5m, two or three long reps or were they tempos?

My planned short tempo was destroyed by the "battery low" followed by blank screen trick from uncle Garmin.

So I pushed out anyway, along the Quai de Gustave Ador. At the naked lady statue I decided to tank it to the other side of the Plage de Geneve, recover out there and perform the same trick on the way back.

Out bound was tough, holding the pace difficult into La Bise which was still about as strong as it was yesterday, when I spent much of the day putting the plants upright on the balcony.

Overtook a fat zone 1 bloke doing some run walk garbage. I waited until he was running before going right behind him putting my footfalls in his before accelerating past him at full pelt.

At the turn I squeezed an hrt check out of the Garmin before it refused to start anymore and it was 140, but I'd already had a few moments recovery so I was probably well in the fourth zone.

Few guys go past and I get several "Bonjour"/"Hi" acknowledgements. No idea who any of them are.

I noticed a more serious looking chap cruising in roadside and decided to recover some more and use him as a mark on the return leg.

Set off lake side and for the inbound leg and felt the wind pushing me home. Nice. Think form. More speed. Catching. Catching. 20m to catch him and at the Yatch club he vanishes. Gone. I move onto the grass and try to hold the percived effort which feels strong but controlled. Kick to the naked lady and am mildly annoyed to have failed to capture any data.

Suddenly, m. serious runner appears. He's still going at a decent pace and up by the road. I decide to see if I can catch him again. Ease up to his pace and match it as I draw level. Hold that all the way down to Jardin Anglais, where our paths meet and we run side by side through the park in silence, both of us holding the pace and looking staight ahead. Then the clown who sells the tickets for the tourist train jumps out and runs long beside me as if he is racing me - I think about taking him out Andy McNab style but quickly decide he is no threat and he says something in french about how I am far to fast for him to keep up with, now who told him he could say "tu" to me anyway....

Down the ramp to go under the Pont de Mont Blanc and the speed comes for free and I hold that pace to the end. Well there we are, three one mile chunks of steady running.

4x(5on 30r 1on 90r) opps that 9 miles!

Early out and RVD was the naked lady statue for the reps session.

1.31 miles to get there. Bit of chatter to decide when to start and how many out and back to do (Tenke has just run 10km to get to meet me btw!).

We settle on 3 out 1 back.

Tenke's class shows as she eases through the reps, disappearing ahead of me and there is nothing I can to do close the gap. She is kind enough to loop back after 4 mins of the 5 min cycle to meet me on the recovery.

My head is not cleared of the cold and I can feel the chest not filling properly. I try and put an even effort in and hold a decent pace on the fives, but cannot. 2nd rep takes us through the shopping area and a car pulls out and nearly knocks Tenke over then trys to do the same with me. Now we are back down hill on the 3rd cycle on some pleasant back roads. Furthest I've ever been out this way. We head back and the fourth cycle gets us onto the downhill section to the lake and this is the most enjoyable bit. Speed comes easier on the downhill and safe in the knowledge I'm on the last rep. As we finish the final sprint I see a sign that says Geneva 6km. Opps. That's more warm down than I intended. Cleared 4.38 miles on the 4 8min cycles full Garmin stats below (in imperial and metric) and total of 9.03 miles. That counts as a long run too!


Looks like my efforts were consistent, but the sprints could have been harder and the 5mins should have been faster. As Tenke says, we need to do more of this kind of work. Planning a trip to a track next week.

Herts 10km Salami style

With the Herts 10km looming closer and closer, I'd suggested running the route again. Simon is back from Marathon running (2:54 no less) and Dave is back from being chased by dogs around Greece.

Kenny suggested splitting the route into three sections of 2 miles (which would have left us slightly short so I tweaked this to 2.08miles) with a massive FIVE minutes recovery. Paul and I decided that was enough time to freeze to death or build a shelter and start a fire without matches so we slashed that recover from 5 to 3 mins with Kenny still whining that Runners world says 5 minutes....Oh please!

So three for the recovery it was. The hill profile of this race is such that a positive split seems like the unlikely answer. Downhill for a while, big up near the middle and then a flattish slog back to the start.

I primed my Garmin with the session the day before even giving each rep a custom name. How cool is that, I have forgotten how good the software that came with it is.

Paul and I hooked up and Dave failed to materialise by 7:05 so as we can normally hear his car from Weathampstead we decided he was a no-show and headed off to the park. Simon and Kenny were at the gates of the park and so we jogged up to the start line and started discussing the route.

We all have the Garmins synced up for the reps and Simon as guide and Kenny as pace maker we were all set. Kenny took some ribbing for dropping down into the sprint start as if he was in the 100m final of the olympics. We finally started and inspite of cutting the first corner Kenny attacked the downhill and pushed through to finish the first rep a good 25-30 seconds ahead of me. Simon came in and then finally Paul who had decided to visit the bushes to fertilise the plants. We got a Paddington hard stare from a woman in a cottage who probably did not appreciate the four of us gassing away under her window that early in the morning. First 3 recovery over Kenny and Simon left together and just as my 3 were up Paul came in.

