Hi all,

Since there is no school at ASL on Friday, we’ll still be running but it may be a smaller group.  Plan to meet at Barclays for a slightly later start at 8:30.  

Good Luck Runners in the Windsor Half

On Sunday, Micki Heskett, Leah Neenan and Erin Roth are running the Windsor Half Marathon.  Good luck!  We hope you have a great race!

Good Luck Paula!!

For the new folks, Paula Mitchell is the woman who founded Women Running the World and was its talented and inspirational leader for many years.  Over the years she has completed many ULTRA races but this year she may be tackling her most difficult one yet.  On October 5, she begins the Atacama Challenge, a 250km, 6-stage, week-long, self-supported race across the Atacama Desert in Chile.  The Atacama is the driest desert in the world – 50 times more arid than California’s Death Valley.  Runners must prepare for daytime high temperatures of 103-104 degrees and freezing temperatures at night.  A self-supported race means that each participant must carry everything they will need for the WEEK on their back including food, sports drink powder, gels, sleeping bags, clothes, medical supplies etc.  The race website says that the average backpack weighs 20 lbs.  The race only provides water at check points and sets up tents for the racers (8-10 people to a tent – think about that for a minute!)  Paula would never ask, but I wanted to let you know that as part of this challenge she is raising money for the Kendall County Womens Shelter that provides a safe place for victims of abuse.  If you’re interested, click here for the fundraising page.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Sonia, Stefhanie, Alyse and Peg who completed the Kew Gardens 10K last weekend!  

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 29 September – Big Ben 4 – 8 miles

This is such a fun route!  We run right through the heart of London and stop at the famous Big Ben for a 4 mile option.  You can extend the run by looping back to Green Park Tube [5.5 mi] or all the way back to SJW [8 mi].  

 

Head to Hyde Park via the usual route. Start heading west on Circus Road and turn left on Grove End and follow south as it becomes Lisson Grove.  Cross over Marylebone Road and continue on Seymour Place until the end.  Turn right and cross over Edgware Road and then left to enter Hyde Park at the intersection with Stanhope Place.  Run along the eastern edge of the park to Hyde Park Corner, under the arch and down Constitution Hill.  Run past the Victoria Memorial down the mall and enter St. James Park.  Run over the pond and out of the park, turning left onto Birdcage Walk and down into Parliament Square to Big Ben.  Those running four miles will take the tube back to SJW from here and those running eight will turn around and follow the same route back.

Wednesday 1 October – Notting Hill (4-6+ miles)

Keep your eyes open as this is often a celebrity spotting route! 

Start out by heading west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End to St John’s Wood Road and go west, working your way to the canal entrance on Blomfield.  Enter the canal and run to the Ladbroke Grove exit then run down Ladbroke Grove to Elgin Crescent and make a left.  Continue to Ledbury and go right and then left at Westbourne Grove.  Run down Westbourne Grove over Bishop’s Bridge and down the steps into Sheldon Square [across from Paddington Station].  Go back along the canal and out where you entered, then run back to Starbucks.

You also have the option of a shorter run by not getting off the canal. Run half the distance you want, turn around and head home. As a rule of thumb, the two mile mark is the Westway overpass.

Friday 3 October – The Heath (4-8 miles)

We run up the hill on Fridays–it’s tradition! It is hard, but you’ll feel great when you are finished. 

If you are not up for a hill run yet, no problem, just let us know.  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. If you have trouble running up, think about how easy it will be running down!

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.

______________________________________

Website:  https://womenrunningtheworld.commm

Facebook Group:  Women Running The World (request to join)

Email: [email protected]

Hi everyone,

Another great week of running! Keep up the good work! This week we return to some of our classic routes that offer lots of options in terms of mileage. Monday is Hyde Park, Wednesday is The Wall and Friday is the The Heath.  

Good Luck Racers

Good luck to Sonia, Alyse, Peg and Stefhanie who are running the Richmond Kew Gardens 10K on Sunday! We hope you have a fantastic day!

Aches and Pains

If you’re getting back into running and starting to notice a few aches and pains, please try to see an expert. Often with proper stretching or strengthening exercises you can address something that is bothering you and prevent an injury. You also may consider a sports massage, which can be an excellent way to deal with tight muscles. We have recommendations of who to see under the “Our Experts” tab on the website.

Why Should Long Runs Be Slower?

