Hi Everyone,

Welcome back – it was great to see so many women running! Well done to everyone who braved the chilly mornings. Don’t forget to STRETCH. As the mileage goes up and temps come down, it’s really important to stretch after running before the stop at Starbucks.

At the moment there is a threatened tube strike for Monday and possibly other days next week. So we’re doing routes that loop home. This Monday we’re heading to Big Ben AND BACK to St. John’s Wood. Remember when we first ran to Big Ben in the fall? Now we’re making the round trip. The entire route is 8 miles, but if you would like to do a shorter route you can turn around along the way. (Or take the tube from Westminster or Green Park if the strike is cancelled.) We’re also starting our more intense tempo training this Wednesday (more on that below). Friday we’re back up the Hill!

We’re in an important part of our training – only 10 training weeks until the race (and one week of school break). Try to block out the running time in your schedule and make it a priority.

Long Runs are KEY!
We’re now in mileage building time! The long run is the most important thing during this period. Over the next few weeks we’re alternating 7 and 8-mile runs to prepare for our 9.5-mile run to Canary Wharf on Feb. 6. If you’re struggling to remain motivated or are dealing with aches/pains, consider doing less mileage on your mid-distance run. You could also consider doing less on the hills. We’ll build mileage over a few weeks and then have some periodic cutback weeks. It’s important to give your body some recovery weeks with less mileage. Next week I’ll give you the planned routes up until the race so you can mark your calendars.

Tempo Run this week
Make sure you read the description below in the route section. Over the next two months leading up to the race we’ll be doing some more structured tempo/speed work. If you haven’t done speed work before, it’s important that you don’t jump right into doing sprints. Each workout will have an easy warm-up and even at the point when you are supposed to run hard let yourself build up to speed over a few steps or more. SPEED WORK IS SO MUCH MORE FUN IF YOU TACKLE THIS AS A GROUP AND ENCOURAGE EACH OTHER!  Wait for the group during the recovery parts and at the end so you can travel back to Starbucks together. Some of the most difficult workouts can be the most fun if you do it with the group!

Getting back to running
If you’ve been injured or haven’t been running in the fall, please plan to gradually build your mileage. If you add too much too soon, you risk injury. Please let me know If you would like to link up with some other runners who are getting back into running.

That’s all for now!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 9 January (8 miles)

Big Ben and back
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 20 January — Speed Drills!
Tempo ‘Diamond’ Run

We start our focused tempo running today.  This week we will do ‘diamonds’—they are fast but also fast to be done with so give them a try!

Head over to Regents Park, the normal way.  Enter the Park at the Charlbert Entrance 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 done within the park so you don’t have to contend with driveways etc.  If you find you need more mileage in Regents Park, just keep looping however you see fit.

Friday 13 January – 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.