These emails must be getting boring for you – every week it’s the same old thing….  you’re brilliant, you did so well this week, you’re turning into some serious runners, etc.  ….. but it’s true.  What else can I say?  You’re fabulous – all of you.  This week we saw a bit of pace variation in the group.  I’m thrilled to watch that happen.  Continue to try to find your own natural pace.  Somewhere in the run when you are feeling comfortable (I know, I know… it’s never really “comfortable”), look around you.  Who are you running with?  Try to remember that pace – create some rhythm in your mind or maybe think of a song that seems to go with the beat of your footsteps.  As you are honing in on your natural pace/speed, make sure you are not pushing yourself to go too fast particularly on our long runs.  When you finish your long run, you should not be completely spent.  I would rather hear you say, “That felt good.  I think I could have kept on running a bit more”.  If you love that feeling of complete exhaustion, do it on your weekly short run.  On the long run, try to restrain yourself a bit – pull in the reins and see what happens.

We have adjusted our program for this week to repeat last week’s run.  So, we will be doing 3 x 15 minute running intervals separated by walking breaks.  I am away for the next two weeks but Syma, Bonnie and Becky will be at Starbucks on Thursday at 8:15am for the long run.  We are expecting a small group with it being Thanksgiving.  If you end up doing this run by yourself or with a friend, you could repeat the route we did this past Thursday or just go into Regent’s Park or on the canal to do your 3 x 15 minute run.  The following week (1 Dec), we will be doing 2 x 25 minute intervals on a route that has a lot of street crossings (so you’ll have some breaks even though they are not official walk intervals).  You should be trying to get in another two runs each week – one of 45 minutes and one of 35 minutes.  Both of those runs can be broken down into whatever length running intervals you want.  Again, I would encourage you to try tackling the shorter run by doing a 5 minute walking warm-up then just slowly, slowly run without looking down at your watch.  I mean really, really slow.  Once you think you’ve had enough, look at your watch and only then decide how to break up the remaining time into run/walk intervals.  Let me know how it goes!

Thursday, 8 December, will be our first non-stop run (50 minutes).  Please don’t worry about it.  I promise you are ready for it.  We will chose routes with street crossings and collectively pray for the little red man lights.  We’ll be fine.  It is important before then to get your pace just right.  If you’ve been killing yourself with a fast pace and plan on continuing that, these long, non-stop runs will be very uncomfortable.  We aren’t racing – there is no need to go fast.  We’re learning how to run long-distances.  It’s really about the distance, not the pace.

OK, for Lisbon, you still have plenty of time to decide about this trip.  I just wanted to let you know the plane fares are increasing (I think they are up to about £217 now) and the registration fee for the race does increase if you sign up after 1 December (from €33 to €44).  The race will not over-subscribe so that is no concern and the hotel has plenty of rooms available so no worries there.

Have a great couple of weeks.  I’ll miss you but you’re in good hands with Bonnie, Syma and Becky!

xo,

Paula