Hi all,

Welcome to the new runners that just joined the group this week.  We’re thrilled for you to join us!  A reminder to everyone who joined this year – if you’re finding your group a bit too fast or slow, just email me and I can introduce you to a group that may be more your speed.  Most days we have a large group of runners so there will be someone running close to your pace.  

Thanks for all the photos and the good feedback about last Monday’s run to Westminster via Farringdon.  One of the fun things about building our mileage is that we can branch out and explore London!  

ASL is off on Monday for an all-school parent conference day so we’ll start at 8:30am. We kept it simple with the Hyde Park routes for Monday – feel free to pick your distance.  Wednesday we return to the familiar Kensal Rise loop and Friday is HALLOWEEN!  Let’s dress up for Halloween – nothing too elaborate because you still have to run – but be creative!  A crazy hat?  A Halloween top?  Your favourite English fascinator?  I challenge you – and promise fame and fortune to the woman with the best running “costume.”

Travel to Italy

We’ve updated the website with the travel information for our Padua race in April. Once you make your hotel and flight reservations, please email Patricia Shelton ([email protected]) with the specifics so we can keep track of our numbers.  

Nutrition

Nutrition is a hot topic these days and it seems every day there is a new expert with a new view.  How do you sort it all out?  Over the next few months, we’re going to tap into the experience and knowledge of our group and offer some guidance on nutrition topics for runners.  See below for our first tips on post run food options.

Eating after the run

Below is some advice from Paula Mitchell.  I love hearing her voice in the words so I kept her exact quotes.  Paula has a lot of experience with running, but also coaching other runners. 

“Within 30 minutes after you run, I would suggest the following:

•50g carbohydrates

•10g protein

•2g fat

The protein piece is critical as is the timing of this food.  Again, a nutritionist/scientist would cringe at how I try to explain this, but here we go… when you exercise your muscles are agitated/traumatised.  The cell membranes temporarily become more porous (instead of a wall, it’s more like a mesh allowing the flow of nutrients easy passage).  Some post-run ideas would be a latte and yogurt, a latte and a piece of fruit or a latte and half a skinny muffin.  Basically a tall, skinny latte has 15g of carbs, 10g of protein and 0g fat – so you’re looking for another 35g of carbs in addition to the latte.  This would apply to longer runs and what qualifies as a long run is different from runner to runner.  You’re probably just fine eating whatever you normally consume until about mid-end November when our runs lengthen.”

That’s all for now! 

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 27 October–No ASL–Hyde Park

Monday is an all school day off at ASL, so we’ll make it easy for those who can make it out by heading to Hyde Park.  All the routes are on the WRW website link here so grab some buddies and run whichever distance you prefer!

Wednesday 29 October – Kensal Rise 4-6 miles

This week we’ll head west along the canal. Remember to be aware of bikes and boat mooring posts along the way!

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 31 October – Boo!  The “Haunted” Heath (4-8 miles)

Nothing to be scared of here as we do our traditional run up the hill on Fridays.  It may feel hard but your reward is the extra Halloween candy you can munch on tonight!  Dress up if you dare!

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.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for another good week of running!  Over the next month we have some interesting routes to get comfortable with a 6-7 mile distance so that by mid- November to mid- December we can build to 8 miles.  (As always, we’ll have ways to shorten or lengthen most of our runs.)  In general, always bring your Oyster card.  It takes a bit longer to do a destination run, but it’s fun and much more interesting than always looping back to St. Johns Wood.   

On Monday, we head out the canal to the (famous) Wall but then we exit the canal and run through Farringdon all the way to the Embankment.  We follow the river to the Embankment tube (6 miles), Westminster tube (6.5 miles) or to Green Park tube (7.5 miles). Wednesday we do our classic Notting Hill run and Friday we’re back up the hill.  (Amy, our fantastic webmaster, is running in Amsterdam so this email won’t be on the website until early next week.  Let me know if you have questions about the Monday route and I can send you a more detailed map.)

Good Luck Racers!

