2 – 6 March 2015 Running Info

Hi everyone,
I’m looking forward to another good week of running!  We’re in the key training weeks for the half marathon.  It’s important that you complete the upcoming long runs.  Try to block the time in your schedule so you can do the destination runs with the group.  It takes longer, but there are benefits to your training and morale to get out of the neighbourhood and tackle a new route.  This week we have the 8-mile Big Ben loop route before we build to longer runs in the following weeks.  If you’re feeling strong, you may also want to try the 8-mile Heath route this week.

As a reminder our upcoming long runs are:
March 2 – Big Ben Loop, 8 miles
March 9 – Canal to Greenford Destination, 10 miles
March 16 – Canal, Farringdon, Embankment Loop, 9 miles
March 23 – Kew Gardens Destination, 11 miles
March 30 – Spring Break
April 6 – Easter Monday holiday
April 13 – Green Park Loop, 6-7 miles
April 19 – RACE DAY

REMINDER – Money Collection on Tuesday March 3rd
If you are attending the Italy trip or if you ordered a WRW T-shirt, you should have received an email about our plan to collect money this week.  We’ll be collecting money on Tuesday March 3rd from 8:30am-11:00am at the Pret-A-Manger basement on Circus Road, across from Starbucks in St. John’s Wood.  We’ll also be handing out the hats and shirts at the same time.  All people attending the trip will receive a WRW hat as part of the trip costs.  But we also have extra hats at a cost of £10 for anyone who would like one.  If you can’t make it at this time, please send your money with a friend.  Thanks so much!

Nike Women’s 10K
Registration is open for the Nike Women’s London 10K on 21 June 2015.  Join 10,000 runners for a great event run in Victoria Park.  Follow this LINK to the registration page.

Keep running,
Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 2 March – Big Ben Loop (8 miles)

For this run we head to Hyde Park via the usual route and run along the eastern edge of the park to Hyde Park Corner, under the arch and down Constitution Hill.  Run pass 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, then turn around and run the same route back to Starbucks.

Wednesday, 4 March – Tempo Track Sprinting and Fartleks
Time for more tempo training—this week, Fartleks.
Head down to the Regents Park Outer Circle the normal way [down Wellington, left at roundabout, cross zebra before the High Street, enter outer park at Charlbert] but do not go into the park, instead turn left on the outer circle and run slowly to the track.  Run ONE lap at the track, gradually increasing your speed.  Now, time to really run!
Do a timed one mile on the track [4 laps in the middle lane is pretty close] or you can set your watch to give you a one mile interval. Run this mile at about 80-85% of your maximum capacity.  If it were a scale of 1-20 [where 20 is a level of intensity that you could do for 1-2 seconds before you collapse], your timed mile should be a 16-17 [yikes!].  After your timed mile, jog another lap, slowly, around the track to recover, then continue to run slowly over the Regents Park.
Now, we’ll do about a 15-20 minute group Fartlek session.  This is how it works:  break into groups of 3-5 runners based on your sprint pace—the fastest group needs to be in front.  Separate each group by a couple of minutes before you start running again.  Someone in each group identifies the ‘run-to’ point [a bench, a rubbish can, a particular tree, etc] then counts down 3,2,1, ‘GO!’  Everyone in that group runs as hard as possible to the established ‘run-to’ point.  The distance of each fartlek should be different—mix up longer legs [maybe 200 meters] with shorter legs [maybe 20 meters].  You can do the loop outlined in the map below or just pick your own path until you’ve done about 15-20 minutes of fartleks.
Now, jog back over to the track and do ANOTHER timed mile to try to meet or better the time you had from your first timed mile.
Run, walk or crawl back to Starbucks and enjoy a much-earned coffee and chat!

TrackSprintingFartleks

Friday 6 March —  The Heath [all options]
It’s Friday so everyone head 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.
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
7.5 miles: The Highgate route
8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

21 23 27 February Running Info

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a good recovery week.  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and getting back to running.  We’ve only five more long runs before the half marathon!  (For those of you really pushing for a time, you may want to do an additional long run after the spring break.  More on that later.)  This week our long run is the Battersea Park Loop.  The entire loop is 10 miles, but there are many options to do a shorter loop or take a tube home if you are not up for the full 10 miles after our recovery week.  Looking ahead we have the following long runs:

Feb. 23 – Battersea Loop, 8-10 miles

March 2 – Big Ben Loop, 8 miles

March 9 – Canal to Greenford Destination, 10 miles

March 16 – Canal, Farringdon, Embankment Loop, 9 miles

March 23 – Kew Gardens Destination, 11 miles

March 30 – Spring Break

April 6 – Easter Monday holiday

April 13 – Green Park Loop, 6-7 miles

April 19 – RACE DAY

You’ll see that we have a mix of destination and loop runs.  Try to plan in your schedule for the destination runs, especially Kew Gardens.  It takes more time, but it’s great for your training and can give you a real sense of accomplishment to make it to the final destination.  Plus it can be very fun to tackle the challenge with the group.

