Training Log Archive: AC

Full day of panel interviews so squeezed in a run after putting Freya on the bus for school. Very wet and drizzling, but great for running. Slow start but then started to feel much better and felt like I was running strongly. Good run, but then had to scramble back at home to get showered and changed and into the office for a 9am start.

Had a quiet day planned on the home front so decided to head out for a terrain run in Fontainebleau. Very foggy morning down there which meant it wasn't as cold as it has been (there is still ice the puddles and marshes in the forest). Forest was quite damp and was quickly soaked. Bumbled around the first few km trying to remember how to orienteer, but eventually things started to click. Ran on my favourite parts of the map - nice clean rocky hilly terrain, with spongy mossy ground cover. Tough running but could really feel the training effect. A bit tired towards the end but got back to the car in one piece. Great run.

Not so cold today - a balmy 8 degrees - and didn't have too many meetings so managed to get out for a decent run. I don't normally run two days in a row, but felt okay for the first half. The legs started to tighten up in the second half and the last couple of km were a bit of a struggle. But a good run overall and dipped under 49 min for the 10km before jogging back to the office.

Still searching for the ideal hill for hill intervals. Have probably fund it now afte rthis run. Down near Radio France and across the road from the Turkish Embassy is a nice 300m hill with only one minor road crossing. Straight run and solid uphill. Warmed up with a jog through Trocadero and past the tourists, then did 4 intervals, trying to maintain form and get faster over the intervals. Not sure about maintaining form, but did succeed in getting faster - 1.21, 24, 19, 19.

Finished up back at work with 10 minutes on the rowing machine. First go at this apparatus and it was good fun and quite tiring. May have to make this a regular thing (although goodness knows how I will find the time)!

C • momentum 2

Another very cold day, but overcast and light flurries of "almost snow". Great for running if not for the high pollution alert that is currently in place for Paris. Decided to risk it anyway and didn't really taste the pollution or feel adversely affected during the run (or afterwards). Continued teh resumption of intervals and did 5 x 3 mins H with 1 min E, followed by 3 x 1 min H with 1 min E. Good pace for the most part (4.03, 14, 12, 8, 20 per km for the 3 min intervals - last one was up hill :-) - and faster at 3.58, 50, 43 for the 1 min intervals). Jog back to work. Good session - hard work but felt like progress.

Another very cold but clear morning. Heaps of frost around and some dampness on the road made me very cautious about black ice and so took the downhills and corners very conservatively. Having broken three bones in my hands in bike accidents over the past 18 months, I am not keen to push the boundaries at all! This was my first ride for quite a while and it showed. Very slow and sluggish and no power in the legs. Given I have signed up for a three day MTB race in Switzerland with prosseri and prosserh at the end of June, I have some work to do to get into shape! Stayed upright and no major scares, so mission accomplished.

Dropped Freya off at her tennis lesson and headed off for a short run. Very very cold with lots of frost and ice around (both lakes in the Bois are well and truly iced over) and consequently really struggled to get going, despite being very rugged up. But gradually got into it and was moving reasonably well by the end of the run, finishing up with a nice quick km. Glad to jump into a nice hot shower at the end ...

Having taken yesterday off in order to give my aching knees an extra day of rest, I was looking forward to getting out for a run. Crisp and cold (around 2 degrees) and crystal clear weather - perfect for a run. Have been meaning to get back into some hill training again in anticipation of a number of O events coming up in February and March. So headed down towards teh Seine where there is quite a steep little hill that I thought might be useful for hill repeats. It is about 250m in length and starts out relatively gentle and then turns a corner at around 40 seconds and ramps up quite steeply. I managed four of these and decided that was enough on the first go at these for a while. Jogged home. Good session.

Very clear, crisp and cold day (around 1 deg) with a light breeze - great running conditions if well-rugged up. Was feeling pretty tired from the start but still had a go at a tempo run in the middle of this run. Had planned to do 3km at around 4.15-20, but bailed after 2km as was really struggling. Jogged back to work and had a nice warm shower. Felt much better for stopping :-)

Post-meeting run in the dark around the Yas Island Mall and, inadvertently, around and under the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 track. Good run and nice to stretch the legs after a day of meetings (and on a Sunday at that!). Felt pretty good for the most part, but navigation proved a challenge. I missed a turn to take a simple road back to the hotel, but I am still not convinced that there was actually a road junction - it seems to be a bit ambiguous on the GPS track. Anyway, had to stop and ask a security guard at the entrance to the F1 facility how to get through to the other side where the hotels were located. Was told that it is a long way and very complicated - I don't think he saw too many silly runners at that time of night in the middle of nowhere. Anyway, it was a bit complicated and a bit long, but not too bad. The F1 facility is very impressive, and massive. Huge grandstands and car parks, with tunnels underneath the track on a couple of occasions. I noticed that the big lights were on around the track and then started seeing cyclists zooming along (many with triathlon bars) and, once I got a bit closer, saw runners on the track as well. Turns out the track is opened up once a week for people to exercise on the track, for free, and tonight was the night. Shame I did not know about it as it would have been very cool to do a couple of laps of a F1 circuit on foot! That will teach me to do more research before going to places in order to suss out such opportunities! On this occasion, I was way too tired to try and hunt down the entrance and get on to the track. next time perhaps (was last in Abu Dhabi about four years ago, so I am not likely to go there again any time soon).

Fresh off the overnight flight from Paris to Abu Dhabi, which took just under 6 hours so not much in the way of sleep. Hotel room wasn't ready (hardly surprising at 7.30am :-)) and so decided to head out for a run rather than just hang around the hotel lobby. Not many options out here on Yas Island so a very boring out and back route. Spiced it up with a set of intervals on the way back - the first for 2017, and the first for a few weeks. Did 1-2-3-2-1-2-1 min H with 1 min jog between each. Felt very heavy and slow but managed a decent pace nonetheless (around 4.10-4.15/km, with a couple of faster intervals thrown in at the end), a bit surprising given the lack of speed work recently.

Followed up with a session in the hotel gym (room still wasn't ready) lifting a few weights and stretching. Then had a nice session in the sauna. Room finally ready and so had a chance to relax a little before heading off to the meeting (which is the purpose of the weekend trip to Abu Dhabi).

Saw quite a few triathletes out on the bike. Looks like Abu Dhabi wouuld be a great place to train for the bike - lovely wide roads, not many cars - at least in the "winter" months (23 deg during the run - very pleasant, esp after cold Paris).

Easy run with a few folks from work. Not too cold or damp, unlike the rest of Europe.

Woke up really early - didn't mean to, but work started intruding on my dreams around 5am and I gave up any thought of getting further decent sleep. So got up and donned the gear for a shuffle around the Bois in the dark and drizzle. Used the headlamp so was able to get off the main roads. All pretty quiet in the woods - too cold and wet for the sex trade to be particularly active! Not a great run as was still feeling full from last night's dinner....

Dropped Freya off at her tennis lesson and headed off for a run on a very cold and grey day. Felt like crap from teh beginning and the run never really caught on fire. Pulled the pin after a few km and headed home for a nice warm shower. Sometimes it just doesn't happen ...

Solid morning run, listening to George Michael's greatest hits, of which he had quite a few. Not quite so cold but was well rugged up nonetheless. Quite a few people out running this morning - a combination of New Year's resolutions and the forthcoming Paris Marathon (first weekend in April) I am guessing. Good run.

New Year's day run with Abi, who was visiting from London with the family. Good solid run on a very cold morning with light flakes of snow drifting down on occasion.