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.

Hi everyone,
Well, we are really starting things this week.  Up until now, we have been building our muscles and our lungs and our psyche to know that we can run for 60 minutes.  We will now start to add on a bit each Thursday to build you up to the distance you need to run that race.  The other thing to know is that while we plan the runs for a certain amount of time, we won’t all finish the planned distance at that time.  So depending on your pace for that day, you may run a little less than the expected time or a little more, but we will all need to run the same distance for the race so we all need to build up to that distance even if it takes different times for each of you.  I will start putting the expected miles so we all know how far we should be running each week since we aren’t running together.

Melissa will continue to coordinate coach/runner pairs on your What’sApp group.  I can’t wait to run with someone this week!!

Think of how far you’ve come – it really is amazing.  We can’t wait to watch you grow from here!

A few reminders:

• You should be running 3 times per week now
• The Tuesday run should be about 45 minutes and the weekend run should be about 30 minutes (Tuesday runs will get longer in a few weeks, but not yet)
• It is OK to try to run a bit faster on the weekend run, but only if you want to
• Bring water for the Thursday runs
• Eat something before the Thursday runs
• The Thursday run is SLOW

Training
We cannot emphasize enough that the way to build up to the half is to just put in the time and miles.  As we run for longer times on Thursdays, we will continue to make you run more slowly than you might otherwise.  Running slowly builds your body and muscles in a different way.  Why?  Read on later in this email for our founder, Paula’s explanation.

HOWEVER – I know that these are extraordinary times and that many of you are away or otherwise unable to run with a coach on Thursdays.  If you are struggling mentally to get out there and do the increased time/miles, please just get out and do what you CAN do, even if it’s 45 or 60 minutes, 3 times a week.  Although we have the goal of the race, the REAL goal of this program is to turn you into runners (shhh!) who can get out there without fear.  ALL of you have done more than a 5K.  Once you do the 70 min run, you’ll be just about to a 10K.  That is a HUGE milestone.  We are still hoping our planned Hampton Court race will still happen (they have told us it’s still a go right now) but even if it does not, we hope to create a virtual event in line with whatever rules exist then, so we are going to continue on our training schedule and keep pushing you.  If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to any of us.

Water and Nutrition
As our runs get longer, you will want water along to hydrate.  It will make you feel better on the run and will help your body recover faster.  Also, please please eat something, just a little something, before the Thursday run.  We don’t want you feeling faint from lack of energy.  Maybe some yogurt or a banana – just a little something for your body to use to fuel you.  As our runs get longer in a few weeks, we will talk to you about fueling for much longer runs and during the race, but we’re not ready for that yet.

OK – today’s lecture – why we run slowly.  This is from Paula Mitchell, our founder.

Why do we run the long run slower than race pace?
The quick answer is that it has to do with how your body builds fuel, which is something you’ll need for the race! I’ll delve into the basic science of fueling (which I have hugely over-simplified but hopefully it’ll get my point across). To fuel our runs we have 3 options – Creatine Phosphate (CP), glycogen and fat.

Creatine Phosphate– You have about 15 seconds worth of CP fuel – that’s it. Think Usain Bolt running the 100m – he fuels with CP and it works because he can run 100m in less than 15 seconds. CP is where your body will go first looking for fuel, particularly if you take off like a rocket from Barclays. Think of CP as kindling on a fire – it catches fire easily but burns out very quickly

Glycogen– Glycogen is the next fuel option. Glycogen is basically stored in your muscles and in your liver and because of that it makes glycogen a bit more difficult to burn as fuel (think of damp firewood – it will eventually burn but it takes quite a bit to get it going).

Fat– Fat is the 3rd source of fuel and most runners, even the very lean women, have an ample supply of it. Think of fat as a butane tank of gas on the BBQ grill – once it’s lit, you can have countless cook-outs before the fuel is gone.

Here’s the important part– All of those fuel sources – kindling, damp firewood or butane gas need something to ignite them and keep them burning. Physiologically speaking that ignition or burning “tool” is ATP which is created by mitochondria; so, the more mitochondria you have the more efficient you are as a fuel burning machine.

