France

After a pretty dissapointing end to the track season I was glad to get away with the family for some well deserved r&r. I took a pretty easy week before I went away just doing a very easy 10 mile run with Wenny on the Monday night followed by my longest ever bike ride of 26.4 miles in 1.23 (19.08 mph).

Was really pleased with the ride, felt comfortable and it was really lumpy for the last 8 or 9 miles. Legs seemed fine, think getting a few better rides in is paying off at last. Will be nice to get that average speed up to 20 mph at some stage.

So, set off to France on the Friday driving the Mrs 4x4 all the way to Paris and having 3 days in Euro Disney. Kids were happy enough but after going to Florida last year it was pretty dissapointing.

Did my first run in a week on the last day in Paris. I planned to run every other day and do 5kish and run pretty hard to keep in touch with some speed. I loose fitness pretty fast when I do nothing and coming back is always a struggle so decided for family time and base fitness this would be the best option.

After a week off, managed 20.42 for 5k off 3 min warm up. Splits nice and consistent but breathing out of my arse the last mile! Avge HR 167 bpm.

Drove 4 hours to Limoge the next day and stayed over night. Hotel was nice - just a Best Western but the town was kack.

Day after drove down to Toulouse where my sister lives. Imagine Stevenage with heat and lazy French people and you are there. Settled into our apartment which was so 'charming' I had to drive to Carrefore and buy flash wipes and bleech to clean the place up. After putting the kids to bed the missus and I went at the place like Dexter cleaning up a kill room.

The place wasn't too bad in the end but was glad to spend most of the time at my sisters place in Menville. Pool, big garden & plenty of booze & snacks!

Ran the next day early in the morning. 3 miles @ 7/mm. HR very low but felt rubbish.

Ran from my sisters 2 days later in Menville. Lovely country route and both times I ran it I never saw a single person or car. First 0.3 is flat, this is followed by 3/4 mile SERIOUS hill. Jesus it nearly killed me getting up in 6.40 for the first mile. After that it levels off - 5.53 for this mile followed by 0.3 straight downhill. The run in was nice and flat and I clocked 5:47 for that mile and ran hard for the last bit to clock 18.54 for the 5k. Well chuffed with this after the first mile! 165 bpm for the run which shows I havn't lost too much fitness.

Couple of big days on the wine and an easyish 5k in Menville on the Sunday in 21 mins ish in 30 degrees.

Left Toulouse after a week and drove up to Orleans. 260 miles which a serious bald tyre. Being France no fucker coud be bothered to get a tyre change done in less than a week so we risked it home.

In Orleans we stayed in a lovely hotel. Not kid friendly but still nice. Got a steady 4 mile run around town and along the river. Was supposed to take 2 more days to get home but could not be arsed so drove the last 450 odd home the next day.

So that was France. Nice break but glad to be home in my own bed.

Had plenty of time to think about running while I was away. The simple fact is that I run better off more miles and being patient on bringing the pace down.

Need to build up over the next 2 weeks to 60 miles a week before raising the bar. I need to run closer to 70 miles a week after the Peterborough Half and I know it will take until at least November before the pace is any good. Consistency has killed me this year. I havn't (touch wood) been injured but illness and various things have stopped me getting miles in the bank for any decent period of time.

It will come and my 'elite' race number for the Great Eastern Half has given me enough fire today to get it done.

So now the plan is to run plenty of miles. Get a track session in every week but dont kill myself. Get a tempo in, 5k to start with. Get a proper old school LSR in every week. Simples :)