Back on my feet: soon enough for the WMA Champs?

9 days without running, that wasn't even a planned tapering "exercise" to get ready for the World Masters Athletics Championships which started in Sacramento last Monday (7/5). For those who didn't notice in my previous posts, I was unable to finish my last run in Croatia because of a very sharp pain in the hamstring (vastus medialis to be more precise). It didn't seem to be an inflammation, rather a strained muscle which looked very bad less than 3 weeks before the competition, at a time I should have been peaking in my strength and speed training. But, as the adage says, "listen to your body..."

I was in Fontainebleau this weekend and I had to check the muscle out to see if I was going to go to Sacramento as a participant or spectator. I went out for a run on Saturday and, without pain, ran a flat half marathon in 1:24 (6:26 min/mile). It felt so good to get the legs moving, I even pushed the pace with the excitement.

The 1,200-meter (3/4 of a mile) long Grand Canal built by Henri IV offers a great terrain for long-distance training, with a soft and shaded running terrain.

The next day, I ran 19 miles around the Park of the Palace of Fontainebleau (2.3-mile loop). Without practice for almost 10 days, my legs were sore from the previous run so I settled for a slower pace (7:25 min/mile), enjoying the views of the trees and the straight allees along the park walls.

If you visit Fontainebleau, don't miss running in this Park or the nearby forest which you can see in the East and South sides in the satellite image below and that I covered in a post three years ago (Fontainebleau: the South TMV 50K).

I posted a few pictures of the Park on Picasa for your own virtual tour!

Bottom line, I missed quite some pre-race training over the past two weeks but I didn't feel any pain with these 32 miles, which is a big relief. With that, I will toe the start line on Friday night for the 10,000 meters in Sacramento. And hopefully the marathon on Sunday morning as well, 5AM sharp! In the meantime, you can check how athletes are doing on the result page. Talk to you from California's Capital in a week then!