What is mitochondria and how do we get more of it?  Some of us are genetically blessed with higher mitochondria counts. Thank your mother for that – it comes through the maternal side of the genetic equation. If you didn’t win the genetic lottery, then the only way you can increase mitochondria is through LONG, SLOW, ENDURANCE training (LSE). When you go for a long run at a slow pace, you actually produce mitochondria. Kind of cool, huh? Now remember – we need mitochondria to help ignite our fuel sources. So what does that mean for you? It means SLOW DOWN on your long run – give your body a chance to become a mitochondria production factory. If you do your long run at a strong pace, you’re missing out on this benefit.So we will be keeping it SLOW on Thursdays, and now you know why.

Proposed Route – 70 min/about 6 miles – Hyde Park Loop
RunGo:  https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/ybk4zOsBh9
Starting point is Barclays.  From there, run down Circus Road and turn left on Grove End/ Lisson Grove.  Cross over Marylebone Rd (now you’re on Seymour Pl) and run until the road ends.  Turn right on Seymour St, cross Edgware Rd, and turn left at the next street (Stanhope Pl).  Cross into Hyde Park, cross over the Carriage Rd.  Turn right at the silver sphere after entering the park.  Cross over N Carriage Rd and turn left just after the Italian Gardens at the bottom of the hill.  Run along the water (it turns into the Serpentine) and turn right at the end to run along the southern edge of the park toward Hyde Park Corner.  Then turn left and head back up along the eastern edge of the park before exiting at the Upper Brook St/Animals of War exit.  After you cross Park Ln, make your first left onto Park St and keep going until you get to Park Rd.  Turn left on Park Rd and make your way back to Starbucks.

Hi everyone!
What a great run down to see the lights on Oxford & Regent Streets last week.  You all continue to amaze us – it was a HUGE jump up in running time and you all made it seem so easy.  It might not have felt so easy, but it was definitely nice having the lights as a distraction.  And the rain (mostly) held off!

We have just two more weeks until winter break and we will accomplish a lot before then.  You all can DO this!  We are so excited for all of you, how well you are doing.  We have several pieces of information below but not quite so long-winded as the past few weeks 🙂

RSVP System
Given the varying paces in the group now, we are going to try out pre-sorting you all before the run on Thursday so people are running similar paces.  By doing it ahead of time, we can get the run started more quickly.  Jess is back in the UK but in quarantine so can’t run with us yet, but she will be the group coordinator because she misses you all!  Please RSVP to her so we know you are coming.  Tanya, Ash and Sony – we know you will not be there so you’re all set 🙂

Non-Thursday RunningJust a reminder that you are running about 30-35 minutes on the weekends and 45 minutes on Tuesdays.  Your segments should not be longer than what we run on Thursday – so nothing longer than 25 min this Tuesday and 30 min next Tuesday.  Please please get in both of these runs each week.  It will make the Thursday runs so much more enjoyable and less intimidating!

Shoes
Some of you may have already purchased new shoes since you started running, but some haven’t.  If you haven’t, it would be good to get a new pair before we start increasing our mileage in January.  If you’re going back to the US for the holidays, you could pick up a pair there (that’s what I did my beginner year).  It’s a good idea to go to a store that knows what it’s doing – that will evaluate your gait and suggest an appropriate shoe for you.  In London, Runners Need (a chain with many locations) or the Asics store on Oxford Street offer gait analysis.  You want to get new shoes soon so you can make sure they are comfortable and don’t cause any issues.  When I was a beginner, I ran the first few months in cross trainers and when I got “real” running shoes, my knees started hurting because I was landing differently in the new shoes.  It took several weeks of alternating with my old and new shoes before everything settled and I was glad to have that time.

Lululemon Event
Reminder about the Lululemon event that is this week.  Shop in person or via phone, mention you are with WRW and use the code BE KIND.  The details are in the graphic below if you are interested!

This Week
For Thursday, we are going to run down to Hyde Park.  A few of you went before during lockdown but we are going to go again as it’s a great place to go for your future Tuesday runs – easy to get to, and then you get the park to run in.  We will end at the Green Park tube so BRING YOUR CONTACTLESS OR OYSTER CARD!  We can get coffee at Starbucks or Joe & the Juice nearby.

