Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a good recovery week. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone. We’ve only seven more long runs before the half marathon! This week we’re getting back into running by heading to Hyde Park. If you’ve been running and exercising over the break you may want to try a longer distance. If not, you may feel comfortable with a shorter distance after the recovery week. Looking ahead we have the following long runs:

Feb. 22 – Hyde Park loop, 6-8 miles
Feb. 29 – Battersea loop, 8-10 miles
March 7 – Canal, Holland Park, Ken High Street, Green Park, 8 miles
March 14 – Canal, Farringdon, Embankment loop, 9 miles
March 21 – Canal to Greenford destination, 10 miles
March 28 – Spring Break
April 4 – Big Ben loop, 8 miles
April 11 – Kew Gardens destination, 10-11 miles
April 18 – Hyde Park loop, 5-6 miles
April 24 – 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. Make sure you stay single file for the busy parts along the canal. 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!

Proposed Road Changes in St. John’s Wood
Transport for London is proposing a new cycle super highway that will have an impact on traffic in SJW and surrounding areas. The proposals include removing the one-way system at Swiss Cottage and limiting traffic access to Avenue Road and parts of Regent’s Park as well as additional changes. They are collecting feedback until Sunday 20 March 2016. Please take a minute to look at the proposal and take the survey to offer feedback on the plan. https://consultations.tfl.gov.uk/cycling/cs-11?cid=cs11

Finally, well done to all of you who made it to Canary Wharf before the break! Super proud of all of you and I loved our new burrito tradition! We’re really in the home stretch as far as race training goes – keep up the good work!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 22 February – Hyde Park  – always versatile! (6 – 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.

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.  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 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 of the park.  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 SJW.

Wednesday 24 February –  The Wall (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 countJ ].  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.

Friday 26 February – The Heath 5-8 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.

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.