Hello Runners!

Monday – Greenford (10 miles).  This route follows the canal west past Wormwood Scrubs, then over the North Circular, then past Alperton, then south to Greenford.  We’ll take the tube home (Central Line) so bring your Oyster cards.  There is no good coffee in Greenford, but at least it’s inexpensive (you may get change from a £ coin – seriously!).  This is a tough run because there are almost no street crossings – it’s just straight running.

If you are a mid-level runner and will be running on Wednesday, I would suggest you run the Hyde Park Serpentine route.  That run goes down to Hyde Park on Lisson Grove, then run west along the north border of the park until you reach the road which bisects Hyde Park.  Follow that road over the bridge then drop down to the Serpentine, run along the Lido, then cross over the Serpentine and head back past the US Embassy taking Baker Street to SJW.  That is a 6 mile route.

Tuesday – The “Ease Back into Running” group started last week with a bang.  We did 4 miles at a nice pace with lots of street crossings for some opportune breaks.  I know I said we’d do 2, maybe 3 miles, but these ladies can run!  We will do a similar pace and distance this week making sure we have transport options mid-run in case anyone doesn’t want to go 4 miles.  After this week, we will start to formulate a plan for the EBR group.  Some of these ladies want to use the group to “find their legs” and will then switch to the MWF runs.  Some ladies would prefer to train as a group until the Lisbon race doing their long runs together on Tuesday mornings.   So we’ll see what happens!  Bring your Oyster cards as we will probably do a destination run and tube/bus home.

Wednesday – The mid-level group will be running to Wembley.  We did 8+ miles last week and everyone did extremely well.  We will do 8 miles again this week, but all 8 mile routes are not created equal!  The route goes out the canal west (that’s why I’m suggesting a different route for you for Monday) and there are no red lights.  It’s just run, run, run for 7 miles then the last mile is uphill to the tube station.  It’s not easy, but it is good for us!  You know you can do 8 miles; you did it last week…. now we’ll just up the degree of difficulty a bit.  I’ll bring some tootsie rolls if that is at all enticing!

For the group who ran to Greenford on Monday, I would suggest one of the Hyde Park routes – either the Serpentine route (6.0 miles) or maybe the Hyde/Green Park route down to Hyde Park, under Wellington Arch, then a full loop around Green Park and back either through Mayfair (if you don’t mind the street running) or back through Hyde Park.  I have some new Wednesday routes for you as Notting Hill and The Wall were getting old.  I can explain/describe these if you are interested.

Thursday – Beginners Group.  This week we are doing 10 minute running intervals and they are nervous about it… big-time.  Please tell them it will be OK.  They can do it – I know it and you know it, but they don’t know it!

Friday – The heath, Hampstead, Kenwood House or any version of that – as long as you’re running up hills, you are making yourself stronger.