Friday 9 April 2010

8.5 miles on the Rhône trail - long tempo

This time I felt we ran well and reasonably hard.

Out for 72 minutes clearing 8.29 miles ave. 8:42.

On the surface poor. However, we only overtook. The Rhône trail will never be a fast run. It is a very difficult trail, narrow in places and you need to jump fallen trees try not to knock on coming runners into the river and so on.

Having read the bumf from the tourist info on the trail I pointed out the artificial reed beds and pools (ideal for pike and local terrapins) the sewage works (water goes back in better than it came out!) and was disapointed not to make it as far as the pipeline bridge, but at 35mins it was time to turn back. Tenke seemed to know every runner we met today.

With the garim powered and not skiing anymore I was delighted to review the statistics that confimed we had climbed (and decended) 1694ft on our 8.29 mile run. And those climbs are so steep that even Tenke was reduced to walking. Net result of these super steep climbs was that I spent 33:10 in Zone 4 and 27:20 in Zone 3 so I am claiming this as a long tempo run. While the speed was not there the sheer steep climbs and technical difficulty was. Where the trail flattened my hrt dropped and the speed increased. Slowest mile was 9:12 due to the massive climb from the river to the top of the bridge which is as near as can be to vertical.

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