Hi Runners,

Thanks for a great week of training.  I was happy that so many of you made the 9-mile run to Wembley.  Well done!  We also made good progress on practicing the long-run training pace.   The traffic light experiment worked well and I think we’ll continue doing it.  The 10s were able to run a good pace by sending the 9s one traffic light ahead.  Just that little bit of separation helps each group manage the pace and also eases sidewalk congestion.   

This week our long run is a 7-mile run to Holland Park/Westfield.   You’ll see from our training schedules, that we’ll build mileage over a few weeks and then have some periodic cutback weeks.  It is important to give your body some recovery weeks with less mileage.  Also, we’re going to add some more intense tempo training this week (more on that below). 

Long Runs are KEY!

We’re now in mileage building time!  The long run is the most important thing during this period.  If you are struggling to remain motivated or are dealing with aches/pains, consider doing less mileage on your mid-distance run.  You could also consider doing less on the hills.

Looking ahead, we have the following long runs on the schedule –

Week of 27 Jan – Sloane Street/Pimlico Loop (8 miles)

Week of 3 Feb – Farrington, Embankment to SJW Loop (9 miles) or Green Park Tube (8 miles)

Week of 10 Feb – Canary Wharf (9 miles)

Week of 17 Feb – Half-Term/ASL Winter break

Plan for Canary Wharf – Week of 10 Feb

The week of 10 February is an important training week because if you’ve been following either the standard or gradual training schedule all groups need to do a 9-mile run.   Mark your calendars – I’d love to see the entire group make the run to Canary Wharf that week.

Tempo Run this week 

Make sure you read the description below in the route section.  Over the next two months leading up to the race we’ll be doing some more structured tempo/speed work.  If you haven’t done speed work before, it is important that you don’t jump right into doing sprints.  You’ll see that this week, we have an easy/gentle run to Hyde Park with some stretches of fast running in the park and then an easy run (or bus/tube ride) home.   THIS IS SO MUCH MORE FUN IF YOU TACKLE THIS AS A GROUP AND ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER!  Wait for the group during the recovery parts and at the end so you can travel back to SJW together.  Some of the most difficult workouts can be the most fun if you do it with the group!

That’s all for now!  

Keep running!

Jane

Click here for the interactive routes on the website.

ROUTES

LONG RUN – 7 miles – remember this is your slower paced run

Monday 20 January (9s, 10s, 12s)

Wednesday 22 January (11s)

Holland Park/Westfield

We are going to head out the canal westbound, but we’re going to go on a bit different of a route. down Run down Circus/Hall/Sutherland all the way to Harrow Road.  We’ll turn left onto Harrow Road and cross over the canal, and then turn right and hop onto the canal towpath there and run down to the Ladbroke Grove exit.  After we exit the canal we’ll run down Ladbroke Grove to Holland Park Avenue and turn right.  We’ll then run a short distance and then turn left onto Holland Walk and straight through the park to Kensington High Street.  Now, we’ll turn right onto Ken High Street, which turns into Hammersmith Road to and run down to Shepard’s Bush Road and make a right. Run down Shepard’s Bush Road to Shepard’s Bush Commons, and across to Uxbridge Road.  Make a right on Uxbridge and run a bit to Ariel Way, which goes directly to the mall.

TEMPO RUN

Wednesday 22 January (9s, 10s, 12s)

Monday 20 January (11s)

Hyde Park Tempo Triangle

Head down to Hyde Park the usual way at a very gentle pace.  Once you reach the park pick up the pace a bit around Speaker’s Corner, and then run very fast down to the SE corner of the park. Jog slowly around the corner while you try to bring your heart rate back down to a recovered rate. Once you reach the straightaway, run hard again to Carriage Road.  Slow down to a recover rate again as you cross over the bridge and up to the path, where you will turn right and run hard along the diagonal back to Speaker’s Corner.  Jog very slowly back to SJW or, even better, hop on the bus or tube from Marble Arch. If you are not doing tempo work, you can do this run at a regular pace (if you go back to SJW it is about 6.5 miles).

HILL RUN  The Heath

Friday 24 January

It’s Friday again, so everyone up Fitzjohn’s.  You can pick your distance and whatever you choose, there will certainly be someone else interested in running that distance.  All of these routes are on the website.

In addition, every week there are a group of women who prefer to do a flat run.  We can help make sure that you find each other.  

4 miles:  A great way to ease into running the hill.   Run up to the Hampstead tube station and back.

5 miles: The Betsy Route

6-7 miles:  The partial Heath route

8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

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