Hi Everyone,
I hope you have had a great weekend!  A huge thank you to Nidhi for hosting us at her flat on Thursday for her birthday celebration.  It was so nice to have that time with those that could stay!

We are covering a lot in this week’s email so try to bear with me.

This week
For the run, we will be running a total of 22 minutes, slipping in a few 4 minute blocks.  Going forward, the amount of time spent running starts to increase more quickly since you have built the base you need to start to run longer.  It is really important to get that second run in each week so you keep that base up and build from there.  Anyone on this list who hasn’t been out running with us – now is the time to jump in before we are too far along in the program.

Race Announcement
The race will be announced tomorrow!  I know for many of you the idea of a race is surreal and a bit crazy.  But I also know several of you feel that way yet are determined to make it happen (YAY!).  If you are ready to commit, I would encourage you to book your flights as soon as the announcement comes out.  We are a large group of runners and I have personally witnessed the flight prices increase in prior years as runners book their flights.  I wouldn’t want you all to wait to book and miss out on cheaper prices.  If you are not ready to commit, that is fine, too.  We will have the beginner breakfast next week to talk about the race and hear from past beginners which may help allay your fears.  But you don’t have to decide right now or even in the next few weeks, I promise.

Stretching and Warm Up
We are going to try something new this week at the start.  Rather than walk for 5+ minutes to warm up, we are going to do a series of exercises designed to get your muscles warm and limber.  Hopefully we can build this into our routine and it would be great for you to try it on your Tuesday run as well.  I don’t have a proper link for the exercises as they were prescribed to a runner friend from a physio to help her avoid injury.  The coaches this week will lead you in the exercises and I will send you what I have in next week’s email so you can try it on the following Tuesday.

For post-run, walking at the end is intended to act as a cool-down.  As we have said, it is very important to stretch after the run which is why we build in that time before heading in to Starbucks/Pret.  This link provides some good stretches:  http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/c25k/Pages/how-to-stretch-after-a-run.aspx

Physio and other experts
A few of you asked about aches and pains.  If you are feeling like something is hurting, please go see a professional.  We have several people listed on our website:  https://womenrunningtheworld.com/training/expert-help/
Victor St. Ange is the physio that many people in the running group use.  He is terrific and he can do an overall analysis of how well your muscles are engaging as they are needed.  The con is that he is very popular and it can take a few weeks to get an appointment.Many runners also swear by Christian Antonee and I believe he is easier to book on short notice.  I also have personally used Soliman Laurence who is more of a massage therapist.

Tuesday Runs
We heard from several of you that the Tuesday runs have been a bit fast.  This is very common with the beginner group.  It is hard to keep a slow pace, but it’s important to try to do it.  You will all feel better for it.  If you are in the front, don’t feel the people behind you are pushing you to go faster – they aren’t!  And if you’re in the back, you don’t need to try to keep up with those in the front.  Run the pace that is right for you.

You should be running around a 13 – 13 ½ minute mile on Tuesdays, maybe even slower.  This translates to a little faster than an 8 ½ minute kilometer.  You can use apps on your phone to show your pace.  Apps I’ve used in the past are MapMyRun, Runkeeper and Strava.  You do not need a running watch!  As a beginner, it’s nice to be able to focus on building your stamina and creating a bond with your group, not worrying or thinking about your pace and distance.  Use the apps to guide your pace, as a quick check in.  Also, make sure you set it to auto pause so it doesn’t calculate you standing still as part of your pace – otherwise it will show your pace as artificially slow.

If you are feeling like you don’t want to talk during the run, SLOW DOWN!  Sometimes it helps to designate a person to keep the pace and you can switch off each week.  Let us know how it goes!

Here is the route we did last Thursday in case you want to repeat it:

Hi everyone,

You are all doing so well!  I was about to say it seemed to be a walk in the park for you, except for once we weren’t in the park…  🙂  As we noted on the run on Thursday, the canal is a great place to run out for a distance and turn around at the halfway point.  It allows for non-stop running and it’s easy to get to.  But please always be careful of the bikes!

If you haven’t yet joined the group, there is still time to join us and not be far behind, but please join us this week!  Or let me know if you’d like to punt out a year and I’ll keep your info for next year if you’d like.

A couple of dates to put in your calendar:
Thursday 10 October – we will be having a we will have a little gathering after the run (location TBD) to talk about the race (which should be announced in the next few weeks).  It will be a chance to hear from some former beginners about their experience, ask any questions and just be social.
Thursday 17 October – Big Ben!  We will be running to Big Ben this day, believe it or not! So clear your calendars so you can join us for this major beginner group milestone!  Don’t worry – there will be many traffic lights and stops along the way, and you’ll be ready for it, we promise.