Directions for the run:
RunGo:  https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/YTQBKBvaQe

From the church gardens, run straight out and up Cochrane St and turn left on Circus Rd.  Cross Wellington, head down Circus Rd and turn left on Lisson Grove.  Run to Marylebone Road and cross over to Seymour Place.  At the end, turn right, cross over Edgware Road (be careful at this light) and run straight for one block on Seymour Road.  Turn left on Stanhope Place and then cross Hyde Park Pl to get into Hyde Park.  When you see the silver globe, after crossing North Carriage Dr, turn right.  When the path curves left, go straight and cross the road (be careful!) and head down the hill.  Turn left at the far side of the fountain and follow the path along the side of the Italian Gardens, keeping to the path right along the water.  You will go under a bridge, still keeping the water on the left.  When the path diverges, run down to the right to join the paved path, taking care to avoid the bicycles.  At the corner of the park, turn right and make your way out of the gates to Hyde Park Corner and cross over Knightsbridge to run through the Wellington Arch and into Green Park.  Run diagonally to the left to go towards the tube station at the far end.

Hello everyone!

I hope those of you that celebrate Thanksgiving had a nice one with your families, even if it was perhaps quieter than usual.  My daughter and I spent most of the day cooking and we Zoomed with our parents and my older daughter during the meal – so nice!  I am thankful for the opportunity to coach and get to know all of you!  
For this Tuesday, just keep in your pairs if you can.  If you need a buddy, please let me know and we will find one for you.

Holiday Lights at 6 am
I am so happy that on Wednesday we will be DONE with lockdown!  This means we are back to our packs of 6 or fewer on Thursday, just in time for the lights run.  It’s been wonderful to see the photos of you all out with your individual coaches, but I am so glad we will be back TOGETHER!  Remember, we will be meeting on Thursday at 6 am SHARP.  If you will NOT be joining us, please let me know so we are not waiting for you.

This week we will be running two 25 minute segments but there will be many extra stops as we take in the holiday decorations.  It will be important not to start out too fast as the first half of the run will have few stops.

Since we are meeting so early this week, the Church Gardens will not yet be open.  Therefore, we are going to meet at the Barclays and the plaza opposite Barclays this week.  To keep our numbers under control, we will split up between the 2 sides of the street so when you arrive, please go to the side with fewer people if possible. We will meet at 6 am and plan to start out ASAP so please be on time.  In order to make sure we are back to get the kids off to school, we will do a quick warm up, walk one block down Wellington Road and then we will start running. When we’re waiting at Barclays and when we walk or run by the houses in town, be VERY QUIET. No talking or only whispers. Our group is very loud and we don’t want to wake up the entire neighbourhood at that early hour! Since it will be so dark, please wear bright or reflective clothing and maybe even carry a bike light or head lamp if you have one. And be extra careful of the cars!

Hampton Court Half and Running the Race
So far, 9 of you have filled out the response form for the race.  PLEASE fill it out this week, even if you are not sure if you are planning to run.  Please fill out this form!

I realized that since we did not have our traditional beginner breakfast meeting in October to talk about the race, many of you may not realize how it all works.  The coaches will run with you all during the race.  We will put you into small groups based on your pace and each coach will take a few of you.  Your coach will set the pace, making sure you don’t start out too fast.  She will guide you through water intake and energy intake and be there for anyone who is struggling.  We will talk a lot more about this as we get closer, but I wanted you all to know that we won’t just train you and leave you – we will be there for you the entire time.  I hope this eases some of your minds.  Please ask if you have any questions about it.

Last Call for blue WRW Hat from last yearI have 2 of you who are interested in a WRW hat – Jennifer and Tessa.  Please let me know this weekend if anyone else is interested – otherwise I will release them to others who have enquired.

Lululemon Event
Marissa O’Malia has arranged with Lululemon to have a private shopping event for WRW.  The details are in the graphic below if you are interested!

The Route for This Week
The map below is the one used by the MWF group and it has us going to Baker Street.  To get home by 7:15, you may need to stop at Bond Street and that is fine.  However, we have found the last couple of years that to finish the full 25 minute segments, we need to run to Baker Street.  So those of you that can do that, that will be our destination if Bond Street doesn’t do it for us.  Please remember your Oyster/contactless card! 

