Hello Runners,
The holiday season has officially begun! We have 3-4 weeks of training before most of our runners leave for the holidays (or have children at home and don’t run on the regular schedule). This is such a busy time of the year for everyone so we’ll have some flexible routes planned where you can run to destinations or do loops back to SJW.

Thank you so much for inputting your information into the Bratislava spreadsheet last week (and thank you Kelli for teaching me how to use google docs). We will continue to use this spreadsheet as we plan the trip – it’s hugely simplifying the planning! The spreadsheet is currently closed to input; if you have updated information just email it to me. Thanks a million!

Lynn Gilbert’s father passed away last week after a long battle with Parkinsons Disease. Please keep her in your thoughts. Lynn has touched all of us with her endearing smile, her willingness to help each of us and her non-stop encouragement of each and every runner. Let’s extend that same care and attention to her during this most sad time. Lynn is in the US now but will return to London in January.

Many of you have asked for nutrition help/advice/suggestions/guidance. Click here for a link to some nutrition information recently distributed to our runners preparing for a spring marathon. Here is the fine print…… General nutrition is a hugely controversial subject. Please do not assume what is written in that document is the “one-and-only” nutritional philosophy. There is a ton of good information online and in books/magazines regarding general nutrition and general nutrition specifically for athletes. I am not a nutritionist – this information is compiled from different sources that I rely on for myself. There is more of a consensus among experts regarding nutrition for performance; however, each runner’s body reacts differently during exercise. The guidelines cannot be applied in a cookie-cutter approach to each athlete. Play with it, experiment with what works for you. When you have a good run, think about what you ate the night before and the morning of the run, but remember that the science of fueling/energy is complicated. A good run or a bad run could be a reflection of what’s going on at home, stress levels, sleep, hormones, your pace, your fitness level, etc.

Routes this Week

Monday, 26 November
Please choose whichever route suits your schedule. Marathoners and half-marathoners have 8 miles on their schedule this week (we flip-flopped the 8 and 9 mile runs for marathoners between last week and this week).

 

Putney (8.5 miles) – This run is designed for the faster runners’ long run.
If you can’t keep up, bring a copy of the map so you know where to go. It’s a new way to get in 8-8.5 miles which is a lot more interesting than the Hyde Park loop. We’ll run down to Hyde Park then on towards the river through Sloane Sq. (doing some window shopping along the way). We will cross over the river and run along the south embankment (like the normal Battersea route). When we cross back over the river we’ll head southeast to meet with King’s Rd. We’ll run on King’s Rd. (a bit more window shopping here) then cross over the river again and finish at Starbucks on the Putney High St. It’s a large Starbucks that usually has a lot of available seating.

Battersea Park loop shortened (7.6 – 8.3 miles) – If you don’t have time to run to Putney, either follow the normal Battersea Park loop and finish at Green Park (7.6 miles) or Marble Arch (8.3 miles). If you are really pressed for time, consider doing the perimeter of Hyde Park (8 miles round-trip back to SJW) in the clockwise direction (so stay with the group until the SE corner of the park then carry on around the perimeter exiting near the NE corner).

 

Mid-paced tempo or medium distance run (6 miles) – This is a great route to learn. Start by running along the canal to Camden. Come off the canal and follow Chalk Farm Rd. south to Mornington Crescent tube station. Veer to the right at that Y intersection to run on Hampstead Rd. south across Marylebone Rd. At Tottenham Court Rd. tube station turn right and run west along Oxford St. Finish the run by taking Baker St. up to SJW. If you want to do some tempo/speed work on this run, read the description in the Wednesday section below.

Wednesday, 28 November

 

Cocomaya – Yay!!!! (8 miles) – This run is designed for the mid-paced runners’ long run. If you want to join in, you’ll need to run their pace. This should be a nice route with a fabulous finish at Cocomaya Bakery and chocolate shop. We’ll head down to Hyde Park via the canal west then Sussex Gardens to enter near the Italian fountains. We’ll run straight south through South Kensington (bring your ice skates if you want to do a quick spin on the rink at the Natural History Museum). We’ll run through the Brompton Cemetery then loop back to Hyde Park to finish near Connaught Square. If you need to get back quicker, either do the Hyde Park perimeter loop or run with the group and grab a tube/bus/taxi near Marble Arch.

