Hello Runners!
OK, how bossy can a person be???? I’m heading out of town tomorrow morning and will be away for the next two weeks, but am still telling you where I think you should run! I promise you can do whatever you want to do – just push the delete button if you don’t want to hear the suggestions! Not only am I going to tell you where to go, but I’m coming up with some pretty mundane routes so you’ll really miss me. I’m thinking it may be a good idea for everyone to run some version of the same route for the next two weeks. We have a number of new additions to the group who may still be figuring out where they belong in terms of pace. If everyone is running in the same direction, then maybe we’ll see where those natural groupings occur.
Monday (26 Sept) –
- Fast Group – Battersea Park. I know we just did this route a couple of weeks ago, but it’s the perfect distance (10 miles) for those of you doing the half-marathon on 9 October and most of us know the route.
- Front of the mid-level Group – Those of you wanting to try to make the transition to the fast group – go for it! This is a great route for you to push yourself. If you don’t think you can do 10 miles at a strong pace, then consider running the first 7.5 miles of the route at finish at Green Park tube station or do the 10 miles just trying to keep those girls in sight. If you prefer a loop, you could run down with the group to Sloane Square then turn around and retrace your steps (that’s also about 7.5 miles round-trip).
- Core of the mid-level Group – You girls have been amazing. Your distances are getting longer and you’re cracking me up with the “Oh, we only ran 6.5 miles yesterday” attitude. If you’ve been steadily increasing your mileage, I’d shoot for 7.5 miles. That would give you lots of options – you could do either of the 7.5 mile suggestions above or you could do a loop around Hyde Park instead (8 miles which you can shorten to about 7.6 miles by cutting off the end of the park – just turn south on the broadwalk by the Peter Pan playground instead of going behind and in front of Kensington Palace).
Wednesday (28 Sept) –
Everyone to “The Wall” (6 miles round-trip) – it’s the canal east to Islington for new-comers (it’s an out and back route – someone will show you the way). For those of you wanting to get a bit faster, think about timing this run and making note of how long it took you to do it. It’s great to have a “baseline” to work from. If you are interested in timing yourself, I would recommend shooting for a negative split (run to the wall, make note of your time and come back a bit faster than you went). Some of us when doing this sort of tempo work run really hard initially then get slower and slower. What happens mentally is you finish the run feeling like you completely ran out of steam. If the last half is faster than your first half, you finish feeling pretty proud of yourself (thankfully I’ll be in the US and won’t have to witness the “victory dances” at Starbucks).
Friday (30 Sept) –
Everyone to the heath/Hampstead. I think you all know the routine now – we all head up to Hampstead and whoever wants a long run heads into the heath. Each group seems to have a routine they like and everyone runs whatever distance they chose. Unless someone feels ready to lead the new route, the old route works just fine.
Monday (3 Oct) –
Some version of the three parks (Hyde, Green, St. James). For those of you running the upcoming half, you may want to just run the 8 mile loop around the perimeter of Hyde Park. For anyone wanting more distance you could run around Hyde Park, go into Green Park or even St. James then back to St. John’s Wood. The full 3 parks is about 11 miles round-trip. You could always tailor it to whatever distance you want by grabbing a tube/bus/taxi home. This is a perfect route for everyone. For those of you wanting 4 miles, head down with the group to Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park then turn around and run home. If you want something more like 6 miles, go down to Hyde Park and turn south before the road that cuts through the center of the park, come back along the Serpentine and head back up to Speaker’s Corner then home.
Wednesday (5 Oct) –
Notting Hill or Notting Hill in reverse. If you loved that tempo work on the canal east to Islington last week, then consider doing Notting Hill in reverse. You’ll have a great opportunity to stretch your legs once you hit the canal and are heading back to SJW. Notting Hill in the regular direction is always fun also. The full route is between 6.5 and 7 miles. Anyone wanting less mileage could either run out the canal and turn around and run home or follow the group into Notting Hill but stop running at Paddington station (about 5.25 miles).
Friday (7 Oct) –
Everyone to the heath/Hampstead. Same routine as last week.
I’ll go ahead and tell you the plan for Monday, 10 October, for those planners amongst us. I’m going to be running very long out the canal east to Victoria Park then north along the River Lea toward or just past the M25. The first 6-7 miles of that run is our regular route to Canary Wharf so people could either join me for as many miles as you want (you’d get to see the Olympic site along the way) or carry on to Canary Wharf. That’s always a fun run!
The last thing – remember we have some moms with K1 children in the group. They get over to Starbucks between 8:15 and 8:20.
See you in a couple of weeks!
Happy running,
Paula