Training Log Archive: AC

Long easy warm up with strides.

Nationale South West - 3rd place, H55. Very different terrain to yesterday's green monster. While there were still large swathes of green on the map, there was a lot of white as well, and very pleasant white at that - complex low sand dunes with good runnability and reasonable visibility. Feeling pretty good despite yesterday's debacle, but still started quite conservatively by taking a longer track run to get to #1. Then a tricky medium lef through low visibility complex dunes which I spiked nicely. #3 was a long leg with a fair bit of track running with corner cutting through lovely open sand dune forest. No problem with #4 which was a short leg in open sand dune. Then a long leg across the map into the semi-open sand dunes next to the sea. A lot of track running here and so took the opportunity to stride out a bit while also cutting corners where I could through open forest. No trouble finding the post as I came in on a slightly longer circuitous approach from the beach side rather than trying to crash through the green on the direct line. Had some trouble on the next leg to #6. Missed it by 30m on the first pass as it was on the other side of a small dune. Circled around a bit higher on the slope before coming back to find it second time round. Binned 1 1/2 to 2 minutes there unfortunately. Cleanly hit a couple of short tricky controls in very nice runnable open sand dune forest then gunned it down a long track run for the last couple of controls.

Finished in 3rd place, 1.23 down on 2nd (blast that #6) and 2.51 from 1st (former French elite runner who is returning to the sport - very very quick runner and this was a real runner's course). The advertised length was 5.4 km but Garmin had me doing 7.4 with all the deviations and track running. Very pleased with the run as made only a relatively minor error (but a big one in the scheme of things i guess) and ran hard the whole way - no sign of fatigue or having heart issues or running out of energy. The 2 guys who beat me had to work hard and, while I might have snuck into 2nd place with a cleaner run, I can't complain. This is the best race I have 1st or had since the French Champs last August. Won a bottle of wine for my effort - the winner got a box of 2 dozen of the local oysters! Aren't French O events great!

C • top stuff 2

Middle distance race on Ile d'Oleron down near La Rochelle. Map was completely green with slivers of white forest (which were lovely to run through for 30 secs) and huge track network and very high and steep mature dunes. Technique was to run a long way round tracks and dive into the forest to search for the control. Got off to a bad start by misreading the way from the start triangle and headed off on the wrong track. Correcting for this involved a 3 contour climb up a massive sand dune to get to the correct track. Second control was no better as overshot the control and had to backtrack through thick green crap. So nearly 5 minutes lost in first two controls and then decided to settle down after that and just jog around. Hit the rest okay with the exception of #11 where I lost another three minutes from not understanding the map very well (and running about 10m from the control on 2 occasions - veg just too thick so really need to be spot on to get the control. Finished 7 minutes down on the winner who had a perfect run apparently. Hope to do a lot better in the big Nationale race tomorrow - same type of terrain except not so steep (2.5m contours and only 50m of climb on the course).

Easy morning run. Very cool and crisp start to the day, but pleasant enough run. Nice sunrise with a big red sun - colour probably a result of the air pollution!

Joined the group of Frenchies for another interval session. THey are all preparing for the Paris Marathon in 10 days time so just a couple of them did 20 x 30s H / 30s E. Dod ok for the first 10, struggled for the next 5 and really struggled for the next 4 and stormed home on the final one. Spent the time chasing a pretty speedy young guy in a yellow NY Marathon running jacket - nice to have company for intervals as it makes a huge difference to motivation and to pushing oneself.

Decided to see if a longer warm up would make a difference to the race today. So headed out for a decent jog with several strides towards the end. Found a beautiful part of Fontainebleau forest with a mass of wild daffodils - yellow amongst the trees as far as the eye could see. Truly spectacular. Went back after the race and picked a bunch to take home for the girls.

First of the Regionale races. This one was in Fontainebleau at Rocher Desmoiselle. Very rocky mixed with flat featureless terrain. Started out well enough and hit the first 10 controls okay with only a bit of minor messing around in the control circle (e.g. standing 5m from a control and not seeing it because it was behind a rock or a tree or in a pit). Then started to get tired and making errors, missing 2 controls in the flat featureless terrain. THey were bingo controls, but could have been spiked with a bit of care. On the first, I got confused by the tracks and didn't realize I had crossed one so was searching in the wrong forest compartment. The second was really tucked away in a pit and I ran past it several times before I saw someone pop in and out of it. Wasted a good 7-8 minutes on these two controls. THen got pretty tired and just managed a jog for the rest of the course. A bit disappointed in the effort in the end.

