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.