Hi all,
I hope those of you who ran the Winter 10K had a fun time!  It looks like you had cold but sunny weather for it.  I can’t wait to hear all about it!  Congratulations!

This week
This week is ASL’s parent teacher conferences.  I am hoping most of you were able to schedule your conferences so you can run.  This week’s route is not complicated so if you aren’t able to come on Thursday, hopefully you can get together with others.  But let me know if you will not be able to make this Thursday.

Save the Date – Tuesday 12 February – Shirt/Hat Distribution and Money Collection
On Tuesday 12 February in the morning, we’ll be collecting money and distributing the WRW shirts and hats. We will also be collecting money for certain expenses for the Milan Half-Marathon trip. More details to follow.

This week – gels!
This week we are going to try gels on the run.  I saw a few of you with them last week.  Gels are basically carbohydrates to give your body some extra fuel during the race.  For the most part, we train in a way to teach our body to use fat as a fuel.  Fat is easier to access as an energy source and requires less fine-tuning in terms of timing carb intake during exercise.  Our bodies have about 1000-1200 “easy access” calories available which will get most ladies about 10-11 miles (depending on their weight and fitness level).  After that we will use gels (carbs) to fuel that last 2-3 miles of the half-marathon.  We, your coaches, will tell you when you should take the gel.  We will plan to use them on our longer runs going forward so we get used to taking them – we don’t want anything “new” on race day to throw us off!  On Thursday, we will bring a bunch of gels that you can sample.  You can try different flavors and brands and decide what you like (it may be helpful to keep the packet if you like it so you remember it).  Then you can buy some either online or at running stores.  In general, gels don’t taste great but they will either give you a boost after about 6 – 8 minutes or, if you’re like me, they will keep you from losing energy.
Some of the gels we have are called isotonic and have more liquid so you may not need water with them.  Others are more like the consistency of jam and you’ll want water to wash it down.  So please please bring your water with you.

Places to buy gels:
Runners Need stores or runnersneed.com (individual GU, SIS, TORQ, Shot Bloks, sport jelly beans)
sweatshop.co.uk  (you can buy individual GU gels here)
amazon.co.uk  (may only be available in boxes but you could share with others in the group)
wiggle.co.uk
energysnacks.co.uk
Ocado (Clif Shot Bloks, SIS isotonic gels)

The route this week – to Big Ben and back
For this run we head to Hyde Park via the usual route and run along the eastern edge of the park to Hyde Park Corner, under the arch and down Constitution Hill.  Run pass the Victoria Memorial down the mall and enter St. James Park.  Run over the pond and out of the park, turning left onto Birdcage Walk and down into Parliament Square to Big Ben, then turn around and run the same route back to Starbucks.