See you all bright and early on Thursday! 

Amy

Hello everyone!

Well, it looks like this will be the last week of one-on-one coaching (for now anyway – don’t want to jinx it!) given the announcements yesterday about post-lockdown gatherings.  I want to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of our guest coaches.  We truly could not have done it without you.  I am so glad you’ve gotten to know some of our fantastic beginners, and they you.

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, we needed to have a couple of you run on Friday.  Based on the poll you did (which I know was almost a month ago now), the list below is how it’s ended up.  If any of you have conflicts, please let me know ASAP so we can figure something else out.

Reminder
Beginners – don’t forget to fill out the Google form about your intentions for running the Hampton Court Half.  Please fill out this form even if you do not intend to run.  Thank you!

The coach/runner email list is at the bottom.  Here are this week’s pairs.  I hope everyone who celebrates has a Happy Thanksgiving!

8-8:30 am Thursday 26 November
Stephanie – Joanna
Melissa – Mariyam
Amy – Corisha
Sue W – Ritu (15 min segments)
Heather – Tessa 
Kate – Wunmi
Paola – Farhana
Shannon – Trenita
Micki – Tammy
Erin – Devyani

10 am Thursday
Miki – Heloisa
Paola – Ana

8-8:30 am Friday 27 November
Micki – Darlene
Sue W – Natasha (15 min segments)

The Intervals
The intervals for Thursday (note – these are different from the original schedule sent out):

• Warm up
• 17 min run/3 min walk
• 20 min run/3 min walk
• 17 min run/3 min walk
• 5 min cool down walk

Proposed Route
note – the map below shows the run going in the reverse.  Since many of us ran basically the second half of this last week, I’m doing it in reverse this week to make it a little different.  The RunGo is the reverse.  https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/tpnHwdGuHu

Head down Circus and turn left onto Grove End.  Cross diagonally onto St. John’s Wood Road and turn left onto Cunningham.  Turn right onto Aberdeen Place and cross over Maida Vale, getting on the sidewalk on the right side of Blomfield Rd.  Run a few blocks and turn left on Westbourne Terrace Road Bridge.  At the end of the bridge, turn left to get onto the canal.  Run straight and just after you pass under the highway, bear right into Sheldon Square and run around it, curving up the hill heading towards Paddington Station.  At the top, turn right onto Bishop’s Bridge and run for almost a mile to Ledbury Road.  Turn right onto Ledbury and then right onto Westbourne Park Rd.  Turn left onto Great Western Road and cross over the canal.  Turn right onto Elgin Avenue and keep going, crossing Maida Vale and turning right onto Hamilton Terrace.  Turn left onto Hall Road and run back to Barclays/Starbucks.

Hi everyone,

Thursday was HUGE!  3 15-minute segments – that is fantastic.  We are SO proud of all of you. 

Remember, beginning this week, the Tuesday run is now a total of 45 minutes exercise time and your weekend run should be 30-35 minutes total.  Break it up with walk/runs however feels most comfortable to you.  If you don’t have someone to run with on Tuesday and would like someone, please reach out and we may be able to pair you up with a coach.

This is another lengthy email, so please bear with me.

This week’s segments
The schedule for this week has us repeating last week’s 15 min segments.  In a normal year, for Thanksgiving week, we repeat the prior week’s segments because usually many of you are traveling and would have to do the run on your own.  Some years, like last year, we had already gotten to the 25 min segment so that is what was repeated.  Since few of you are traveling this year, we are going to slightly increase this week’s segments so that next week’s 25 min segments don’t feel quite so big.  So for this week, we are going to run 17/20/17 with a 3 minute walk in between.  So for the handful of you who are away, please run those segments.  For the rest of you, we will let your coach know the segments so you don’t have to think about it.  I will send out the pairings in a day or so, once I get them finalised.

Coaches
Since we have been running in one-on-one pairings, you may not have realized that 2 of our coaches are away but I wanted to let you know.  Renata traveled to NY in order to become a US citizen (congratulations, Renata!) and is now back in London and quarantining.  She hopes to be back running with us for the Lights Run (see below).  Jess traveled to Argentina this week since they have finally opened their borders and will return to London in early December.  Her quarantine time will depend on whether the UK government updates its quarantine policies – so hopefully for our sake they will!  In the meantime, Sue Wheeler and Shannon Ashton are our official coach subs – thank you Sue and Shannon!