Wednesday we’re running to The Wall and you can decide if you’d like to do some tempo training as part of that run or maybe practice your race pace for a bit.  Friday ASL is off for conferences so we’ll start at 8:30 for anyone who can make it.

New Running Shoes

If you’re thinking about getting a new pair of shoes for the race, now’s the time to do it.  You want to make sure you can run in the shoes at least a few times before the actual race.  The same applies for the clothes you’ll wear on race day.  Make sure you test everything first.  You don’t want to get to the middle of the race and realise that something is rubbing or annoying you.  Who knows what the weather will be on race day – it could be warm, mild or cold.  That’s Europe in the spring!  Plan to bring race clothes for all temperatures and we’ll decide that morning!

Finally, well done to all of you who made it to Canary Wharf before the break!  You get extra credit for surviving the bikes (and skate boards and motorcycles!) on the canal – I’ve never seen it that crowded!   Super proud of all of you.  We’re really in the home stretch as far as race training goes – keep up the good work!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday February 23 –  Battersea Loop  7.5-10.3 miles

 

Today we do an up and back and you can pick your turnaround point to meet the distance in your training schedule. 

We head out to Hyde Park, along the eastern edge of the park, and down Sloane Street to Sloane Square the usual way.  We continue through Sloane Square, down Chelsea Bridge Road, and over the Chelsea Bridge to the south bank of the Thames.  We will then turn right into Battersea Park and run along the south side of the Thames to the Albert Bridge, where we cross back over the Thames and then turn right again and run along the north side of the river back to Chelsea Bridge Road, where we will turn left and run back up through Sloane Square to Knightsbridge, turning right then left to retrace our way back into Hyde Park by the French Embassy.  Run to the paved path, turning right towards Hyde Park Corner, then left long the eastern edge of the park to the exit at Upper Brook Street [by the Animal war memorial] and back to Starbucks the usual way.

 

Wednesday February 25 — The Wall 6 miles

 

Today we all run to The Wall but it is YOUR CHOICE as to whether you run it ‘steady’ or resume your tempo training by doing Fartlek ‘speed intervals.’  If you choose to do interval sprints, try to pick areas that are less crowded before you turn on your super speed for intermittent speed runs, followed by slow recovery running.  Mix these up as you choose, different interval lengths and speeds are fine, provided you are in control of your body as you run by the grommets, bikes, walkers and other runners.

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.  Easy!

TheWall

Friday February 27 —  The Heath [all options]

It’s Friday so everyone head 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.

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

7.5 miles: The Highgate route
8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

Happy to have made it to Canary Wharf!

23 – 27 February Running Info

Saturday, February 21, 2015

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9 – 13 February 2015 Running Info

Hello Runners,

This week we have the famous 9-mile run to Canary Wharf!  It’s an important training run because most of the run is non-stop along the canal.  Remember to watch your pace – don’t be tempted to go too fast.  Also remember to wait for your immediate pace group when you exit the canal at The Wall. There are two tricky sections when we’re off the canal, but there’s detailed descriptions below and pictures so all the groups should feel comfortable doing the route.  Plus, there are great bragging rights that come from telling your family and friends that you just ran to Canary Wharf!  Spend a minute at Barclays getting into pace groups so we all know who to look out for.

On Wednesday, we’ll be in Regents Park doing the tempo diamond work out. There is no school at ASL on Friday Feb 13 so we’ll meet at 8:30 for a hill run or route of your choice.

Recovery Week Feb 16-20
Yeah!  Everyone gets a little mini-break from running next week.  It’s important to “clock your vacation time” from running.  Giving your body a week to rest and recover has huge pay-offs.  Psychologically you’ll be itching to run the following week (hopefully!) and your body will thank you for the break.  If you are not able to run at all next week – no worries.  It will be OK.  If you have access to a treadmill, try to get in 2-3 runs of no more than an hour.  If you are staying in London, come out and run with the group.  There are other people in town and wanting to run.  Run no farther than 6 miles or no longer than 60 minutes (whichever comes first.)  Ideally you would run 6 miles (or 60 mins) once next week then add in another 2 runs of shorter distances 3-5 miles.  Avoid speed/tempo work and consider running flat on Friday.  We’ll leave the route selection up to you, but consider going somewhere fun!  If you’re running, plan to meet at Barclays at 8:30.