Morning interval running is always a mixed blessing. Good to get it out of the way for the day, but body takes a while to warm up and get going and the pace is never that high, even if the effort is there :-). No exception this morning, but no choice other than to do some intervals this morning after a tough week of meetings and work. After a 15 min warm-up, did 11 x 1 min H - the first 6 were up a middling incline in the Bois that took 1.40 to jog back down. The rest were done with a 1 min rest between. Good session in the end.

Snuck out of an all day meeting for an early lunchtime run with Nick C. Good pace on a pleasant day through the Bois. Felt a bit out of breath towards the end and had to slow down a little.

Out late this morning as Lisa had dibs on first turn to exercise today. Relatively warm at 18 deg and beautifully sunny. Struggled a bit after the exercise the last couple of days and legs felt quite heavy. Out to Parc de St Cloud and ran the hills quite hard. Half of Paris was out to enjoy the sun and so plenty of people out and about, including lots of runners, many of whom would have been getting in their last long runs before the Paris Marathon in three weeks. Looking forward to being a spectator at that one!

Cloudy cool morning but, as it hasn't rained for quite a while, the tracks were nice and dry. Good ride out to Parc de St Cloud. Did quite a few hills. Feeling pretty strong from the indoor trainer sessions and felt like I could get up the hills at a good steady pace without killing the legs. Rode back quite quickly and pleased with the ride.

Back into the pool while Freya has her lesson. Good swim, although have trouble swimming more than 200m straight - not enough swimming-specific strength.

Good solid run with Abi, who was over for work. Through the Bois and down to the Seine. Lovely low mist with the sun coming up through it - very picturesque. Pretty good pace early on then I started to flag in last third and pace slowed down. Great to catch up and to share the run!

A tough end to a tough week at work so jumped on the indoor trainer to work out some stress. Not sure that it worked, but at least feel more tired!

Joined up with Jon and a group of French runners to do some interval work. Legs felt very heavy after Sunday's efforts, but gave it a go anyway. Tough running, but glad I did it. After a very easy warm-up, we did 5 x 3 min H / 1 min E. The pollution was quite bad and I really felt quite breathless - at least I used the pollution as an excuse. Pace died away quite quickly, but the effort was there (4.13, 05, 19, 24, 28). Pretty knackered afterwards but pleased with the effort. Good to be running with others on these hard sessions.

easy warm up for the Nationale. Right knee feeling distinctly dodgy, but should be okay.

Early start time for this first big race of the year. Glorious day in the offing, but a chilly start. After a good warm-up (although right knee quite sore), took a poor route choice out of the start gate. Choice was left or right with the former being down and around a hill with a climb to the control, and right being up a steep hill and along the plateau to drop in to the control from above. Chose to go right and found the going quite tough along the plateau. But got the control okay after a bit of a struggle through the rock and heather. Second control okay, then a long leg to #3. Took the right option this time and execution was okay. Not really fast, but safe enough and found the potentially dangerous control (rock on a steep and rocky hillside) okay. After that it was mostly fine - not fast but solid, with a couple of minutes binned on #7, which was a re-entrant between two huge boulders in a massive boulder field - until about 4km when started to run out of steam and really struggle with a lack of energy and started to slow down a lot, barely managing a slow jog. Very slow through the spectator controls and then plodded through the very technical finishing loop in low growth forest, which was probably just as well as several who ran quickly cam unstuck. Did manage a big sprint over the last two controls and to the finish as I had caught 5 minutes on last year's H55 champion, which made up for feeling crappy for the last half of the course. Course length was advertised as 5.9k and I ran 7.65k with all the route choice.