Lights Run – Thursday 3 December – 6 am
Just a reminder that to celebrate our release from lockdown, we will be doing our annual favorite – the Lights Run.  I will send more detail in the next email but we will be meeting at 6 am SHARP for this run.  The church gardens will not be open at that hour so stay tuned for the meeting spot (it will be close to the gardens).  Of course, this assumes lockdown is actually over, but we are going to assume now that it will be.  If you have any questions in the meantime, just let me know.

Hampton Court Half signup
I believe many of you have signed up for the Hampton Court half.  Yay!  We are asking everyone in WRW to let us know their intentions for the race, even if you are not planning to run it, so we can start some organising.  Please fill out this form to let us know if you’re planning to run the half, if you’ve registered, and whether you would like to reserve a race hat.  If you wear a hat running, I highly recommend getting the race hat.  In a normal year, the race hat would be an automatic thing – part of going on the trip.  It is always a light or bright colour that coordinates with the annual shirt (if you ordered one…) and it allows us to quickly identify another WRW runner during the race.  In a race with thousands of runners, it is thrilling to spot fellow WRWers and cheer them on.  And they will cheer for you!  And if you haven’t yet registered but you intend to participate, please sign up now! 
WRW Hats
Speaking of hats, a tradition at WRW has been to give the beginners the prior year’s race hat because we always have leftovers.  Recently, we’ve given them out just before the Winter 10K – another beginner tradition that has gone by the wayside this year 🙁  Here is a photo of this past year’s hat.  If you are interested, please let me know in the next week.  If you don’t normally wear a hat, or aren’t interested, that is totally fine as we have several other non-beginners who are interested in them and we don’t have enough extras to give them out – you guys get first dibs!

And now for the lengthy part of the email.  Feel free to skim or skip it – I know it is quite verbose!

Nutrition
With Thanksgiving coming soon and many of us having food on our minds, I thought it would be a good time to talk about nutrition for runners.  The information here is taken directly from Paula, the founder of our group (she is the “I” in the text).  She has years of experience as well as trainer certification.  That said, everyone is different and you need to figure out what will work best for you.

Protein:
Let’s start with protein because that is probably the most critical component as you increase exercise intensity or duration.  When you run, you create tiny tears in your muscle fibers and protein is required to repair that damage.  For female long-distance runners, experts suggest taking in about 90g a day (or 1.6-1.8g/kg of body weight).  That’s a lot of protein – it takes a concerted effort to get there and at our level, we don’t need that much.  Make it “clean” protein when possible – lean meats, fish, nuts, yogurt, lentils/pulses and low-fat milk (this is the one low-fat product that most nutritionists agree is fine).  Most professional runners eat salmon like crazy – I’ve never heard a nutritionist say that salmon is THAT much better than other fish, but a lot of very experienced runners sing its praises.

Carbohydrates:
A lot of trainers will encourage you to increase your carb intake, but I don’t fully agree (particularly for our type of running).  It may be necessary for athletes training at extemely high intensity zones, but that’s not what we’re doing.  Bottomline….  we are trying to teach our bodies to use fat as 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 a half-marathon.  If you increase your carb intake on a daily basis, then your body starts expecting a constant feed of carb fuel and may begin to resist going to fat as a fuel source.  Your body needs carbs so don’t completely cut them out – just choose clean carbs, complex when possible, ie. grains, wholewheat products, basmati rice (the longer the grain the better – long grain basmati is better for you than even brown rice).  Bread is not evil, just don’t rely on it as your major carb source.  Sourdough bread is better for you (usually made with naturally occuring yeast) than traditional loaves.

Fat:
Fat is necessary in our diets.  I would make a nutritionist cringe by explaining it so simply, but basically fat creates a slower release of energy/fuel.  It’s as though you’ve taken a time release medication rather than a typical dose when you combine a bit of fat with your other nutrition sources.  Fat from avocados, olive oil, nuts, etc is obviously better for you than fat in brownies, cookies, etc (sorry about that!!!).  Some current research is suggesting it is actually it’s the sugar in those products rather than the saturated fat that is causing a big problem with obesity, diabetes and heart disease.  We can let the scientists battle that out – for us, just try to get your fat from more natural foods.

