 7am. Felt pretty good for a morning run.

First crack at a Mona fartlek session. Suspect I didn't do it correctly as it didn't feel too bad. Perhaps just not running hard enough in the hard bits and slowing up too much in the rests.

Lazy Sunday morning lying around and catching up on Facetime with Australia-based family meant for a late run. Cooler weather very welcome and lots of runners out today. Headed through the Bois and down to the Seine to see how high the river is running these days (not very high as it turned out). Felt okay for the most part, esp considering this is my third day of running in a row - first time I have done that for a while.

Parkrun Bois de Boulogne. First crack at the Park run and a good reminder of just how hard a 5km race can be. Started off fairly conservatively and let all the really fast people go (there were a few sub-19 minute runners off the front). Started picking up a couple of runners after 1km and then settled in about 20m behind blue-shirt guy. The course has a couple of rises in it that seemed to slow me up considerably and really struggled there. Blue-shirt guy actually stopped a couple of times for a short walk and I still couldn't seem to make inroads into his lead on me! Very disconcerting. Finished up a bit faster. So have set a benchmark and will see how I can improve this over time.

About 30 people in the run, with a solid representation from Anglo-Saxon countries - UK, Australia, NZ. Great atmosphere and will certainly be back.

C • great 3

Easy warm down jog with Doug.

Easy lunchtime run around the Bois. A lot cooler today with the benefit of some overnight rain.

Evening jog at a very humid end of the day, down to a gym near Parc des Princes to collect Freya from her hip-hop and break dance classes. There was a big football (soccer) match between Arsenal and Paris St Germain in the Parc stadium and so there were police everywhere and heaps of fans milling around. Not a bad atmosphere, but one had the feeling that it wouldn't take much to get things going between the fans. Good to collect F and get out of the area. Score just after half time was PSG 1 - Arsenal 0.

Update on London City Race. Turns out I came 14th - a few late starters bumped me down the list. The front three were all in around 40 minutes, but then a real traffic jam from 41 minutes onwards. Looking at the splits, I lost a full minute at #1 and then another 1 1/2 minutes at #11. I also seem to have had a slow patch from half way with the leg times just dropping from in the top 10 to more in the 30s. So fitness clearly telling there, but picked up over last third of the course. The last leg was also annoying with 20s dropped there. So a total of three minutes just in silly mistakes. This would not have got me down to the top three, but certainly in amongst the top 6-7 places. Next year!

Headed out for an afternoon spin. Out to Versailles and a quick loop in the countryside beyond. Lots of traffic with lots of Sunday drivers and associated behaviour. Legs a bit tired after yesterday's race.

London City Race. Another fun race. Cool but cloudy and humid, with a bit of rain around. Didn't rain during my run or when I took Freya around the children's course, but was pretty soaked as a result of teh humidity by the end of the run. Good to catch up with Blair and Chris Norwood, as well as regulars Nick Campbell and Jane Mockford.

Race off to a bad start when I got quite confused from the start triangle. Wasn't "in the zone" at all at the start and had trouble first finding the start triangle and then orienting the map correctly. Figured I had to go around the big hill just near the start and so headed uphill. This strategy worked in terms of getting to #1, but still lost at least 30-40 secs. Settled into a good rhythm after that and was really enjoying the run. Didn't fall into a clever trap at #4. Picked a good route on the long leg to 9 from one side of the map to the other, but didn't execute well in the middle of the leg when I got confused at the same hill that was on the way to #1 and ran past a small path I had to take. Doubled back quickly, but still cost 20 secs. Made another error at #11 when I missed a narrow alley - another 50-60 secs dropped. Fine for the rest of the run, but started to run out of steam and energy. Lost another few secs at the end when didn't concentrate on the last control - very annoying.

Finished up in 10th place out of around 170 starters, around 4.30 behind the winner. I don't think I could have gone that fast, but was certainly within sight of 3rd place with an error-free run. Definitely will be back next year!

C • good result 4

Event: London City Race Weekend
 

A bit of a cooler day and headed into the Bois (just for a change!) for a short run - time was constrained due to work pressures. Did a 2.5km warm-up then stepped it up for 2km at a steady tempo, averaging 4.30/km. easy jog to warm down. Felt pretty heavy and a bit tired. May be coming down with a cold as my daughter is celebrating her first week back at school by bringing home a nasty cold :-(.

Lunchtime interval session on a cloudy and very humid day. Wasn't really feeling up for it, but nevertheless id 10 x 90s H / 60s E. Pace jumped around a bit, but tried to keep the effort steadily increasing over the course of the run. fastest was 4.04, but mostly in the 4.15-4.22 range. Pretty tired by the end but still running strongly.

Decided I needed a change of scenery, so drove most of the way towards Parc de St Cloud, parked and ran from there. Around 2km jog to the start of the Parc and then a hilly run up to the end of the Parc before a nice downhill run back to the car. Very humid but not too hot. Legs felt pretty weak going up the hills, but finished up okay.

Met up with Jared and accompanied him oon the first part of his longer ride. Hit the hills pretty hard during this first part and certainly couldn't have gone much further at his pace. Once I turned off and left him to his long ride, I settled into a more manageable pace and cruised on hom the long way. Feeling pretty tired by the end. Shame to have lost so much cycling fitness the last few months...

Back in Stockholm for the second time this week. Got out for an easy early morning run. Nice to jog around the old town. Felt okay.