Thanks to Lisa Noel for this great Runner’s World article that gives a clear, concise summary of the science behind training with a slower, long run.  We’ll return to this concept a few times throughout the year.  When you tackle a new distance, your mile pace should be 45 – 90 seconds slower than your race pace.   “When we overload the body in gradual, incremental increases, it responds positively by becoming stronger.  If we overload the body too rapidly or too heavily too soon, it doesn’t have time to adapt and we risk poor performance, injury, illness and/or mental burnout.”  Right now during the early fall, we’re not worrying too much about race pace and training pace.  The most important thing is to run, build up your fitness, get to know the people in the group and have fun!  In general, you should be running at a pace that enables you to comfortably chat and have a conversation.  Next week we’ll be sharing more information about the pace groups.  The pace groups will play an important role in our training schedule when we start to gradually tick up the mileage and when we’ll be doing our long slower runs.

Barclays Sidewalk

When we meet in front of Barclays in the morning, try to gather in the plaza and not the sidewalk.  We’re such a large group and we want to be good citizens and not block the sidewalk for people walking by.

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 22 September – Hyde Park – always versatile! (3-8 miles)

Click here for all of the Hyde Park interactive route maps

Start:  Everybody starts the same way… head west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End Road and follow south as it becomes Lisson Grove.  Cross over Marylebone Road and continue on Seymour Place until the end.  Turn right and cross over Edgware Road and then take the first left on Stanhope Place to enter Hyde Park at the intersection with Stanhope Place. Cross into the Park—you’ll see a silver orb just inside the Park.  After entering the Park, turn right and run towards Speaker’s Corner.

3 Milers:  Continue south through Hyde Park, past the Serpentine and at the Carriage drive, make a left and head back toward Hyde Park Corner.  Take the Hyde Park Corner tube home.

5 Milers:  At Hyde Park Corner continue back up/north on the carriage drive.  Exit the park at the Animals in War memorial and follow Upper Brook Street.  Turn left on Park Street which becomes Gloucester Place and then Park Road back to St. John’s Wood. 

6 Milers: upon entering the park, turn right at the silver sphere and run until you meet N Carriage Road where you turn left.  Run down to the Serpentine, crossing over the bridge then left to run along the Serpentine. At the end of the Serpentine, turn left again and make your way to the eastern edge of the park before exiting at the Upper Brook St/Animals in War exit.  Continue along Upper Brook Street to Park Street, turn left, take it to Park Road and into SJW.

 

8 Milers: follow the 6 mile run but do not turn left at No Carriage Rd, instead cross over [this is tricky, be careful of the traffic] and follow until you reach the large broad walk where you turn left.  Run past Kensington Palace (on your right) and take a left to run along the southern edge of the park towards Hyde Park Corner, then turn left on the eastern edge and exit at Upper Brook St/Animals in War exit as above.  Take Upper Brook Street to Park Street [left] to Park Road and home to SJW.

Wednesday 24 September – The Wall (3 to 6 miles)

We head down towards Regents Park, then enter the canal at the Charlbert entrance and run east [left] cutting through Camden Lock Market until we run out of canal path at Islington.  Since the canal is blocked here, we call it “The Wall.”  At The Wall, we turn around and head back to St. John’s Wood.  This is a great route to do a tempo run because there are no traffic lights.  But please be careful and aware of the bikes on the path.

If you run all the way to The Wall and back it is 6 miles.  But it is very easy to run half the distance if you want and turn around and head home.  As a marker, if you run to the Camden market (where we have to exit the canal path and run past the food stalls for a minute) and return home it is a 3 mile round trip.

 

Friday 26 September – The Heath (4-8 miles)

We run up the hill on Fridays–it’s tradition! It is hard, but you’ll feel great when you are finished. 

If you are not up for a hill run yet, no problem, just let us know.  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. If you have trouble running up, think about how easy it will be running down!

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.

______________________________________

Website:  https://womenrunningtheworld.commm

Facebook Group:  Women Running The World (request to join)

Email: [email protected]

Hello everyone,

Another great week of running! I’ve really enjoyed meeting the new runners – thanks for joining us!  If you’re just getting back into running, and you’ve struggled a bit, don’t give up – Keep running! I promise with each run it will get easier and you will feel stronger.

We have some great routes this week with many distance options. Monday we head to Sloane Square/Westminster/Green Park and you can pick anything from 4-10 miles. (10 miles is for the women doing a fall half marathon.) You’ll see all the options listed below.  Wednesday we head west out the canal and return to St. John’s Wood through Kensal Rise. And as always, Friday we’re up the hill!

2015 HALF MARATHON

I sent out an email Thursday night announcing that the group will be travelling to Padua, Italy to run the Maratona Sant Antonio on Sunday 19 April 2015. Thanks for all the positive feedback. We’re really excited about this race. If you didn’t receive the email, it may have bounced to SPAM. If not, please let me know so I can check the distribution.  Registration for the race has not opened yet. We’ll be back to you soon with more details about the flights, hotel and race registration.