With all nutrition, the closer you can get to whole food, the better (i.e., apples are better than applesauce, whole vegetables are better than pre-packaged ones).  Basically, the closer your food looks to how you would find it “in-situ”, the better.  That concept is one thing on which all nutritionists/dietitians seem to agree.
Before you run, I would suggest the following:
• 50g carbohydrates
• 5g protein
• 2-3g fat

That could be a half bagel with cream cheese, yogurt with nuts (if the nuts don’t upset your stomach), a smoothie, or try oatmeal/porridge – it wins the prize for a near-perfect carb/protein/fat mix for pre-run.  Most people find simpler carbs work better before a run than complex carbs as they are more easily digested (so a plain bagel instead of a wholegrain/seeded bagel).  Ideally, eat the pre-run meal 90 minutes before running.  Sometimes that is just not possible, so the closer to the run that you eat, the more you should consider simplier carbs for easier digestion.   The latest research on coffee/caffeine pre-exercise, suggest there is no impact on performance, but a huge impact on perceived exertion.  This is interesting to me – basically these new studies conclude that given two athletes who have eaten the exact same thing, and are asked to perform at the exact same level, and who have the exact same result feel differently about how hard the session was.  The one who has caffeine in their system will feel it was easier – their “perception of exertion” is lower.

Within 30 minutes after you run, I would suggest the following:
• 50g carbohydrates
• 10g protein
• 2g fat

The protein piece is critical as is the timing of this food.  Again, a nutritionist/scientist would cringe at how I try to explain this, but here we go… when you exercise your muscles are agitated/traumatized.  The cell membranes temporarily become more porous (instead of a wall, it’s more like a mesh allowing the flow of nutrients easy passage).  Some post-run ideas would be a latte and yogurt, a latte and a piece of fruit or a latte and half a skinny muffin.  I’ve attached the Starbucks nutritional info to make this easier for you.  Basically a tall, skinny latte has 14g of carbs, 10g of protein and 0g fat – so you’re looking for another 35g of carbs in addition to the latte.  All of this pre/post run info would apply to longer runs and what qualifies as a long run is different from runner to runner.  You are probably just fine eating whatever you normally consume until about mid-end January when our runs lengthen.

Click here for Starbucks beverage nutrition info
Click here for Starbucks food nutrition info

Hi,Here are the beginner/coach pairings for this week.  For many of you, the pairings are the same as they have been.  Next week, I am planning to mix it all up for our (hopefully) last week of lockdown.  As usual, the list of coach/beginner emails is at the bottom.
This week is a big week – we are moving to just 3 segments of 15 minutes each with a 3 minute walk (versus 2 min) in between.  We will do these intervals for 2 weeks before making another big leap.  You guys can DO this!!  It’s actually 2 minutes less running time than last week…  🙂
For the route – in years past, the route has gone down to Hyde Park and ended at Green Park.  This has been a celebratory run for the 15 minute segments and has also served as an introduction for getting to Hyde Park.  However, I know not everyone is comfortable getting on the tube, or perhaps walking home from there.  So I am putting it in as option and you can discuss with each other if you are up for it or if you want to do a SJW loop (proposed new route also attached).[and I just have to note that looking at the Green Park route map – it shows Winter Wonderland… normally it would be something to be checking out on the run but not this year 🙁  ]

8-8:30 am Thursday 19 November
Amy G – Mariyam 
Melissa K  – Ritu
Paola D – Tammy
Sue W – Farhanna
Shannon A  – Ash
Micki H – Joanna
Veena G – Tessa
Kate B – Wunmi
Magali K –   Corisha
Heather D – Jennifer 
Maya B – Darlene 
Marissa O – Devyani 

Thurs 10 am
Kelly W – Ana (Hyde Park area)
Miki N – Heloisa (Hyde Park area)
Zeina G – Sue K

Friday ~8 am
Sue W – Trenita

The Intervals
he intervals for Thursday:

