Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the great feedback on our Christmas lights run! We had a big group for such an early start. You have amazing spirit!

This week we’re keeping things simple with Hyde Park on Monday, Kensal Rise on Wednesday and The Hill on Friday. If you’re training for the Warsaw Half Marathon, both the standard and gradual training programs suggest 7 miles on Monday. Challenge yourself to finish the year on a strong note!

THANK YOU to Starbucks – Last chance! We need your help!
The holiday time of year is here and we’ll be organising a gift for the employees at our local St. John’s Wood Starbucks. We’re suggesting a £5-10 donation, but feel free to give whatever you would like. I’ll be collecting money on Monday and Wednesday before the runs. We’ll also be donating some baked goodies. Please email [email protected] if you would like to contribute baked goodies. We’ll gather the baked goods on Tuesday Dec 13 and we’ll give the gift to Starbucks on Wed 14 Dec. before we start our run so please get your gift to us soon if you would like to participate.

Warsaw Hotel Update – Cancelling? Roommates?
Our hotel in Warsaw is fully booked on Friday night and we have no more rooms available at the WRW rate for the other nights. If you can no longer go to the race for any reason, please email us first before you tell the hotel because we may transfer your room to someone in the group who is on a waiting list. We also have a runner who is looking for a roommate, so please email wrwlondon@gmail if you would like to share a room. Thanks!

Running over the holiday
We aren’t setting official routes for the weeks of 19 and 26 December. We’ll be back training as a group on Wednesday 4 January. For those of you in town over the holidays, there’ll be a group meeting at Barclays on MWF at 8:30. If you need some route ideas, scan back through the weekly emails on our website. For everyone, those staying in town and those travelling, feel free to take it easy over the break. There is no harm in giving your body a break. Running 2-3 times a week for 30-40 minutes will allow you to maintain fitness. For those of you training for the half marathon in the spring, we will start back in January with 6-7 miles then our long-run mileage will increase over the weeks leading up to the race.

New Year’s Resolution
We currently have 97 women signed up to do the race in Warsaw! I love it! When we return in January we have only 11.5 weeks, including Feb break, before the race. If you are coming to Warsaw, you need to commit to your training and make it a priority to be out running regularly and ideally running with the group. At this point in the training, the Monday long runs are most important. If you are battling some aches and pains or an injury, make sure that you see an expert to help manage your recovery. OK, that’s it for the “gentle” reminder for now, but stay tuned for more arm twisting in the New Year!

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 12 December – Hyde Park  – always versatile! (5 – 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 and enjoy your run!

Wednesday 14 December –  Kensal Rise (4-5+ 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, turning left on Cunningham then right on Aberdeen to work your way to the canal entrance on Bloomfield.  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 16 December – 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+ miles:  The partial Heath route OR the Reverse Heath route
7.5 miles: The Highgate route
8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

Hi Everyone,
We have two unique runs planned this week where we’re doing something different so please read the email below. Should be very fun, hope you can join us!

Monday – Wembley Central IN REVERSE
On Monday we’ll plan to meet at Barclays as normal, but then we’re going to run to the Maida Vale station and take the Bakerloo line to the Wembley Central station. (You may want to stretch again on the train.) We’ll take a minute at the Wembley Central station to get organised into our pace groups and then we follow the canal back to St. John’s Wood. There are a few benefits of doing the route in reverse. We miss a lot of the bike traffic on the canal and we end at home so we don’t have to take a cold tube ride back. In addition, if you find that you are struggling near the end of the run, you’ll be in familiar territory and could always walk a bit. If you’re not sure if you want to tackle 8 miles, it’s 6.5 miles to the canal exit in Little Venice so you could easily walk to town/home from there. If you tackle the entire route, you’ll have Starbucks waiting as a reward!

Wednesday – Christmas Lights, 6:00am start
Why get up so early? It really is quite spectacular to see the Christmas lights at night and without the crowds. The picture at the top of the email is from the run last year. For those who are interested, meet at Barclays at 6:00am. When we’re waiting at Barclays and when we run by the houses in town, be VERY QUIET. No talking or only whispers. Our group is very loud and we don’t want to wake up the entire neighbourhood at that early hour! It’s 4.4 miles to Bond Street station and 5.3 miles to Baker Street. (Last year I took the tube from Bond Street and was home around 7:15.) Everyone should look at the map because the group usually gets divided as different groups stop for pictures. If you’re planning to run at 6:00am please wear bright or reflective clothing and maybe even carry a bike light or head lamp if you have one. And be extra careful of the cars! On a side note, I happened to be near Jermyn Street yesterday and it is decorated with the most extraordinary angels. It’s not on our route map below, but you may want to take a quick detour when we run past Fortnum and Mason on Piccadilly and go see Jermyn Street as well.

THANK YOU to Starbucks

The holiday time of year is here and we’ll be organising a gift for the employees at our local St. John’s Wood Starbucks. We’re suggesting a £5-10 donation, but feel free to give whatever you would like. We’ll also be donating some home-baked goodies. Give your donation (in an envelope with your name) to me before Tuesday 13 December. Please email [email protected] if you would like to contribute baked treats. We’ll gather the baked goods on Tuesday 13 December and we’ll give the gift to Starbucks on Wednesday 14 December before the run. Please get your gift to us soon if you would like to participate.

Keep running,
Jane

Wednesday 7 December

Option One (6:00 am start) – London Holiday Lights (4-6 miles)

The first part of the route we run through Regents Park. Head out St John’s Wood Terrace, right on Charlbert and enter Regents Park. Turn right at the Outer Circle and follow the outer edge of the circle until we exit at York Gate. [Note we are running by residences in Regents Park so try not to talk—our conversations echo in the early morning calm!] Cross Marylebone Road, running through the Marylebone Church courtyard and follow Marylebone High Street down until you turn right on George Street, then left on Spanish Place to Manchester Square (past the Wallace Collection) then right on Fitzhardinge Street, left on Orchard Street until you reach Oxford Street.

Turn left on Oxford Street and continue until you reach Regents Street and turn right. Follow Regents Street to Great Marlborough Street, take a left, go past Liberty and then take a right on Carnaby Street.  Follow Carnaby to its end at Beak Street, right on Beak then left on Regents Street, all the way into Piccadilly Circus.  Turn right on Piccadilly Street and then right on Old Bond Street. Follow Old Bond which turns into New Bond back up to Brook Street. Turn left then right onto South Molton Street up to Oxford Street.  You can stop at the Bond Street Station (4.4 miles) or continue up Gee’s Court (a tiny alley street diagonally across from Bond Street Station) which becomes St. Christopher’s Place. Cross Wigmore Street up Marylebone Lane, back up the Marylebone High Street, through the Marylebone Church courtyard to Marylebone Road.

Options:  turn left at Marylebone Road to reach Baker Street Station and you will have run 5.4 miles; alternatively, retrace your steps through Regents Park outer circle back to Starbucks via Allitsen and St Johns Wood Terrace and you will have run 6.5 miles. Latte time!

Option Two (normal 8:20 start) – 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 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. 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 9 December – The Heath 4-8 miles
It’s Friday [again!], so everyone up the hill! 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, ask around at Barclays; every week there is a group who prefer to do a flat run and you can decide together which flat route to tackle.

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+ miles:  The Partial Heath route OR the Reverse Heath route
7.5 miles: The Highgate route
8 miles:  The Full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.