This week we have the famous 9-mile run to Canary Wharf! (Luckily the threatened tube strike was cancelled.) 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. This is a great run for building fuel for race day. 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 are 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! Please try to be early on Monday so we can get organised into pace groups before we start. Also we will most likely stagger the start time so we don’t overwhelm the canal. When we get to Canary Wharf we usually have a group that stops at Starbucks and also a group that stops at Tortilla for a breakfast burrito. Our usual Starbucks has removed some of their seating, but there are two other Starbucks in the Canary Wharf shopping area. If your pace group goes to a new Starbucks, please take note of the location in the mall and maybe take a picture so we can announce a new place to gather in the future.

On Wednesday, we’ll be in Regents Park doing the tempo track and Fartlek workout. Friday we’re back up the hill.

Thank you to everyone for making last week’s money collection and shirt/hat distribution a success! Thank you to everyone who came to pay and collect their goodies and to everyone who gave their money to a friend.

An extra special thanks to the following people for their help:

• Carol Bertolino and Chris Roberts – collecting orders, finding a new Nike supplier, finalising the designs and dealing with the vendors who made the shirts and hats. Everything looks great – thank you so much!
• McKenzie Webster – hosting our large group on Tuesday morning
• Amy Grace, Heidi Jensen Moran, Melissa Kay and Carolyn Perelmuter – collecting money and distributing the kit
• Shannon McHugh – dealing with the shipping

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!

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’re 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

Monday 6 February – Canary Wharf (9.3 miles)

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.  After the park, you’ll run straight, under an arch and the water will be on your right.  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!

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 skyscraper building in front of you.  Stop when you see the sign for the Canary Wharf DLR Station at the ‘mall’ entrance on the South Colonnade.  We’ll meet at the Starbucks inside the building, just right of the entrance.  After a much earned coffee, we’ll head to the Canary Wharf Tube station [Jubilee Line] and tube it home to SJW.  Congratulations!

Wednesday 8 February –  Tempo Track Sprinting and Fartleks

This week we are back to track sprinting and Fartleks, which are short sprint bursts interspersed into the run.

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!