• Warm up
• 15 min run/3 min walk
• 15 min run/3 min walk
• 15 min run/3 min walk
• 5 min cool down walk

Suggested Route 1 – Hyde Park to Green Park
From Barclays, head down Circus Rd and turn left on Lisson Grove.  Run to Marylebone Road and cross over to Seymour Place.  At the end, turn right, cross over Edgware Road (be careful at this light) and run straight for one block on Seymour Road.  Turn left on Stanhope Place and then cross Hyde Park Pl to get into Hyde Park.  When you see the silver globe, after crossing North Carriage Dr, turn right.  Follow that path to the road (N Carriage Drive) and cross the road (be careful!).  Run down the hill to the Italian Gardens and turn left to run along the gardens (the gardens will be on your left).  Keep to the path closest to the water and run through the tunnel under the road and past the Diana Memorial Fountain and the cafe.  Keep along the water and at the end, bear right to run down onto the path (keep out of the bike path on the right).  At the end of the path, go right to make your way out of the gates to Hyde Park Corner and cross over Knightsbridge to run through the Wellington Arch and into Green Park.  Run straight and then turn left to go towards the Green Park tube station at the far end.

Suggested Route 2 – Canal West Loop
RunGo:  https://routes.rungoapp.com/route/sSZ0SazoQg
Head toward the western canal by running down St. John’s Wood Rd (if leaving from the church gardens) or Circus to Grove End (if leaving from Barclays).  From St. John’s Wood Rd, turn left on Cunningham Pl and then right on Aberdeen.  Continue straight onto Blomfield Rd and keep running until you get to Westbourne Terrace.  Turn left to cross the canal and then right to get on the sidewalk (not the canal path) parallel to the canal.  Continue straight, running through a small park at the edge of the canal and then head slightly left to come up at Harrow Road.  Turn left and then make your first right onto Alfred Rd.  Shortly you will see a path on your left – take than to cross over the train tracks on a bridge.  Head straight on Westbourne Park Passage until it ends and turn left onto Westbourne Park Rd.  At the end, turn right onto Porchester Rd then left onto Bishop’s Bridge Rd.  Take this to Paddington, taking a left just after you cross the tracks to head back down to the canal area.   Continue this direction along the canal, taking the footbridge to loop you around the basin at Westbourne Terrace.  Take the small path up off the canal onto Blomfield and continue running the same direction, retracing your original steps to head back to SJW.

Hi Everyone,

We’re really moving along now in our training and you guys are all doing AMAZING! Last week was another jump and from what I hear you all took it in stride (hah!). We will be going up a bit more this week but we know you’ve ALL got this.I will send out this week’s coach pairings hopefully by Tuesday.  We are halfway through lockdown and you guys are all doing great.

This is a very long email, sorry.  But it has important information so please do your best to read it.
We have some significant increases in our training coming up, but you all are ready – really! But there are some important things we need to discuss, so bear with me because this email is a bit long.

We have reached a turning point in our training with this coming week’s run. We will be running 3 15-minute segments with 3 minutes of walking in between. Think about that – remember running 60 seconds those first weeks and we all thought we were going to die. Then two minutes…. well, it might as well have been a lifetime. We know it’s not easy – learning to run is challenging, but think of where you’ve come from. We’re putting in an hour of total time now – it’s amazing what you’re doing. We are at a critical point in our training where the routine begins to change… so I’ll just jump right in and start explaining.

• 3 runs a week? If you are aiming to do the half-marathon in the spring, you should be adding a third run each week if you haven’t already. It will make the race a lot easier if you can get in a third run as much as you can. Let’s be clear – it’s never easy running 13.1 miles, but the more miles you’ve put in, the more comfortable your body will be running that distance.
  