This was the uphill section and I was really looking to work back the time between Kenny and I. Every time I caught I glimps of him I tried to make sure he was a little bit closer. With one mile to go and the hill done I was certain I could catch him by the end of the rep. One extra push at the end and I caught him. Then the alert fired for the 3 min recovery. Breathing was hard but legs and heart ok. Seemed like no time at all and we were off on rep 3. I was leading the pack but not by much. Simon drew level to claim I had come off the path too soon, but having reviewed the map of the course I dont think I did. I'm sure we did the right route. Here is the offical map.

Big push home and manged to hold off the boys and sprinted down the tree lined avenue with a wee bit spare in the tank. 42:29 active time so not bad, but not sub 40.

Only dissapointment was no heart rate data recored, must have no battery left in the strap.

Here is the route.

Dark reps

After a long bank holiday Monday with calls from work (taken in the press room of Stamford Bridge) and a trip to the British Museum it was pretty full on and I felt the need to get some exercise in. Set off to the Luton path, but by 8:15pm it was darker than Mordor at midnight so I made a right turn and set off Wheathampstead bound. Handily already stored in the Garmin was a cheeky 6x 1km with 2min recoveries which fitted the bill perfectly, so off I tanked hammering along at something like 10km race pace.

I cleared the first one in 4.04, and then it was downhill from there. Legs were very strong except a squidgy moment on the last rep for the left leg where the Tibialis Posterier kicked in slightly - but it was the aerobic fitness and lung capacity that let me down. I could not gulp air down quickly enough in enough volume to maintain the heart working like that. Very frustrating. Lungs felt tight and I was worried I might be having a slight asthma attack, but no such excuse materialised.

If I want to do a 10km under 40s I guess I need to get that first km under 4mins then eh? Well the lasagne I had in my tummy kept suggesting it would like to reappear and the darkness was annoying as no sooner had my eyes go used to the dark and I could see the foot path again a car would blind me.

Sunday Run

Idea was to run out for an easy 10 miles or so comming back hard.

Too much champers the night before and going to bed after midnight did not help. Dave and Paul came along today and we rattled out the eight easy miles straight forwardly enough. Although, Dave must get a mention for his comment on "So where exactly are we?" as we came through the last field before the Nicky line (the footpath seemed to have gone) only to be amazed that we were at Redbourn. Shortly after joining the Nickly line some 5 mins later he announces this is one of his fav. runs! Hmmm minutes ago you'd no idea where we were. Effectively running the route "backwards" from the normal way. This has two advantages, firstly we dont need to run back up Crabtree lane and secondly we finish with nearly 3 miles of clear wide footpath (ok some uphill) for that hard finish.

In the end we did three reps, pushing hard for a point, regrouping and pushing off again. Great stuff and nothing like running fast on a sunny Sunday morning.

Heart rate climbed streadly through the reps, maxing out at the sprint finishes at 165-170 and with an instant recovery to 130 (below the easy run level of 135) that seems about right too. Hard to say what the average min/miles on the reps were but seemed to be around the 6:20 mark so again roughly right.

Thursday Intervals with Rocket Lockets

Today was let's do something different. Only two reps, but 15 mins each with 3 recovery. Idea was the elite do laps of the park once we've made it there but I only made it to the road in the park. 2.2 miles out and back, at er, em 6:47 pace, I need to get that down to sub 6:30 if I am ever to break the magic 40 over 10km.

Kenny where art thou?

Kenny failed to appear and so Dave, Paul and I headed off to the Greenway for some lovely mile reps. At the junction there were no surprises when the choice of short road or longer hilly trail went the way of the long route, well we wouldn't want to under distance would we!

We were imagining Kenny having driven out to the Greenway and parked up stitting pretty waiting for us supping a cup of tea playing the coach role - "again boys, faster this time!". Then as if on cue, a lumious yellow jacket is spotted though the trees heading right at us moving quickly - it must be Kenny - but no just a look a like. Then a yellow jacket cycled past us - thought is might be Kenny again but also no joy.

At the start of the Greenway we figured our session would be 7 mins on with 3 recovery. I wanted to do six, but was over-ruled after two and talked down to 4. Which was probably more realistic.

First one was a bit of a phaf as I had messed up the start on the Garmin and it had decided I was not doing the session I'd programmed in and started last night. On the recovery though got it all sorted and so reps 2-4 were Garmin led!

Dave had been at Laurence Nieberg's spinathon and done 4hours on the bike yesterday and Paul had knocked out 15 miles on the trails (albeit 30 seconds slower then when he did it last year) so I guess that explains why I found myself in the unusual position of leading the reps. Dave made an amazing sprint finish on the first rep to catch us, but the next three were hammered out at much less than the declared 7 minute mile pace: in fact it made hopeful reading cleared 1.04, 1.14 and 1.12 miles in those reps with ave pace of 6.44, 6.14 and 6.15 min miles. Very pleased with that. HRT was fine, quickly up to mid 150s and drifting to 165 and not going above that. Instant recovery on the stop.

More Kenny look alikes in yellow jackets. This guy is no-where and eveywhere today - are those yellow jackets franchised out?

Played the tank it past the joggers game on the way back from the Greenway, overtaking a couple of big blokes one of whom had a gammy leg and a jogger on the Lea Valley walk - great fun and injects a bid of speed - perhaps it gives the slow ones something to aspire to!

Got home to find a text from Kenny - injured playing football so can't run. Which begs the question why was he playing such a high risk sport so close to race day?