Hi everyone,
Congratulations to those of you who did the 70 min run this week!  I heard a bit about how difficult it was so I wanted to talk a little bit about that.

Although this year is different in many ways, one way it is not different is the concern expressed by many beginners in prior years at this point in the training.  The Thursday/long runs take a lot out of you.  You’re tired for much of the rest of the day.  You have some little niggles in your body.  This is all completely normal.  Every year, most beginners cannot fathom how we can go from running 60-70 minutes to running double that, or more, for the half.  I know, it’s craziness!   But here’s the even crazier thing – every year, it happens!  It is about trusting the program and getting the runs in, and really nothing more than that.  

You may not believe us, but the hardest part is behind you.  Once someone can run an hour, bumping up a session 10 minutes each week is not a significant jump in terms of fitness/cardio requirement.  The hard part is learning how to run and building a base.  It’s tough to move from walking/jogging intervals to non-stop running.  We’ve done that hard work and are more than ready to start extending our mileage.

The thing that makes it so much harder this year is that many of you are having to do either your extra runs or ALL of your runs on your own.  It’s so so much easier to push/drag yourself for those last 10 minutes of the long run when you have a coach, or others, with you, pushing and encouraging you and feeling similarly to you.  I wish I could wave my magic wand and have that difficulty go away 🙁

If you are struggling with getting out there, or need guidance because you’re not up to 80 min yet, let us know and we will see what we can do to help!

OK – on to this ridiculously long email – sorry!

Zoom Call
I believe Melissa is working to organise a Zoom call for all of us to actually see each other!  So I look forward to connecting with most of you then.  Stay tuned with the details from Melissa.

Group Fun
Since we can’t be together, I thought it might be fun to have a bit of “let’s get to know each other better” activity.  We will see how this goes, but let’s try it!  Each week I will ask for information and I want you guys to respond to me with your answers and I’ll put them in the follow week’s email for all to see.  Coaches, too!This week – tell me all of the places you have lived!  Let’s see who has the most, who has the fewest, who has the most countries.  If you moved house but stayed in the same metro area, that counts as one (for example, I lived in the Washington DC area but technically lived in Silver Spring, Alexandria and Arlington during my time there – but I will count that just as DC Metro Area) and if you lived in the same metro area twice, it should also be counted once.

Here’s mine as an example:
St. Louis
South Hadley, MA (college)
Washington DC
Boston
London(I think I might be in the running for fewest places… but we will see)

FAQs from prior years at this point in the program
In prior years, we get the chance to chat with many of you during the runs and hear about questions and concerns you might have.  Not so much this year.  So I went back to last year’s email at this time to see what people were asking then and I thought I’d drop a few in, just in case these have crossed your mind.

Running Playlists
There are running playlists and songs that can match the pace you want.  It’s important to test out the beats per minute (bpm) yourself and not just rely on what I say or what websites say.  It can vary quite a lot based on your stride length.  I have found that for me, especially as I’m getting tired, I take smaller strides at a faster pace, so 180 bpm, which one site says equals a 7 min/mi equals more like a 9+ min/mi for me when I’m tired.  Conversely, when I was trying to keep myself slower during a run, when I used one for 10-10:30 min/mi (150 bpm) I ended up going faster.  So I think perhaps take some music out that you like to run to and pay attention – does one song cause you to speed up?  Or slow down?  Then type those songs into the links below to see what the bpm is to get a sense.

I have created a bunch of playlists on my Spotify for a wide range of bpm – 120 – 180.  You can go to my profile and follow any of them that you want and/or use them to help build your own:  https://open.spotify.com/user/aewgrace?si=bapDYQyZR9CJfBZdPLZcsA

Sites I use to find songs:
https://jog.fm/workout-songs – can search for songs with a certain bpm or search a particular song to find the bpm
https://songbpm.com – this one has a nicer interface but you have to type the song in, you can’t just look for songs with a certain bpm.I know there are many others out there – just do a search for them.

My knees hurt, my hips hurt, my <insert body part> hurts
First, buy a foam roller.  Something basic, like this:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maximo-Fitness-Superior-Instructions-Included/dp/B06Y97NVKZ/ref=cts_sp_1_vtp  (mine is 45 cm, not 90 but I’m sure either is fine).  Use it on your IT band.  Search YouTube for videos on how to roll.

Second, go see an expert to make sure all is OK.  I have used Victor and Soliman and find both are good for different areas.  Victor is great for making sure things are “working” the way they should.  He is also great for any doubts you have about if you can do this.  Soliman has been better for me with sciatica.  Let me know if you want their information. Both are currently open during lockdown.  Other people see various people, too – but go if you’re having niggles that won’t resolve within about 10 min of the run.

When should we increase our weekend/Tuesday running time?
This will happen starting next week.  You will start running 60 min on Tuesdays and 45 min on the weekends.  I’ll put it in next week’s email as a reminder.

Can we/should we add another run in during the week?
No.  Running is a repetitive movement and we don’t want you to injure yourselves by running too much.  However, you can certainly do other exercise – spinning, yoga, pilates, walking, swimming, whatever! – to increase your stamina and muscle strength.

Running this week – 80 min/about 6.5-7 miles
This week we have 80 minutes on the schedule which equates to not quite 7 miles.If you get to 80 minutes and you’re fairly far from 7 miles, don’t worry about pushing it too much.  I’ll be happy you did 80 :-)In a normal world, this week would be our run through Brompton Cemetery, ending at Kensington Whole Foods.  Sigh.  Instead, I’m going to suggest a canal route to keep it nice and flat for you.  This is a modified version of what the regular running group does sometimes – a run to The Wall.  Running along the canal past Camden, there is a point where the path ends and you would run into a brick wall; hence, The Wall.  This route adds a little bit at the start in Regents to get us up over 6 miles.  It’s just at 6.25 miles but since the route has no red men (sorry!), a slightly shorter distance will hopefully make up for that. And if you’re feeling good and/or not yet to 80 min, just add a bit on.

Melissa will be organizing the pairings again this week from your What’sApp.
The RunGo is here:  https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/WIHmniTdHA

You start out from Barclays, running down Wellington Road, crossing at the crosswalk and heading to the mosque.  Enter the park there and cross Outer Circle to enter the park.  Run straight, crossing over the bridge and then bear left and take the farthest left path.  Cross back over the Outer Circle and just after crossing the canal, turn right and head to the canal path.  You can keep straight to run along the smaller, elevated path if you’d like.  Head towards Camden.  When you reach Camden Markets, you turn left into the market area and basically are going around them to get back onto the canal – so you turn right and another right to go around and the left to get back onto the canal.  Once back on the canal, just keep running straight until you hit that brick wall (it is customary in WRW to tap the wall…).  Then turn around and run back, retracing your steps except when you come up off the canal, turn right and head up Charlbert towards the SJW High Street and Starbucks.