• Varying each run – This is the good news….. We have progressed to the point where our runs/routes will begin to vary. Next Tuesday 24 November (or whichever day you are doing your second run) you will no longer simply repeat the route we did together the previous Thursday. After this week, you will be doing one long run with your coaches on Thursdays, one medium run and for the third weekly run, you will do a short run. The medium run (beginning Tuesday 24 Nov) will be 45 minutes total exercise time. Feel free to break that up into whatever intervals you are comfortable with. If you’re not sure where to start, you could try doing a 2 minute warm-up walk (after your warm up exercises) followed by three 13 minute jogging intervals separated by 2 minute walking breaks and 2+ minute walk at the end. The third run should be 30-35 minutes total exercise time. This also can be broken down into whatever length intervals make you happy. A place to start may be…. 2 minute warm-up walk followed by three 8-9 minute intervals separated by 2 minute walks. Particularly for this 30-35 minute session, some of you may be interested in doing a walking warm-up then just jogging slowly until you feel you need a break. Then walk for a couple of minutes and jog some more until you reach the 30-35 minute total time. If you want to try that, here are a few tips. First of all, run SLOW, like what we do on Thursdays. Second, don’t look at your watch. Do your warm-up then start jogging. Look around, watch the people on the streets or in the park, think about anything but running, notice the yellow/gold/red leaves, make a grocery list in your mind, think about what book you want to read next or where you want to go on holiday (eventually)…. anything but running. When you’ve had enough, then check your watch to see how much time you did, take a walking break and carry on. You may just amaze yourself. On these additional runs, go wherever you want. You know how to get to Hyde Park, Regent’s Park is right there, and access to the canal is super easy. We’ll help you come up with some other ideas if those routes get boring.
  
• Consistent Training – For just a minute here we’re going to be a little bit more tough than usual. These Thursday long runs are getting more and more important. If there is any way you can get there, please join us. We know some of you have things you have committed to ages ago and we get it. Until now it has not been a problem because we are simply repeating the Thursday run on the following Tuesday. We are all busy and there are always weeks here and there when we can’t run. Not a problem! The bottom line is this… if you cannot make the majority of the Thursday runs, particularly in the new year, but truly even throughout December, it will be very difficult for you to contemplate doing a half-marathon. We’re not trying to be mean or demanding or threatening, just realistic. As our Thursday long run lengthens, you will want and need help, advice, pacing and someone to complain to. We will be discussing fueling/hydration and trying out different options in that regard. Those are things we need to learn/practice together – it’s not the same as reading it in an email. The other one or two runs each week are much, much less important. That’s the end of that speech….. next topic!
  
• What’s your pace? We are beginning to settle into pace groups. This is natural and is not a reflection of your fitness level. We need to each find the pace that feels comfortable. Some of you have longer strides, some take smaller steps, some of you have long legs, some of you are tiny and have to take two steps to every one stride of a taller runner. It’s not only down to height – some tall people have a natural up and down movement with less forward propulsion. Most runners say that if they are asked to adjust their natural pace, things start hurting so it is important to find your natural speed. We need to start thinking about where in the group you are pace-wise. For the race, we will divide ourselves up based on these training paces so everyone will have a group and a trainer to run with.  You probably have noticed that we don’t talk about pace in terms of numbers or precise times in this group. It’s not important to have a specific number – it is important to know what feels comfortable to you…. not too fast, not too slow, but just right!
  
• Hydration – As our runs get longer, we need to start taking in fluids while we’re running. Hydration requirements vary vastly from runner to runner, but experts suggest targeting about 500ml of fluid for each hour of exercise. Our needs are probably less than that as we are operating at a lower intensity level doing long distance training. You may consider buying a belt that holds little bottles, a tiny camelback (one that sits very high up on your back), or one of those bottles that slips over your hand. I wouldn’t recommend a large backpack – it changes your gait. This need to carry water applies only to your weekly long run. You are fine running 30-45 minutes if you drink before and after your session.

I understand that you have no point of reference, so you have no idea how well you are doing. We’re running about 4 miles now, over and over again. I know it’s not easy, but you are doing it. You have the worst of it behind you. It’s A LOT harder going from 0 running minutes to 1 running minute, or from 1 to 2 minutes – those are difficult beyond belief. In the next few weeks, we are transitioning into straight running, no designated walking breaks. That may sound scary, but think about where we run. Even though I say we are running 50 or 60 minutes non-stop, there will be street crossings. You will learn to pray for the little “red-man light”. My message is that you can do this. You have each other to lean on and all of your coaches to help out however we can.Hope to see many of you on Thursday,
Amy