Apologies in advance, I keep messing with things just a little here and there to get our groups just perfect.  I thought it may be helpful to give more specific suggestions to the mid-level runners as there is a very wide range of pace in that group.  I hope I’m not just confusing the situation.  Let me know if you’re not sure where/with whom you should be running.  For the new ladies this week, we’ll sort it out over the coming weeks – no worries.  Could someone please forward this to Chris and Margo?  I don’t have emails for them yet.

 Monday

• Fast Group – To Kew (10 miles) – yay!  I love this run.  We’ll head down via Hyde Park then west out Kensington High Street to Hammersmith crossing over the bridge to the south side of the river then off we go.  I’ll be running on to Richmond (13 miles) to get a few more miles, but please feel free to do whatever you want.
• Front of the mid-level Group – For those of you pushing the pace in the mid-level group, I would suggest you give Kew a try.  The first five miles to the river is a lot of stop and start so you’ll probably catch up with the fastest girls at the lights.  Once we hit the river you’ll definitely be on your own as the fast girls start to fly but all you’ll have to worry about at that point is when to turn off the river path to head to Kew.  Once you get to Kew, head to Starbucks and I imagine you’ll run into some of quicker-paced runners.  If you’re interested in this, it would be ideal to group yourself up with someone else who wants to give it a try.  If you don’t like that idea, how about running to Hammersmith and back (10 miles) or part way back (Green Park would be about 7.5 miles) or doing a loop around Hyde Park (8 miles).
• Core of the mid-level Group – I know you have been creating some 4-5 mile routes that are great.  Here’s a couple of other ideas:  you could run down to Big Ben the normal way but then cross over Westminster Bridge go along the river past the London Eye go back over the river on the bridge to Embankment Station (5 miles) or onto Westminster Station (about 5.3 miles).  Another idea is the shopping route through Regents Park, down Marylebone High Street, Oxford St to Bond St then down to Piccadilly and west to Green Park station (3 miles) carrying on to Hyde Park Corner (3.6 miles) then up through Hyde Park to Marble Arch (4.5 miles) or all the way back to SJW (6.3 miles).

Wednesday –

• Fast Group – What do you think about doing Notting Hill in reverse?  Once you get on the canal coming back to SJW you could do some tempo work on that stretch.  Fun, huh?
• Front of the mid-level Group – The route this week is going to be a great run (see the next section), but I’m expecting it to be very fluid as we have new people joining us who won’t be sure where they fit into the group pace-wise.  Also the route has a lot of turns (it’s worth it, believe me), so if you are wanting to push the pace and run super-hard then please do that on Monday.  If you’re out in front of me, we will get separated.
• Core of the mid-level Group – This week we are expecting several runners who are new to the group to join us.  We may be taking off just a bit late as a couple of them have kindergarten drop-off at school.  They are doing their speed work dashing over to Starbucks from ASL, but even at rocket speed they can’t get there until just after 8:15.  Goodness, I think we can all remember how stressful that was!  So, we’ll be heading out about 8:20 and doing a fabulous route running along the canal only to Paddington then cutting through the edge of Notting Hill to Hyde Park.  We’ll head across the park then down to Fulham Road, west out to Brompton Cemetery then back up to Kensington High Street finishing at Whole Foods Market.  For those of you who haven’t run through Brompton Cemetery, try to hang in there so you get to see it.  It’s an amazing place in the heart of London.  If you do the entire route back to Whole Foods, it’s 6.5-7.0 miles, but new girls…. don’t let that scare you.  We’ll have tube/taxi/bus options every mile or so along the way.  Everyone bring your Oyster card as we’ll all be taking a tube or bus home no matter how far you end up running.

Friday –

If you aren’t sure in which group you belong, let’s chat.  Also, there’s nothing wrong with floating between groups depending on the routes for the week.

Hope to see you out running this week,

Paula