Mont Saint Michel Time Trial Individual

In the small village Courtils this morning after sleeping in the Citroen C3 Picasso roadside on course for the Tour de France 33km individual time trial between Avranches and Mont Saint Michel. Courtils is 9km from the finish.

There is a tourist park opposite our car which allows me to have my first proper shower since before the half marathon. I no longer stink.

The training days have gradually increased in distance since the GCHM…6km, 15km, 17km. The run today was 3 laps around the village on quiet roads and hamlets with a laden cherry tree as break from the scenery of corn and wheat. My second lap was at threshold, not much slower than the GCHM.

Wash up from the Gold Coast Half Marathon. Once I got into rhythm my speed was almost exact the pace I had been training at around Stromlo doing those 2km and 2.5km loops. My early kilometres were similar to the Tuesday session at 10km pace or around 3:20 per km.

My experience of doing these long intervals is that if I do enough of them at threshold I can maintain threshold for 20-30km. The more kilometres per week and the more efforts at that pace, the longer I can maintain threshold.

Tactically where I failed in the GCHM is not starting fast enough. As I found I was very strong all race and when someone came along who was slightly quicker than I was able to maintain on my own I was able to lift. A slightly faster start would have put me in contact with a bunch running at just around 3:25/km. However all the 3:25 runners would have started at 3:15/km leaving me 200-300m behind after 5km and too much work to do to catch them. Many of them came back after half way but they were no use to me then.

My best half marathons have always been when I was running quick over 10km, lots of kilometres in the legs each week (120-140km/week) and lots of threshold intervals (6-12 minutes). All three are necessary for races over 10km for me to be at my best.

Next stop the fortress city of Fougeres and the stage to Tours. At Fougeres Maccas now.