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 9 February – Canary Wharf (9.3 miles)

Section One – Canal to the Wall

The route starts out as the Wall.  Run along Prince Albert Road to join the canal at Charlbert Street.  Run along the canal for approximately 3 miles until the canal pathway ends at the famous “Wall.”

Section Two – Angel Roads

We need to run through the Angel neighbourhood until we can re-enter the canal path.   At the wall follow the ramp up to Muriel Street.  (This is a good place to wait for your pace group.)  Take a right and then an almost immediate left up a path that winds between the apartment buildings.  See the picture below for the entrance to the path.

CanaryPic1

 

Keep going straight on the path and it will become Maygood Street.  When you get to the intersection of a main road (Barnsbury Road) turn right.  Run until you make the second left onto Chapel Market.  (There is a metal archway saying Chapel Market and a zebra crossing at the intersection.)  Follow Chapel Market until the end.  (NB:  There is a public Ladies Room at the end of White Conduit Street, which intersects with Chapel Market at the euphorium bakery.)  Turn right at Liverpool Street to the major road Upper Street.  Cross Upper Street and turn left.  (NB:  Angel Tube Station is to your right if you are going home from here.)  Make your first right at Duncan Street (Jack Wills shop at the corner) and follow until the end.  The entrance to the canal path will be directly in front of you.  Go straight along the canal (NOT a sharp right turn.)

Section Three – Canal to Limehouse Basin

We run for about 4 miles following the canal path to the Limehouse Basin.  We exit the canal path at the wire looking bridge – see picture below – and take the brown brick steps up to the left.

CanaryPic2

 

CanaryPic3

 

Section Four – Limehouse Basin to Canary Wharf

At the top of the brick steps, go straight.  At the Limehouse Gallery and Bronze Age shop turn right.  Run along the water until you reach the second metal foot-bridge leading to a park.  Cross the bridge and run through the park.  Ideally after the park, you’ll run straight, under an arch and the water will be on your right.  But last year this way was closed.  If still closed, follow this detour.  When you reach the road (Narrow St.), turn left and run past the Dunbar Wharf and make your first right on Three Colt Street.  Run until you hit the water again and turn left.  Run with the water on your right until you see the long flight of steps next to Royal China – see picture below.  You’re almost there!  Only a third of a mile remaining!

CanaryPic4

 

Run up the steps and straight ahead, through the small park to India Drive and then veer slightly right along Cabot Square.  You’re heading for the big sky-scrapper building in front of you.  Stop when you see the sign for the Canary Wharf DLR Station at the ‘mall’ entrance on the South Collanade.  We’ll meet at the Starbucks inside the building on the right, next to the DLR station.  After a much earned coffee, we’ll head to the Canary Wharf Tube station [Jubilee Line] and tube it home to SJW.  Congratulations!

CanaryWharfSimple

Wednesday, 11 February – Regent’s Park Tempo Diamonds

We are continuing with our focused tempo running on Wednesdays.  This week we will do “diamonds”.

Head over to Regent’s Park, the normal way [down Wellington Road, left at the SJW Church roundabout, cross the zebra crossing before the High Street and enter Park at the Charlbert Entrance].  Enter the Park and veer to the left path.  When you reach the first intersection with the other sidewalk, it is time to turn on your running jets.  You will run hard for 1 minute, then recover by running slowly for 3 minutes; then run hard for 2 minutes and recover by running slowly for 3 minutes; then run hard for 3 minutes, recover run slowly for 3 minutes; run hard for 2 minutes, recover run slowly for 3 minutes and finally run hard for 1 minutes, recover run slowly for 3 minutes.

The ‘diamond’ looks like this:

            1 minute hard                      3 minutes jogging recovery
2 minutes hard                    3 minutes jogging recovery
3 minutes hard                    3 minutes jogging recovery
2 minutes hard                    3 minutes jogging recovery
1 minute hard                      3 minutes jogging recovery

If you need to extend the amount of time for the jogging recovery, that’s fine, you can jog up to twice the amount of the hard run time [so 6 minutes max recovery jog for the 3 min hard run]

This type of running is best down within the park so you don’t have to contend with driveways etc.  If you find you need more mileage in Regent’s Park, just keep looping however you see fit.

 

Friday, 13 February –  The Heath

There are no ASL classes today, but anyone wanting to run should head up the hill as usual.  Meet at 8:30.

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
7.5 miles: The Highgate route
8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

1 2 6 February Running

Hello Runners,

Monday we’re off to Wembley with options for 7, 8 or 9 miles.  Spend a minute at Barclays making sure you get in your pace group before we start.  Since we have a long stretch on the canal you’ll want to make sure to look out for each other and not leave anyone behind.  It’s a good idea to wait for your group at the canal exit, see the photo below.  ASL Lower School is off on Monday so we have runners planning to go to Wembley on Tuesday as well.  Let me know if you need guidance linking up with your group.