We have a big group running in Amsterdam this weekend.  Julie Clark, Darcy Fautz, Maureen Fossumm, Amy Grace, Poornima Guruprasad, Mee Lee, Holly Bell Stevens and Meg Stone are running a half marathon.  Lesley Gallagher and Stacey Towfighi are running an 8K.  Good luck everyone!

Congratulations Paula!

Paula Mitchell finished the 250 Km Atacama Crossing with flying colors!  She was the 6th woman and 45th overall finisher out of 160 runners who started the race.   The first 5 women finishers were in their 20ies and 30ies so Paula also won her age group as well.   The mileage was nothing compared to the harsh conditions – heat in the day, freezing at night, running on sand, and up steep sand dunes, through rivers and over salt flats that we so sharp they could cut through your shoes.  WOW!  Paula, we are SO PROUD of you!  What a triumph!

Congratulations Tammie!

Tammie Perdue ran the Royal Parks half marathon last weekend and had a great race.  Well done Tammie!

Need some inspiration?

I read the following short article by Mara Yamauchi, who is known as the second-fastest British woman runner behind Paula Radcliffe and took 2nd place in the 2009 London marathon.  She talks about ten benefits of running – it is a simple list but a good one.  I love this quote, “You always feel better after a run than before you set out.”  Click here for the article.

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES THIS WEEK

Monday 20 October

Canal/Farringdon/Embankment/Green Park(6-7+ miles)

Again this Monday, choose your distance as this route has options.  Everybody head out the canal to “The Wall”.  Exit the canal and turn right at the top of the exit onto Muriel/Rodney Street.  This will turn into Penton Rise, then King’s Cross and eventually Farringdon Street. 

4.5 milers:  Continue along Farringdon Street until Clerkenwell Road.  Turn left onto Clerkenwell and then right onto Turnmill Street.  Farringdon tube will be on the right – you’re done.

6 milers:  Stay on Farringdon Street all the way to the river.  Once you hit the Thames, turn right and run along the embankment.  When you reach Embankment tube station,  take the tube home. 

7.5 milers:  Continue along the embankment until Westminster.  (If you take the tube from Westminster, you’ll have run 6.5 miles)  Turn right onto Westminster Bridge Road and continue onto Birdcage Walk.  Cut through St James Park towards The Mall.  Turn left onto The Mall and then right onto the path just past Clarence House.  Run the path up and then take the tube home from Green Park.

Wednesday 22 October

Notting Hill (4-6+ miles)

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 24 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.

Hi everyone,

Another great week of running!  I’m especially proud of the runners who are joining the group after some time off.  We all know how difficult those first runs back can be!  Keep at it, each day will be easier!

If you’ve been busy and missed a run or two, please come join us again!  If you can run consistently, it is best for your fitness/training and will help you avoid injury.  Besides it’s fun!  (Well, at least the coffee part is fun…)

Bring your Oyster card on Monday because we’re heading down to Sloane Square and the Embankment.  There are a few options for taking the tube home.

Goals

Over these next few weeks, think about your goals for the year.  Would you like to participate in the half-marathon in the spring?  If so, would you like to target a certain finish time or just plan to run a strong race regardless of time?  We’ll have training tips to help you reach your goals.

Stretching

We all know how important it is to stretch and we all know that we could stretch more than we do.  Don’t finish running at the Starbucks counter and go straight to sitting with a cup of coffee!  Consider walking the last bit of the run and then spend some time to properly stretch.  I’m realising that we may be too big of a group to stretch outside of Starbucks because we block the sidewalk.  Maybe consider stretching at the park at the end of the High Street or even back at the plaza in front of Barclays or at one of the other quieter corners in town?  (If someone does say something nasty to you, try to reply with kindness.  This is also a reminder to me since there is nothing that makes my blood boil more than when people are nasty to us when we’re doing nothing wrong!)

Facebook Group

If you haven’t yet, please join our Facebook group, Women Running The World.  (You will need to request to join.)  It is a great way to share fun running and non-running photos, updates and information.

That’s all for now!

Keep running,

Jane

Monday 13 October  – 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!

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 15 October – The Wall 4-6 miles

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 and hit “The Wall.”  [Don’t forget to touch The Wall or else your run doesn’t count :p ].  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 17 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.