6m? in Geneva: Tenke Reps, Mouette missed, stuck on a bus and a storm

Not too sure how far today but it was an adventure and a half.

Out almost too early for the 12:30 Mouette to Geneve Plage P&R where our RV with Tenke was. So we went the long way down to the lake via the Botanical Gardens and the underpass. Aurelien jumped over a 5 foot tree stump just because it was there. I thought the risk was just not worth it. In the end we just made it to the boat on time and with Aurelien leading at pace we had to sprint the last section to make sure we got the boat.

On the other side Tenke was there looking even more uber elite than ever with the cool shades and showing off her tan and belly button piercing - which I've never seen before today.

With my Garmin officially dead and Tenke having the chepo -1 version with no workout facility we came up with 1km on .5km recovery. Aurelien missed the bit about the beep every 500m and we lost him on rep 2 as he thought the first .5km beep was the end of the rep and so he stopped running.

We managed 4 reps through the clouds of bugs on the lake side and Tenke set the 4min per km pace a shade punchier on reps 3 and 4 so I made them 3:54, 3:53, 3:45 and 3:45. Unfortunately, the last one was not fast enough to get us to the ferry stop and we missed the boat back by a about one minute. Aurelien spotted a bus so we tanked it along the dual carriage way - head on to the traffic - to make it to the bus stop after the stop that the bus was at. It waited there for ages. Then we got stuck in traffic on the bridge at the city and so as the thunder started and the sky turned black and the temperature plummeted we headed cross town, via the kebab shop and red light district. A car was reversing into a parking space and so I went around the front thinking I had taken the low risk option as Aurelien went round the back. The guy saw Aurelien and decided to re-adjust his angle and throws the car into forward gear and it leaps straight into my path - I have to jump and sprint at full speed to avoid it smashing into me. As we come over the same road there is a 2 foot high crash barrier for the cars which I jump - amazingly the tree stump jumper fluffs this one and stumbles narrowly avoiding going flying. Nearly back to the office and the rain is monsoon style and I kick for home coming out of the big tunnel below the office as all the suits stand at the tunnel exit wishing they had an umbrella with them.

Phew what an adventure!

6x 1km reps

Paul was my coach at the track today and was much better than the dead Garmin.

The track in Rolle is 250m - which is odd, but worked well today for the 1km reps.

Paul shouted the splits and told me to speed up or slow down depending on how far from one minute laps I was:

Rep 1: 4:12 - too slow and fell of the pace in the 2nd and 3rd laps
Rep 2: 3:54 - very even
Rep 3: 3:53 - very even
Rep 4: 3:54 - even last lap faster
Rep 5: 3:50 - went for bust on last lap
Rep 6: 4:00 - made it all back on last lap after 1:01; 1:03: 1:04

Such a rewarding thing to see only one rep over 4mins. Getting there. And thanks to coach Paul!

6m with 5x 1km reps

Excuses:
Too tired, not slept enough
Too hungry, not enough breakfast and too long from breakfast to reps
Too hot, seriously hot today
Too windy, out ok, but back was bad
Too much too soon. Jumping from 400m sprints to 1,000m efforts was too ambitious
Not enough recovery between reps, 1min is not enough

Still, managed three out bound ok ones, then thought I would die on the return.

Oddly the hrt data pointed to being able to sustain it, but I could not.

3:49
3:50
3:59
4:37
4:25

So Jason, if you want to do 5km in under twenty you need to do better than me at this session. 18min in zone 5 and 8 in zone 4. That's about all there is to say.

Wheathampstead 1km reps

Set out on a glorious morning shorts and no winter kit. Dave and Kenny not 100%. Bums and tums had taken its toll on Dave again (not to mention the combat attack session) and Kenny was looking to press home his recovery after calf problems at Berko.

Jogged out to the start of the 10km course on Marford Lane, taking the high road through the fields.

Kenny had not managed to upload the course to his Garmin, but Dave had so he set his to "do course" and I set mine to 1km intervals with 2mins recovery. Dave's Garmin got us right on the start line.

Off we went and the fundamental flaw in the plan was quickly evident. If I was setting the pace, but Dave was the navigator then we had a problem. Dave solved this by just running the distance steady and skipping the recovery. This worked well enough, I had to show him how the compass mode worked - but he was "on course" more than "off course". Most of the session was spent listening to the Garmin telling me I was not going fast enough. Now tell me something I don't know. Stupid thing.

Rep one was tough uphill and coming to the end I was surprised to see Kenny sitting on my shoulder. Even more surprised when he was screaming along behind me on rep two. However, by rep three he was limping back at walking pace with the calf playing up again. He headed home and we pushed on.

Met up with Kenny again before the narrow bridge into Marford Park and he was not looking good as he hobbled along.

The reps averaged out at around 4:20 - best was 4:07 worst 4:30. Felt much harder than it should have and perhaps there is something to be said for an "easy" week sometime soon.

Came back on Ash Grove to go along a footpath I've never done before which was not that great but another "whats over there" question solved.

Saw Laurence from Fit Village heading home and got a toot from him to keep us going to the end.

Drove back to Wheathampstead looking for Kenny and couldn't see him so stopped off at his house and was pleased to see his trainers just outside the front door. He managed to shuffle home ok.