General Training and Pace Groups

In the next couple of weeks, we’ll be posting more detailed information about the training schedule to prepare for the spring half marathon. In general, each week we run a long/slower run, a shorter/faster run and a hill run. The Pace Groups will make it easier for folks to find each other and will be especially important for our long runs. We follow the training principle that your long run should be at a pace slower than your race pace.  If you are new to the “race pace” concept, don’t worry!  We can help you figure out where you should be.

Maps

Just a reminder that by Sunday evening, this email is posted on our website www.womenrunningtheworld.com. On the website, you can zoom in on the maps and see the street names. If you need to brush up on any of the routes or if you are new to running in London, please take a look at the maps before we set out.

Be Careful

I know we are all tempted to dash across the street to stay with the group.  Please be careful!  In the past, we had a runner hit by a motorcycle and we also had a runner hit by a car (on a weekend run). They were both OK, thank goodness, but I’m reminding you that in London you can’t depend on the traffic to stop for you.  Also be mindful of pedestrians and bikes.  We are a big group and we’re often running on narrow sidewalks.

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 15 September  – Sloane Sq/Westminster/Green Park–3.75 to 7.5/10 miles  Your choice!

Today’s routes are fun because you can pick whichever distance suits you–in this case one size can fit all! 

NOTE – if your middle schooler is leaving for his or her trip too late to run with the group, some will meet to run later at 9:40 am.

Everybody starts out to Hyde Park, taking the usual route: west on Circus Road, left on Grove End, all the way down to Seymour Place where the road ends.  Right on Seymour, across Edgware, left on Stanhope and enter the park. At the silver orb, turn left and run down to the southern edge, following the path to the right before it leaves the Park.  Run to exit by the tall shiny new ‘One Hyde Park’ complex, cross over Knightsbridge and continue ahead on Sloane Street.

3.75’ers:  at Sloane Sq, take the Tube home!

 

6.33’ers:  continue past Sloane Sq down Lower Sloane St/Chelsea Bridge Road to the Thames.  Turn left on the Thames side of Grosvenor Rd and run along the embankment to Westminster Tube–you’re done!

 

7.5’ers:  continue left on Birdcage Walk, cutting through St James Park to the Mall, then left on the Mall towards Buckingham Palace, crossing before the circle to reach Green Park.  Run up to the Green Park Tube on Piccadilly St and head home!

 

10 milers:  for anyone needing a longer run today, continue past Green Park Tube, through Mayfair to Baker Street and head to SJW Starbucks–this will give you 10 miles.

Wednesday 17 September – Kensal Rise 4-6 miles

The beginning of this run takes us along the canal to the west.  Please be aware of bikes along the canal and move into single file whenever you hear a ‘bike!’ shout.

Start out heading west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End to St John’s Wood Road and go west, working your way to the canal entrance on Blomfield.  Enter the canal heading west and run to the Ladbroke Grove exit.  Here we turn right and run over the bridge along Chamberlayne Road to Harvist Road. Turn right on Harvist, which turns into Brondesbury Road, and take that to Kilburn High Road/Maida Vale.  Turn right and follow Maida Vale to Hall Road where you turn left and run back to Starbucks. If you want to shorten this route, run west on the canal and turn back at your desired half-way point. 

(The two mile mark is at the point on the canal when the Westway highway is over our heads.)

Friday 19 September – The Heath (4-8 miles)

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.

If you are not up for a hill run yet, no problem, just let us know.  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

6-7miles:  The partial Heath route

8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

MARATONA SANT ANTONIO

Padova (Padua), Italy

Sunday 19 April 2015

Follow the steps that Saint Anthony of Padua walked in 1231 through the ancient towns of the Venetian Plain, 25 miles west of Venice. The race begins in the village of Camposampiero and finishes at Padua’s magnificent Prato della Valle – one of Europe’s largest town squares.  

The race receives excellent reviews for its flat course, enthusiastic crowds and beautiful scenery. Padua hosts both a half and full marathon that day and both races share a finish line. This means there will be no time restriction for the half marathon. The race organisers have not opened registration yet. We expect registration to begin in mid October.  

One very important note – the half marathon trip is for runners only.  No husbands, no partners, no kids, no non-runners.  This weekend is all about you and the women in the running group.  If you want to talk about this, just let me know.

A gigantic “thank you” to Chris Roberts for all her work to organise this trip!  Please let us know if you’d like to help Chris – we’d love your help!

We’ll come back to you soon with more details regarding our flight arrangements, travel plans and directions for how to register for the race.

At the moment all you need to do is mark your calendar and keep running!

Jane