Tempo run for faster runners (6 miles) – Follow the 6 mile loop that the mid-paced group is doing on Monday. If you want to do some tempo/speed work, jog for 5-6 minutes to warm up. Once you are warmed up, push the pace until you reach the Camden market area. Jog along Chalk Farm Rd. for 8-10 minutes or until you reach the Hampstead Rd. turn. From that Y intersection, try some street fahrtleks for the next 20 minutes remembering first of all to be careful! Watch for cars! As a reminder, fahrtleks are varying distances of quick-paced running. The easiest way to do street fahrtleks is to do sprints (or just quicker paced runs) to the next street crossing or the next rubbish can or the next red light. Just pick a landmark and sprint to that spot. The distance of each fahrtlek should be different – mix up longer legs (maybe up to 200 meters) with shorter legs (as short as 20 meters). Keep this fahrtlek session to 20 minutes or less then jog home.

Friday, 23 November
I may try the western route this week. Let me know if you’re interested in learning that route. The pace will depend on who decides to join in.
The Heath Western Route – (8 miles) – The new western route. For some reason this route seems to have more hills than the old route but it’s a lot of fun. You’ll see some different parts of the heath that you might not have seen before.
The Heath Normal Route – (8 miles) – The old route.
The Heath – (6-7 miles) – follow the group doing the full 8 mile old route. At Parliament Hill instead of turning left towards Kenwood House, turn right and run past the track. Exit the heath, run past Royal Free Hospital and head home through Belsize Park.
The Betsy route (5 miles) – I think Betsy is now doing a longer route on Fridays, but her namesake run is a great route. Anyone wanting this distance ask around as we are running up the hill to Hampstead and someone will explain to you how to do it.
Hampstead tube station (4 miles)– this is a great route to do if you’re short on time or are new to running “the hill”. Head up to the Hampstead tube station with the group then turn around and head back home. For a change of scenery, run up to Hampstead tube station then run back to Starbucks in SJW via the Hampstead high street, then Belsize Park, then down St. John’s Wood Park Rd.
Happy Running,
Paula

Hello Runners,
Goodness, the year is disappearing! In a month’s time, most of our running group will be away celebrating the holiday season or will have children home from school and will not be running on the regular routine. Let’s try to squeeze in some interesting routes between now and then!
Before we talk routes, could you do me a favour regarding the Bratislava trip? Check this spreadsheet (click here for the link) before this Sunday at midnight. Please make sure your flight and hotel information is correct. Please make any corrections and/or additions. Also, please input the following:

• Have you registered for the race? yes or no in Column D
• Do you want to ride the coach from the Vienna airport to the hotel? If so, the 2:30pm or the 6:15pm? (just put an x in the correct column K or L, or leave it blank if you are finding/arranging your own transport). We need these numbers so we know whether to order a large or medium coach.
• Input Sat and Sun dinner information. For now, we just need estimated headcounts for restaurant bookings. When it gets closer, we’ll deal with specifics. I’ll let you know when we need final decisions about dinners.
• Please add any comments that need to be noted in Column AN.

The spreadsheet is available to edit until this Sunday at midnight. After that time, any changes will need to be emailed to me. Next week I will be communicating our room counts to the hotel. You are free to make changes after Sunday, but they need to go through me (so I can call the hotel and say “now we are x # of doubles/singles/etc” instead of me needing to check the spreadsheet from time to time and figure out what has been changed). Throughout the next four months, we’ll open the spreadsheet so everyone can make final decisions on meals, tours, etc then close it again so headcounts can be passed on to restaurants and tour guides. Lastly, Lynn Gilbert is heading a group of ladies to organize the Sunday night celebration dinner and Betsy LaMaster and Kathy McMahon are organising the Saturday group tour. Would someone mind organising the Italian dinner Saturday night or getting together a group of ladies to organise it? It would involve finding an Italian restaurant (hopefully within walking distance of the Sheraton) and working with the restaurant to select a menu. Let me know if you’re willing to volunteer for that!