Finished second, 1 1/2 mins down on the winner. Pretty good result considering the time losses and the slowdown. There was a bit of a pack behind me with about 10 runners within 5 minutes. With a decent run, I could have easily done 53-54 minutes. Was a bit disappointed with the effort and with the lack of energy after 35-40 mins. Not sure what is going on there as it has been a feature of my races the last year. Obvious answer is that I am starting too fast, but I am pretty sure that is not the case. I suspect that I need to do more long intervals, rather than the 1-3 minute intervals that I have largely been focussing on.

[MONDAY UPDATE. Have had a look at the splits and not a pretty sight. Bleeding time on most legs and the cost of the poor route choices and minor errors was quite high. Overall, around 6 minutes binned, and that doesn't take into account the slowing down over the last part of the course. So clearly a lot of O technical work to be done to get back up to scratch. To top things off, inside of right knee very sore this morning. Will need to go see someone about this.]

C • not good 3

Was so disappointed with my O race that I went out for a MTB ride in Fontainebleau - had brought down the bike and the gear just in case. Temperature was up to 19 degrees and glorious still sunny day. Tracks were a bit sandy, but mostly pretty firm. Just stuck to fire trails as I do not know where the mtb tracks in Fontainebleau might be and the walking tracks are just too hard to cycle on for the most part. Just cruised around, stopping regularly to check the map and try and make sense of the maze of tracks. Used the new Garmin 500 for the first time and it was pretty cool. Legs tired at the end.

Easy run to loosen up the legs before tomorrow. Absolutley magnificent morning - sunny and cool with the promise of an 18 degree day. Shame to not be out for longer.

First real day of spring in Paris - glorious sunny still day, with temp of 14 degrees. Shorts and t-shirt for the first time in Paris for quite a while. In an effort to get legs ready for the weekend, did 9 x 1 min H / 1 min E. Felt very heavy and slow, but pace was quite good (4.14, 04, 01, 02, 31 (traffic issues), 3.55, 3.57, 3.56, 4.01) so must be some strength in the legs somewhere (doing intervals in the middle of the day rather than in the morning must make a difference).

First day of decent weather and we get the first high pollution warning day. THis time of year is terrible for runners in Paris as we tend to get high levels of PM adn ground level ozone on sunny and still days. Am having increasing trouble with this the last few years and have had to resort to steroids to keep lungs functioning on the run (no drug testing for the oldies :-)).

Snuck out for a quick little run between meetings. Had some company in the form of Justin, who is a faster runner than me (not hard these days) and so we cranked out a quick 3km before I had to cry uncle and get him to slow down for the last couple of km. Bit of a reality check as I thought I was in good shape. But legs and arms felt heavy and really didn't have the energy for a quick run. No warm-up didn't help - just started out the door and missed my usual shuffle for 1+km! Will need to rest up this week.

Second terrain run for the weekend, down at Fontainebleau on the same map as yesterday. Gorgeous day and persuaded the family to come down to the forest for an outing. The girls played on the rocks while I went off for a steady terrain run, not following any specific course, just going where the forest seemed nice and maintaining loose contact with the map. The beautiful weather brought out lots of people - walkers, trail runners, rock climbers, mtb'ers - and it was a very pleasant experience to be out there as well. Felt good on the run - not fast but strong. Tough running in the very spongy soft mossy forest. Have probably dine as much as I can for next weekend's race. Will have an easy week and see how I come up for Sunday.

Easy spin while dinner was cooking. Watched a QI episode on "jargon" which was hilarious - very clever people on that show.

Early morning terrain run on one of the best maps in Fontainebleau as preparation for next week's Nationale. Left home at 6.30am in the rain and dark wondering how sensible this plan was, but the rain stopped and it got light enough by the time I got to the forest to make for a beautiful run. Forest was very damp underfoot but none coming from the sky. The moss on the ground glowed iridescent green in the early morning light - very beautiful. This was a kind of fartlek run with quite a few stops to check the map in this complex rocky terrain and to make sure I was at the "control sites" (no tapes so had to try and pick big features for the sites but even then it took a bit of time to verify). Tried to run strongly between stops and I mostly felt pretty strong, although a bit slow up the hills. Still not quite reading the map as well as I would like and tried to focus on reading the contours rather than the rock and on taking good compass bearings. All in all, a great morning's exercise.