Keeping it Slow on Tuesday
I’m hearing that it is a little tricky to keep it slow on Tuesdays.  This is normal – we hear this every year.  At this point, you should be keeping together, for the most part, as a pack.  So one way to help this is to have the slower people up front to set the pace.  Just make sure you don’t crowd them!

Next Week’s Route
We will likely be running through Primrose next week.  We will plan to start running at the corner of Charlbert and Allitsen, so those of you who have been meeting us in Regents – you’ll need to meet there or at Barclays.  Also, in the next week or so we will start doing warm up exercises at Barclays and doing a shorter walk to start, so you may want to build into your schedule to come to Barclays soon to start.

Now that we are a few weeks in to the program, we wanted to give a bit more information on shoes, nutrition and aches/pains.

Shoes – if you are feeling like you want/need a new pair of shoes, you can go out at any time now and buy some.  Runners Need and the Asics store on Oxford St both do gait analysis and will help you find the proper shoe.  However, you do not need to go out and buy a new pair of shoes if you are feeling like yours are fine.  There may be a point when we will advise you to get a new pair of shoes because if yours are getting old, they won’t have the support you will need as we start to increase our run times.  But for now, as long as you’re comfortable, you’re fine.

Nutrition – it’s good to eat a little something before you come out to run, but you don’t want to eat a lot.  Everyone is different in what works for them so try different things each week and see what works for you.  Things to try – a banana, yogurt, toast with peanut butter, a granola bar.  It’s fine to have coffee before the run.  When we are running longer distances, we will give you more information about nutrition for before, during and after the run, but we aren’t to a point yet where we need to be thinking about it.  More things to look forward to!

Aches – some of you may be experiencing some aches and pains. It is common to have some aches and pains during the first 2-3 months of this program.  For the most part, it’s just our body’s way of telling us “Thank you very much, but I would prefer hanging out at Starbucks and skipping the running part.”  Many of you are already fit through other types of sports/hiking/tennis/etc, but we use different muscles in running and those muscles/joints will speak up.  As a very general guideline, most experts suggest ignoring any pains during the first 10-15 minutes of an exercise session then after that monitoring whether the pain/discomfort is stabilizing or increasing.  If the pain increases while you are running, then you should stop – if the pain is consistent or lessens during exercise then usually you’re fine to continue.  There are experts such as physios listed on the womenrunningtheworld.com website if you are interested.

Other Exercise
All of us will benefit from lots of stretching and some squats or lunges whenever you have a bit of time.  You don’t have to go to a gym to do squats/lunges – you can do them anywhere.  Those exercises build muscle in your legs particularly around your knees.  The stronger those muscles become the more they can help to stabilize your knee joint which is extremely helpful in running.  Don’t let these suggestions overwhelm you!  None of it is required, it’s just the more you do, the easier the running will be.  Lastly on this topic, we are still only running twice a week.  This is SO important.  Feel free to do as much walking as you want, and tennis, or swimming, yoga, pilates or whatever….. but not running.  Twice a week is the perfect amount right now.  In a month or so we will come to a point where we’ll tell you it will be good to add a third run, but not yet.

See you Thursday,
Your coaches

Hi everyone,
I hope you all had a great weekend!
For this week, as usual, please repeat last Thursday’s run on Tuesday.  Also, please look out for new people joining and welcome them – we may have a few new additions this week.

This Thursday’s run time will be just a slight increase from last week’s.  We are taking our time building up to make sure your bodies are becoming adjusted at a nice slow pace.  As always, please let one of us know if you are hurting or struggling.

If you are on this email and are not planning to join us this year, please let me know – we won’t take offense!  We don’t want to junk up your inbox any more than it already is.  But if you are planning to join, come on out!  It’s not too late to get started.

Hope to see everyone on Thursday,
Your coaches

A beautiful day in the park last Thursday!  Photo cred to Jess 🙂
Front:  Amber Borst, Carrie Rodarte, Canan Kulac, Stephanie Stanley Alexander, Gina BeesleyRear: Renata Figueiredo (coach), Vera Kunda, Amy Grace (coach), Manbir Leefield, Anu Nayar, Melissa Kay (coach), Paola DiMeo (coach), Pia Ahmad, Nidhi Banga

Hello everyone!
Well done on Thursday getting through those 2 minute running intervals with apparent ease.  We are so glad so many of you were able to run together on Tuesday.  It’s great to start to set that routine early on.
So for this Tuesday, as for last week, repeat what we did this past Thursday based on the training plan we sent out last week.  

Welcome to those of you just joining us.  I hope you can make the run this Tuesday.  Just look for the group at Barclays and introduce yourself.  This is a very friendly group and they will take care of you!  