Routes this Week

Monday, 19 November
Due to the American Thanksgiving holiday, many of our runners are out of town or unavailable to run Wed/Thurs/Fri so we will do one, combined group long run on Monday. The medium progression, half-marathon training program has 9 miles on the schedule this week and the marathoners need to do 8 miles. Everyone feel free to bump that up to 9.5 if you want to go to Canary Wharf. It’s a great run!!!! There will be a wide pace range between the front of the pack and the back of the pack. If you are concerned about falling behind, find someone who would like to run your pace. There are places along this route that aren’t great to be running by yourself.
Canary Wharf (9.5 miles) – this is a fun route! We’ll follow the canal east to “The Wall” then come up to street level and run for a few minutes through Islington until we can drop back down to the canal. From that point, it’s all canal running until we reach Limehouse near the intersection of the canal and the river Thames. We wind our way through a residential area, run alongside the river for a bit, then cut into Canary Wharf business district to finish at the Starbucks in the mall at Canary Wharf. It’s a great run. You can see Canary Wharf from a couple of miles out (which is kind of cool), the canal provides for straight running without street crossings, and it feels great to grab a coffee then ride the tube back to St. John’s Wood.

Canal to Farringdon loop (8.25 miles) – If you don’t have time to run to Canary Wharf, try this route – it’s a loop back to SJW. Start with the main group on the canal to “The Wall”. When the Canary Wharf runners head on towards Islington, you turn right crossing Pentonville Rd and carry on south towards the river. At Oxford St. (called Holborn Viaduct at that point), turn right and run west all the way back to Baker St. Turn right (or north) there and finish at Starbucks in SJW. If you need 9 miles, turn into Regent’s Park near the end of the run to add a bit of

Wednesday, 21 November
Notting Hill (6.5 miles) – I think most of you know this route now. If you’re not familiar with it, have a look under the “Routes” tab to make sure you know where you’re going.
Notting Hill (6.5 miles) partial tempo run – If you want to try a bit of tempo work, but love the Notting Hill route – then do both!!! Jog to the canal, once you get there, run hard until the Ladbrook Grove turn-off (where we exit off the canal). From there, run a steady pace for the rest of the route and enjoy the window shopping in Notting Hill.
Western canal tempo run (any distance) – If you want a more intense tempo work-out than the one above, jog down to the canal, do your tempo work on the canal, turn around and do tempo work on the canal back to Maida Vale. From there, jog back to Starbucks in SJW to cool-down.

Friday, 23 November
There will probably be a small group running so do something fun (or follow the regular routes below)! With a small group you can make it up as you go. Ask Kathy, Michelle, Syma, and Sherry about their route today (Fri, 16 Nov). They call it the FUN route or the FYK route. It sounded like a blast! It’s approximately 7.99999999999 miles – definitely not as far as 8 miles.
The Heath – (8 miles) – The old route.
The Heath – (6-7 miles) – follow the group doing the full 8 mile old route. At Parliament Hill instead of turning left towards Kenwood House, turn right and run past the track. Exit the heath, run past Royal Free Hospital and head home through Belsize Park.
The Betsy route (5 miles) – I think Betsy is now doing a longer route on Fridays, but her namesake run is a great route. Anyone wanting this distance ask around as we are running up the hill to Hampstead and someone will explain to you how to do it.
Hampstead tube station (4 miles)– this is a great route to do if you’re short on time or are new to running “the hill”. Head up to the Hampstead tube station with the group then turn around and head back home. For a change of scenery, run up to Hampstead tube station then run back to Starbucks in SJW via the Hampstead high street, then Belsize Park, then down St. John’s Wood Park Rd.
Happy Running,
Paula

Hello Runners,
You ladies are amazing! I understand we had some huge groups out running while I was away. Well done! Your level of determination/commitment to running is impressive. It will pay off – I promise.
Two updates before we discuss routes:
Running Group T-shirts:
Our t-shirt order should be arriving the first week of December. We’ll figure out a way to easily distribute them once they are here. Chris and Kelli did a great job on getting those designed, fitted and ordered. Thanks so much ladies!
Bratislava Race:
The race registration is open and they continue to improve the process. There is now more English on the website and the race director has informed me that they will continue to update the website up to race day. There are now photos of last year’s races on the site which are interesting. It’s nice to get an idea of where we’ll be running. I will be at Starbucks on Monday and Wednesday to help people register for the race. Please remember if you register on your own to put “WRW- Women Running the World” or some version of that under our group name. The director is finding that helpful in identifying our runners.
Running over Thanksgiving:
Many of you will be away from Wed, 21 Nov through Sun, 25 Nov or home with children and not able to run the regular days. Please don’t worry! On Monday, 19 November, we’ll have routes that will work for marathoners, faster-paced and mid-paced runners for the long run. So mid-paced runners who do their long run on Wednesday can do it Monday instead. If you are able to run regularly over the break, excellent – if not, then shoot for one or two runs of 30-45 minutes each.

