9.1km Tour du Pays de Vaud - Etape 1 St Prex

The pre-race photo is above, Tenke (who came second in the ladies race), me, Jason and Stefan. Unfortunately, after missing the Nyon tri Richard also missed out on this run too. Like a mackrel freshly caught on the west coast of scotland, he was well and truely gutted to be missing out!

The traffic was heavy and my estimate of 13mins to get there was way off. The warm up was the sprint from the car to the hall to get the numbers!

At the start Jason and Stefan positioned themselves cunningly at the back to chat way the first couple of kms and I wished Tenke well as she pushed to the front and I settled where the club runners seemed to out number the cotton t-shirts, about 250-300 from the front.

The start was bang on 7pm and we headed up - even on the wide road it was a struggle to get to race pace and then it narrowed to single track roads where it was even harder to overtake. Slow progress.

In the trees the guy 3 in front of me went over and was covered in dust, but unhurt. That was enough to put an end to my sprinting through the trees to overtake people. Out of the woods and finally some down hill and the field opens up a bit. Two kids in front become my mark and I try and catch them. I notice the hrt is close to red line, but I decided I'm going slowly and will live with it. (86% of max was ave!). Also notice how I move through the field on the down hills (see my skipping works) and on the ups - some specific training paying off too. Unfortunately, on the flat I'm slower than everyone else and so I trade places with lots of people lots of times.

At about 6km I see the family again, Paul tells me I'm in the top 150 so I decide to hold that spot and try to move up the field a little. Turns out he just guessed that but it was a good guess and about right. I finished 136th of 533 men and 39th in my age group (out of 187).

At 7km it goes from the lake back up before looping around to my long run route's farthest point and I know the way home well. Take every corner nicely using the racing line to stop anyone coming past on the last km. Very narrow and my reps pay of as the back to speed from the right angle turns is no problem. I'm at the back of a group of 4 as we hit 100m to go and I let rip, all three melt away and I go through well ahead to cheers from the family.

I made my time 41:10, but officially I was 41:26 (which is about the gun time). I was dissappointed at first, but the course was busy, tough and hilly. However, looking at the hrt data I think I would have struggled to put in much more effort. Next time I will start in the thick of the club runners. Things can only get better, plus as I've never run the course before that's another PB in the bag!

Click here for the offical times

St Prex TPV etape 1 by nmcintyre at Garmin Connect - Details

10m and the easy 3.5m run

Not been out for a while. Semi-intentianal taper.

Ran round the island last week in three stages. First from Kames bay to the water sports centre, where with Grandad and the kids we waited for Katja, Ru and Davina to catch up. The latter two arrived on a tanden, newly weds!

I asked for and received a start for the next stage to Fintry. I was sure they were going to catch me any minute and that supured me on. On the little climb to the BBQ corner at Fintry I overtook an English couple on bikes. They asked for a tow! At the top I heard the lady say to the bloke let's catch that guy on the down hill. So they tried. Each time I heard them get close I accelerated. By the time I got level with the cafe I was at full race pace with two very surprised cyclists zooming along next to me. I side stepped on to the pavement and stopped dead at the cafe and watched the guys on the bikes trying to figure out what had just happened.

About two mins later Paul appears going like the clappers with Ru in his slip stream trying very hard to get past with Davina screaming for him to slow down on the back of the tandem. Brilliant. Then Katja and Lia come in followed 5 mins later by Dugald compaining bitterly about cycling around the island on his own!

Last leg was nice enough, with the no over taking grandad rule meaning the pace was much slower. Nice touch from Paul though as he came back to keep me company!

Bit of tennis and swimming in the lake (highlight was ambushing Richard in the deep water), but unfortunately went over on my left ankle during the tennis. It is stiff and tight.

Ran today, super slow Park Eaux-vives easy route with a few strides and a couple of race pace spurts which felt ok if tentative on the left leg, especially on the up hills.

13.2 miles / 4.8 miles

With Tanya (Davina's sister) now in town and talking about running a mad plan was hatched. Stewart came out with me to Westbourn and we went off in search of the mouse. Never found it, but we did find the tree. Coastal path to Fintry was fun. At the Hush Hush we tried to find the metal ring in the rock and did not, but we did find a seal. It is possible to look at seals and run, but Stewart and Tanya were determined to slow to walking pace at every possibility.

So at the water sports center I took a "long cut" and retraced the footpath this time not going straight over the hill but following the path to the farmhouse, the path goes through the buildings, but the dog made sure I took the field route to miss the house itself.

By now I was sure they would be miles ahead of me and I kicked hard to try and catch them thinking I'd be able to do so just before the town. Two fields out and there they are chatting away walking up the hill. I did a few circles of shame and then we ran down together. Stewart called it a day, but I still had to get Tanya home 1.5 miles away, which I did via some photogenic spots for her to take pictures of the cathederal of the isles were Ru would be getting married.

By the time I had got back to the house, I'd cleared 13.2 miles in the shocking time of 2:13 - an all time personal worst!

Next day Dean (my new brother in law) arrived and he and I agreed to meet at 7:20 at westbourn. Now, given we made this deal at 1:38am in the Tavern I am amazed it happened. I was even more amazed to see Tanya there too.

She took the first footpath up to the golf course and dean and I took the second, but not before going under the tunnel at Fintry!

I pushed the pace up the hill through the wet grass ferns and brambles. Tough going and before I knew it I was at the top with the hrt high and happy as larry. Oh shoot, Dean! I doubled back and collected him, one field gap so not too rude. Trotted back to town and took him to see the cannon in the west bay wall. 4.8 cleared.

Isle of Cumbrae, 4m / 10m / 4m

Rest day today as daughter's birthday, but did manage 30 seconds open water swimming in the Firth of Clyde at Fintry Bay, serious "bracing".

Yesterday, did Ferry road out, back coast road with Stewart running and Scott on the bike. Good craic.

Day before, faster than expected round the island. Stewart on the bike rather than running moved the pace up from 10 min miles to 7:20s held all the way. Fast start to catch a female runner over mile 1, but she vanished, possibly into the marine biological station.

Day before that super easy top of island - only 300 feet. I used to think this was a hill. I notice the incline when Stewart interupted me chatting to ask if we could slow down because the last section to the glaid stone at the top of the island was too steep for him. The cows were eye-ing him up for breakfast....

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.

3.5m recovery

Super easy on regular easy route, 32 mins for the 3.5 miles, focus on going slow on the way out and running through a few niggles. Time on feet 32 mins so super slow acheived, 9min miles!

Through the park picked it up slightly and enjoyed the shade.

Spent the evening at the pool in Nyon, so added another 16 mins running to get to the pool and did a few lengths of the 50m pool to help my friends daughter with her breathing for the triathlon in Nyon, which my Paul has entered too.

6.3m steady and hot botanical gardens plus 3 field loops

Tenke wanted 80mins in the heat, I wanted an easy run.

Settled for Botanical Gardens (5m there and back), two loops of the field would have done for me, but Tenke insisted on a third so we used at least 45 mins time on feet.

By the end it was 45:33 for 6.5 miles, so shade over sevens and it felt sluggish so that's good to know the pace is there if required.