What’sApp Group
Our beginner groups in the past have found it really helpful to set up a beginner What’sApp group and you guys are already on the ball with that!  This makes it easy to connect with one another if you can’t make a Tuesday or Thursday run.  For example, if you can’t make a run, you can send out a message and see if someone else might be around to run with you another time.  This is just for you guys – the coaches don’t need to be on it.  Here is the link to join:  https://chat.whatsapp.com/B6BzYbPSs9GKSXL3doUNCq

This Week
This week we will be adding one 3 minute interval running interval to our two minute ones.  It is absolutely essential we keep the pace very very slow so we don’t allow our heart rates to get too high, both for psychological reasons (so you don’t feel exhausted and worn out when you finish, and start hating it) and for physiological ones (as most of you haven’t run before, you need to give your bodies time to adjust to keep injuries at bay).  Please let us know if anything is hurting.  Most aches and pains can be quite easily addressed early on – it’s continuing to run on an injury that causes bigger problems.  We have a list of professionals (physios, osteopaths, etc.) that our runners use that we can share with you – just ask!

A note on the pace – I had said in an earlier email that you should be running at a pace where you can talk comfortably.  This is true, but that doesn’t mean you need to be talking all the time.  It is perfectly fine to not be talking – I just want to make sure you CAN talk.  Otherwise, you are going too fast.

We will not be doing much street running just yet, but please make a point of being very careful at the few road crossings we do have – it is very easy to just follow the person in front of you out onto the road without checking for cars or bikes, so please be careful! 

Gear
I noted before that you don’t need to go buy any gear yet.  However, a few of you may want to get a running belt so I’d thought I’d share my opinion.  First, a running belt choice is really individual.  I have purchased at least 5 over the years and I keep coming back to the cheap one I bought when I was a beginner.  This is the current version of what I have although you’ll have to get it from a third party seller on Amazon.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Karrimor-Unisex-Audio-Belt-Black/dp/B00SJ14CYM/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3FAC1AWMVK7GZ&keywords=karrimor+audio+belt&qid=1567680746&s=gateway&sprefix=karrimor+audio%2Caps%2C128&sr=8-2
This other one is fairly close to it  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Befekt-Gears-Waterproof-Sweat-proof-Adjustable/dp/B07Q9PZ3TN/ref=sxbs_sxwds-stvp?keywords=karrimor+running+belt&pd_rd_i=B07Q9PZ3TN&pd_rd_r=1292ac68-678a-4ef8-b296-e6d3eff20b7f&pd_rd_w=oznXy&pd_rd_wg=buQsq&pf_rd_p=7dc56c0d-8a5f-4d97-9143-7233b106859a&pf_rd_r=H3VB8XV6VER7G83PRTCZ&qid=1567680547&s=gatewayhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Karrimor-Unisex-Audio-Belt-Black/dp/B00SJ14CYM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1536333617&sr=8-4&keywords=karrimor+running+belt
The reasons I like it:

• it has 2 pockets so if you pull your phone out of the bigger one, you don’t have to worry about your keys or money or whatever being pulled out at the same time because those can go in the smaller one
• the belt is not stretchy (some people really love the stretchy belt (Spibelt is the popular brand) but I don’t, maybe because I got used to the non-stretchy one)
• it doesn’t soak up sweat like the kind that some runners like – the FlipBelt
• it’s cheap so if you don’t like it, you don’t feel like you’ve wasted too much money

For a belt that holds water bottles, this is the sort of thing I have https://www.amazon.co.uk/Karrimor-Unisex-Bottle-Belt-Black/dp/B00SJ12WNU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536334083&sr=8-1&keywords=karrimor+bottle+belt

I can tell you, though, that every runner will have her favorite belt for various reasons so it often comes down to trying one and if it doesn’t work, trying another.

Also, if you go out to a store to check out running belts, it might be a good idea to also get a pair of running gloves.  It will start to be chilly in the morning and you will want something that doesn’t soak up the sweat.  This is not a necessity certainly, but just wanted to put it out there.

SJWWC Meeting
Next, the first St. John’s Wood Women’s Club meeting is this Tuesday (10 Sept) at 9:30 am at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue at 28 St. John’s Wood Road across from the cricket ground entrance.  If you are not already a part of this club, I encourage you to come to the meeting to see what it’s all about.  It is a great way to do fun things in and around London with minimal effort and planning on your part!  It is completely acceptable to show up in your running gear so it could be fun for you all to do your run and head over together.  If you have any questions about it, feel free to send me an email.  You can also check them out at www.sjwwc.org.  

Finally, if you are on this email list and have decided to not join our group, please let me know and we will take you off the distribution.  Otherwise, it is certainly not too late to join us!

See you on Thursday,
Your coaches

This week’s photo:
Front: Jess Browne (coach), Paola Di Meo (coach), Wamiq Umaira, Sumaiya Hossain, Canan KulacRear: Renata Figueiredo (coach), Anu Nayar, Kelli Novak, Lynn Akashi, Stephanie Alexander, Pia Ahmad, Melissa Kay (coach), Rohini Suri, Lesley Smith