Routes this Week

Monday, 12 November
Yay! We’ll run to Kew – that’s always fun. If you are training for the half-marathon from the medium or gentle progression program, there is no need to run 10 miles this week. If you are training for a marathon or from the aggressive half-marathon program, then this is a great route for you!
Kew (10 miles) – We’ll run down to Hyde Park via Lisson/Seymour (normal route) then do a diagonal through Hyde Park towards the SW corner of the park (in front of Kensington Palace). From there head out Kensington High St to Hammersmith, cross over the river, then head west along the river to Kew. If you want the full 10 miles, don’t take the first Kew exit from the river (near the railroad tracks) – keep on running until you reach Kew Bridge then head south to Kew Gardens.
Mid-paced runners could do a mid-distance regular-paced run (and begin their holiday shopping) using the following route:
Modified Shopping Route (6 miles) – Start with the main group and head down to Hyde Park via Lisson/Seymour. Run down to Wellington Arch and cross over into Green Park. Head east along the northern boundary of the park then exit the park and continue along Piccadilly until you reach Old Bond St. Run north to Oxford St. then head up Marylebone High Street. Cross over Marylebone Rd to Regents Park and make your way back to SJW. to I think most of you know this route now. If you’re not familiar with it, have a look under the “Routes” tab to make sure you know where you’re going.
Or mid-paced runners could do a tempo run by staying in Hyde Park running hard on the red sides of the triangle on the map and jogging gently on the blue lines:
Hyde Park tempo work (6.5-7 miles) – Start with the main group and head down to Hyde Park via Lisson/Seymour at a very gentle pace. Once you reach the park, pick up the pace of your jog around Speaker’s Corner then run very fast down to the SE corner of the park. Jog around that corner trying to bring your heart-rate down then run hard to Carriage Rd. along the bike path. Jog over the bridge trying to reach a “recovered” state before doing the last hard run back to Speaker’s Corner on a diagonal. From this map you are jogging the blue parts and running hard on the red parts. Jog very slowly back to SJW or preferably take a bus/tube home from Marble Arch/Oxford St.. DO NOT continue to run at a strong pace all the way back to Starbucks in SJW (it’s OK to jog back slowly).

Wednesday, 14 November
Mid-paced runners should do the following route for their long run. If you are short on time, start with the group, do the Notting Hill loop and add 1-1.5 miles in Regents Park at the end of your run.
Wembley Central (8 miles) – Head out the canal west as though we are doing the Notting Hill route. Do not turn off the canal at our normal exit – keep running out the canal until you reach 7 miles. At that point (Alperton area – it’s the next exit after you see a white pedestrian bridge leading over the canal to a residential area on the northside). When you exit the canal, go over the bridge and take an immediate right on Ealing Rd. Run one mile up to the main intersection of Ealing Rd. and High Rd. The tube station is just to the right about 100m.
Our faster runners could do the tempo run that some of our mid-pace runners will do on Monday (see above):
Hyde Park tempo work (6+ miles) – If you are doing your long run on Monday, consider doing this route as a tempo run (or just at a comfortable pace – your choice!!!). Your warm-up and cool-down could be the jog to/from the canal.

Friday, 16 November
The Heath – (8 miles) – The old route.
The Heath – (6-7 miles) – follow the group doing the full 8 mile old route. At parliament hill instead of turning left towards Kenwood House, turn right and run past the track. Exit the heath, run past Royal Free Hospital and head home through Belsize Park.
The Betsy route (5 miles) – I think Betsy is now doing a longer route on Fridays, but her namesake run is a great route. Anyone wanting this distance ask around as we are running up the hill to Hampstead and someone will explain to you how to do it.
Hampstead tube station (4 miles)– this is a great route to do if you’re short on time or are new to running “the hill”. Head up to the Hampstead tube station with the group then turn around and head back home. For a change of scenery, run up to Hampstead tube station then run back to Starbucks in SJW via the Hampstead high street, then Belsize Park, then down St. John’s Wood Park Rd.

Happy Running,
Paula