When in Rome...

...or as it may be, in France.  I was there last weekend, attending a reunion of my MBA class at INSEAD in the beautiful town of Fontainebleau.  Of course, it rained - why on earth do they hold these things in October?

You only live once.

At any rate, I had a dilemma.  We were going by train and bringing all my running kit would require another suitcase (or a bigger one at any rate), which I'd have to lug across London, Paris, and Fontainebleau.  And what should I eat?  There were gorgeous cakes, dinner menus full of things I shouldn't eat... was it going to be a complete wash out in health terms, or was I going to exercise a little willpower?

Well, I decided that I don't get presented with such fabulous food very often.  And I didn't want to carry yet another suitcase.  I settled on the happy rationalisation that it was an experiment to discover the consequences of a "weekend off".

And in some ways I've been pleasantly surprised.  Granted, I did gain several pounds, all of it as fat.  After all that food I needed a serious detox, so I've been consuming large quantities of black coffee and green tea all day, plus raw veg and unadorned fish.  By the end of the day my body was feeling like me again.  Easy come, easy go.

Moreover, I finally went for a run, for the first time since leaving for France!  I feared the worst, but in fact it was an excellent run - only slightly slower than my fastest endurance run so far, and faster than any run last week.  My legs were hurting in unfamiliar places, but apart from that it was progress rather than retreat.

I do not plan gluttonous weekends on a regular basis, but it is at least somewhat reassuring to find that skipping a few sessions and eating unwisely doesn't set me back significantly on my training plans.