Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a good recovery week.  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and getting back to running.  We’ve only five more long runs before the half marathon!  (For those of you really pushing for a time, you may want to do an additional long run after the spring break.  More on that later.)  This week our long run is the Battersea Park Loop.  The entire loop is 10 miles, but there are many options to do a shorter loop or take a tube home if you are not up for the full 10 miles after our recovery week.  Looking ahead we have the following long runs:

Feb. 23 – Battersea Loop, 8-10 miles

March 2 – Big Ben Loop, 8 miles

March 9 – Canal to Greenford Destination, 10 miles

March 16 – Canal, Farringdon, Embankment Loop, 9 miles

March 23 – Kew Gardens Destination, 11 miles

March 30 – Spring Break

April 6 – Easter Monday holiday

April 13 – Green Park Loop, 6-7 miles

April 19 – RACE DAY

You’ll see that we have a mix of destination and loop runs.  Try to plan in your schedule for the destination runs, especially Kew Gardens.  It takes more time, but it’s great for your training and can give you a real sense of accomplishment to make it to the final destination.  Plus it can be very fun to tackle the challenge with the group.

Wednesday we’re running to The Wall and you can decide if you’d like to do some tempo training as part of that run or maybe practice your race pace for a bit.  Friday ASL is off for conferences so we’ll start at 8:30 for anyone who can make it.

New Running Shoes

If you’re thinking about getting a new pair of shoes for the race, now’s the time to do it.  You want to make sure you can run in the shoes at least a few times before the actual race.  The same applies for the clothes you’ll wear on race day.  Make sure you test everything first.  You don’t want to get to the middle of the race and realise that something is rubbing or annoying you.  Who knows what the weather will be on race day – it could be warm, mild or cold.  That’s Europe in the spring!  Plan to bring race clothes for all temperatures and we’ll decide that morning!

Finally, well done to all of you who made it to Canary Wharf before the break!  You get extra credit for surviving the bikes (and skate boards and motorcycles!) on the canal – I’ve never seen it that crowded!   Super proud of all of you.  We’re really in the home stretch as far as race training goes – keep up the good work!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday February 23 –  Battersea Loop  7.5-10.3 miles

 

Today we do an up and back and you can pick your turnaround point to meet the distance in your training schedule. 

We head out to Hyde Park, along the eastern edge of the park, and down Sloane Street to Sloane Square the usual way.  We continue through Sloane Square, down Chelsea Bridge Road, and over the Chelsea Bridge to the south bank of the Thames.  We will then turn right into Battersea Park and run along the south side of the Thames to the Albert Bridge, where we cross back over the Thames and then turn right again and run along the north side of the river back to Chelsea Bridge Road, where we will turn left and run back up through Sloane Square to Knightsbridge, turning right then left to retrace our way back into Hyde Park by the French Embassy.  Run to the paved path, turning right towards Hyde Park Corner, then left long the eastern edge of the park to the exit at Upper Brook Street [by the Animal war memorial] and back to Starbucks the usual way.

 

Wednesday February 25 — The Wall 6 miles

 

Today we all run to The Wall but it is YOUR CHOICE as to whether you run it ‘steady’ or resume your tempo training by doing Fartlek ‘speed intervals.’  If you choose to do interval sprints, try to pick areas that are less crowded before you turn on your super speed for intermittent speed runs, followed by slow recovery running.  Mix these up as you choose, different interval lengths and speeds are fine, provided you are in control of your body as you run by the grommets, bikes, walkers and other runners.

Head down towards Regents Park, then enter the canal at the Charlbert entrance and run east [left] cutting through Camden Lock Market until we run out of canal path at Islington and hit “The Wall.”  [Don’t forget to touch The Wall or else your run doesn’t count :p ].  At The Wall, we turn around and head back to St. John’s Wood.  Easy!

Friday February 27 —  The Heath [all options]

It’s Friday so everyone head up Fitzjohn’s.  You can pick your distance and whatever you choose, there will certainly be someone else interested in running that distance.  All of these routes are on the website.

4 miles:  A great way to ease into running the hill.   Run up to the Hampstead tube station and back.
5 miles: The Betsy Route
6-7miles:  The partial Heath route

7.5 miles: The Highgate route
8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.