Wednesday we return to tempo work in Hyde Park – the famous Hyde Park Tempo Triangles!  Friday we’re doing something a bit different, we’re running to the Finsbury Happening Bagel through Highgate and the Greenbelt.  This is one of my favourite runs, which we don’t do that often because we usually run in the Heath for our hill days.  It takes a bit longer because we tube home but to me it’s worth it.  I love the Greenbelt – a stretch of wild green in the middle of the city- and truthfully I LOVE the bagels at Happening Bagel.  (If you can’t run to Happening Bagel, you can always do one of our standard Heath routes.)

Good Luck Racers!

This weekend we have a big group of runners participating in the Cancer Research London Winter 10K including Gladys Al Saleh, Erin Collins, Alyse Driscoll, Lesley Gallagher, Joanna Gusich, Karina Kalb, Julie Moyle, Tammie Purdue, Vicky Timbers and Yianna Xenakis.  (Sorry if I forgot anyone!)  We hope you have a great race!

Important

Please don’t dash across the street just as the light is about to change. I know that sometimes we’re just chatting and not really paying attention, but this is really important.  First of all, it’s dangerous!  You may just make it across, but if other runners follow you, they’ll be stuck in the middle of traffic. (If you do happen to make it across an intersection, you can always wait at the other side of the road for the group.)  Second, it can be disheartening to be running ten steps behind someone only to watch them ditch you at the light – even if it’s unintentional.  I feel pretty strongly about this one – the ethos of this group is that we all look out for each other and run in groups.  You don’t have to wait for 50 people, but we all know the 5-10 people that tend to be in our group.  Look out for each other!  This is going to be especially important when we do some of our upcoming long runs.  Thanks for understanding!

Reminder – Padua Race Registration

The fees for registering for the Padua Race increase on Feb. 1.  Here’s the LINK to the directions for buying the race registration and the Runcard.

THIS GIRL CAN!

The UK Government has come out with a new ad campaign to encourage girls and women to be active.  They’re trying to specifically target women’s “fear of being judged” and I think they did an amazing job (and they’ve had over 5 million views on youtube.)  If you haven’t seen it yet, take a second to watch the video. http://www.takepart.com/video/2015/01/18/this-girl-can

Love this photo of our runners in the frosty Heath!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday February 2nd – Wembley (7-9 miles)

 

7 miles (Alperton Tube Station-Piccadilly Line)

8 miles (Wembley Central Tube Station–Bakerloo Line and Overground)

9 miles (Wembley Park Tube Station–Jubilee and Metropolitan Lines)

 

This is a great run – we go out the Canal to the west almost the entire way. No lights and soft on the knees! Continue out the canal and exit at Alperton.  The steps are just before the bridge labelled number “11” and “Ealing Road Alperton.”  (See photo below).  Turn right at the top of the stairs and your first right again onto Ealing Road.  Just after the turn you’ll see the Alperton station on your left for the 7-mile route. Follow Ealing Road to the High Road and turn right.  You’ll see Wembley Central on your right for the 8-mile route.  For 9 miles, continue until you make a left on Park Lane which becomes Wembley Park Drive. Continue past the stadium and to the Wembley Park Tube Station.

 

NOTE:  While the Alperton Tube station is at mile 7, it is a longer Tube ride home because of the necessary line changes.  You might want to push on to mile 8 and take Wembley Central which is a faster route home.

Wembley8-9

 

 

Here’s a photo of the exit off of the canal:

(You’re looking for the 243 Ealing Road sign)

 

 

Wednesday February 4th – Tempo Time!  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).


 

Friday February 6 –What, NOT the Heath?!  No, it’s Happening Bagel via Highgate and Finsbury Greenbelt – 7 miles

 

For this run we start up Fitzjohn’s like we’re going to the Heath, but pass the entrance and continue up Spaniards/Hampstead Lane to Highgate.  Cross the street at the big intersection and go down Southwood Lane and at the bottom of the hill veer to the right onto Jackson’s Lane. Continue down Jackson’s to Archway Road and make a right, then a relatively quick left onto Holmesdale Road.  Run a short distance on Holmesdale and the entrance to the Finsbury Greenbelt will be on your left.  Follow the path to Finsbury Park, cross over the train tracks, turn right and run along the western edge of the park and exit onto Seven Sister’s Road.  Happening Bagel is across the street and we will go to Costa for coffee. We will take the tube home from the Finsbury Park Station.

happeningbagelrun7mi

Alternatively, you can run your favorite Heath route.  Your choice!

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

7.5 miles: The Highgate route
8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

Heath selfie!

2 – 6 February Running

Sunday, February 1, 2015

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