Hi Everyone,
I hope you had a good recovery week. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone. We have only FOUR more long runs before the half marathon! This is a crucial part of our training as we tackle our longest training runs. This is the time to practice taking a gel or other fuel that you’ll use during the race. Also make sure you run in the clothes you will wear for the race. (Have a few options depending on the weather.) Remember, nothing new on race day.
Because we’re so close to the race, we’re jumping right back into a 9-mile run. We don’t have any extra build-up weeks this year. Ideally everyone will tackle the 9 miles, but I know that the first day back from the break can sometimes be harder for many people. If you’re really not up for the 9 miles, you can cut out the Battersea loop part and make the route shorter. If you turn left at the Embankment and go straight to Westminster, it is 6 miles and if you then continue on to Green Park it is 7 miles. If at all possible, plan to do the 10 miles to Greenford next week.
Looking ahead we have the following long runs:
Feb. 20 – Sloane Square/Battersea/Green Park (9 miles)
Feb. 27 – Greenford (10 miles)
March 6 – Wembley REVERSE (8 miles)
March 13 – Kew Gardens (11 miles)
March 20 – Serpentine (5.5 miles)
MARCH 26 – RACE DAY
Try to plan your schedule so you can join 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 in Regents Park doing the Tempo Diamonds and then we’re all meeting in Regents Park to do some filming for our 2017 video. More on that below. We would love everyone to participate in the video not just the women going to Warsaw.
WRW GROUP FILMING SESSION THIS WEDNESDAY!
Thank you all for being such great helpers with sending us your mannequin challenges video clips and pictures. Please feel free to keep sending them in. Now, we have the last part of the video that involves a bit of choreography to a song. The purpose of this song is to have all of you in it! IT IS OUR ONLY DAY FILMING AS AN ENTIRE GROUP! So, please try your best to attend. Please meet us (Joanna, Liane, Carol and Sonia) at Regents Park on Wednesday, Feb 22nd immediately after running at 9:00am at the Charlbert entrance into Regents Park where the benches are. We will go over the choreography and then start filming. (Those that are running the race in Warsaw and coming from out of town, Sonia will message you personally, so we can have you in the video as well. We won’t forget you!). Thank you!!!
REMINDER – PHOTO BOOK
If you are going to the Warsaw race, please respond to Amy’s email ASAP with your information and photo for the photo directory. Thanks so much!
Finally, well done to all of you who made it to Canary Wharf before the break! Super proud of all of you and I loved seeing all your photos! We’re really in the home stretch as far as race training goes – keep up the good work!
Keep running,
Jane
ROUTES
Monday February 20 – Battersea Loop to Green Park (9.3 miles)
This is a mash up of two of our routes (Battersea Loop and Sloane Sq to Green Park) to get us to the needed 9+ miles today. If you are not running the Half, you can cut your route shorter today by taking the Tube home from Sloane Sq or Westminster.
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. 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 (completing the “Loop”) to run along the north side of the Thames along the Embankment all the way to Westminster Tube Station.
Continue left on Birdcage Walk, cutting through St James Park to the Mall, then left on the Mall towards Buckingham Palace, crossing before the circle to reach Green Park. Run up to the Green Park Tube on Piccadilly St and take the tube home!
Wednesday February 22 – Tempo “Diamond” Run and FILMING
We are continuing with our focused tempo running on Wednesdays. This week we will do ‘diamonds’—they are fast but also fast to be done with so give them a try!
Head over to Regents Park, the normal way. Enter the Park at the Charlbert Entrance and veer to the left path. When you reach the first intersection with the other sidewalk, it is time to turn on your running jets. You will run hard for 1 minute, then recover by running slowly for 3 minutes; then run hard for 2 minutes and recover by running slowly for 3 minutes; then run hard for 3 minutes, recover run slowly for 3 minutes; run hard for 2 minutes, recover run slowly for 3 minutes and finally run hard for 1 minutes, recover run slowly for 3 minutes.
The ‘diamond’ looks like this:
1 minute hard 3 minutes jogging recovery
2 minutes hard 3 minutes jogging recovery
3 minutes hard 3 minutes jogging recovery
2 minutes hard 3 minutes jogging recovery
1 minute hard 3 minutes jogging recovery
If you need to extend the amount of time for the jogging recovery, that’s fine, you can jog up to twice the amount of the hard run time [so 6 minutes max recovery jog for the 3 min hard run]
This type of running is best done within the park so you don’t have to contend with driveways etc. If you find you need more mileage in Regents Park, just keep looping however you see fit.
Friday February 24 – The Heath
It’s Friday [again!], so everyone up the hill! 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. If you are not up for a hill run, ask around at Barclays; every week there is a group who prefer to do a flat run and you can decide together which flat route to tackle.
4 miles: A great way to ease into running the hill. Run up to the Hampstead tube station and back. If you have trouble running up, think about how easy it will be running down!
5 miles: The Betsy Route
6+ miles: The Partial Heath route OR the Reverse Heath route
7.5 miles: The Highgate route
8 miles: The Full Heath route
Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.