Month: March 2017

3 – 7 April 2017 Running Info

Hi Everyone,
I hope you’re recovered from our amazing race and ready to get back to some fun runs in London. Monday we have two options. First, we’re running to our favourite Brick Lane for bagels. We take the canal east and the entire route is about 6.5 miles. See the directions below and take note of the bridge where we exit the canal. Second, Darcy and Maureen are going to do a “reconnaisance mission” out the canal east to Stratford to check out a new route for us. This will probably be around an 8-10 mile run, and may include a few wrong turns. If you’re up for an adventure run, they would love your company. Make sure you bring water and maybe even a gel and check in with Darcy and Maureen at Barclays so they know who is joining them. Wednesday we’re heading to Hyde Park for a distance of your choice and Friday we’re up the hill. I’d love your help this week to welcome all the ex-beginners. (I know that’s an easy request because you’re always so welcoming!)
Good Luck Alison and Jordanna!
Alison and Jordanna couldn’t join us in Warsaw, but they’ve been training with us all year and they are running the Prague Half Marathon tomorrow Saturday. Good luck! We hope you have a great race and most importantly, have fun! Please keep us posted and send photos. We’ll be cheering for you!
Keep Running

I know it’s tempting now that our big race has finished to take a break from running. Especially as life gets increasingly busy as the end of the school year approaches. However, the best thing you could do for yourself is to keep running over these last few months and over the summer. You’ll hang on to the fitness level you built for the race and you’ll start the fall ready to run.
Spring, Summer or Fall race?

One of the best ways to keep running is to sign up for a race. Having that race on your calendar will motivate you to train. Even a short local race can make a difference. We have a group of WRW runners who signed up for the Richmond 10-mile race on 4 June. Check out the registration here:  London 10 Mile
Or you may want to consider signing up for a half marathon in the fall. We usually have a group that does the Royal Parks Half Marathon which is on 8 October 2017. The lottery spots for that race are full, but there are still charity openings if you want to commit to raise money for a charity. The Windsor Half Marathon is on 24 September 2017. This is supposed to be a beautiful race, but it is a bit hilly.
Keep running,
Jane
ROUTES
Monday, 3 April – Brick Lane via Canal (6.5 miles)
This is a fun and funky destination run!  We will head out in the same way as though we are running to The Wall. **Please note that there is a temporary detour through Camden. Get off at the market, cross Camden High Street, take the next right at Hawley Road and a right at Kentish Town Road. The canal entrance will be on your right.**Take the Canal east to the Wall—go up ramp to Muriel Street, take a right and then an almost immediate left up a path that winds between the apartment buildings. Here’s the entrance to the path:

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. Turn right at Liverpool Street to the major road Upper Street. Cross Upper Street and turn left, then make your first right at Duncan Street. Follow Duncan Street to the end and there will be an entrance to the canal directly in front of you. At the canal path continue running straight, the water will be on your right. Follow the canal until you reach the Kingsland Road Bridge, Number 45. See the photo below.

Run under the bridge and take the brick steps up on your left, see photo below.

At the top of the stairs turn left and at the main road, Kingsland Road, turn left.  (You’ll be running back over the canal.) Follow Kingsland Road, you’ll see the Gherkin building in the distance in front of you. (Kingsland Road will become Shoreditch High Street.) Turn left at Bethnal Green Road. There will be a white medal railroad bridge in front of you and the BOXPARK market will be on your right once you turn. You’ll also pass the Shoreditch High Street Overground Station on your right. Follow Bethnal Green Road until you hit Brick Lane, less than a quarter of a mile. There is a Casa Blue cafe at the corner, turn right into Brick Lane and you’ll see Beigel Bake on the right.  For the journey home, you can take the Shoreditch High Street Overground to Canada Water and then take the Jubilee Line home. Or you can walk through Spitalfields Market to get to the Liverpool Street tube station.

Wednesday, 5 April – 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!

Friday, 7 April – Hampstead Heath Routes

Something for everyone!

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.

27 – 31 March 2017 Running Info

Love those red hats! I’m still so happy about the weekend and feeling very grateful to know all of you. The group dynamic was very positive, supportive, welcoming, fun, appreciative and happy! Warsaw has won a fond place in my heart. The hotel, meals, race organisation, race course and the weather all exceeded my expectations. As always, some women had a great race and some women had a more difficult race, but I hope you see that the race is really just a small part of the whole group experience. WRW is mostly about the friendship and on that metric we totally rocked it! Thank you so much for my amazing gift! A weekend away with my husband is a real treasure. THANK YOU!

Finally another gigantic thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this year at WRW and the race weekend in Warsaw such a huge success! We are all so appreciative! And because we want to capture all those wonderful memories, we have a WRW Flickr account so we can share photos from the weekend. Amy will send you a separate email with details on how to download your photos to the WRW account.

This week is about enjoying WRW and doing a bit of running if you are up for it. We have an easy and fun run for tomorrow Wednesday. We’re taking the short route to Whole Foods in South Kensington. Plan on a slow, easy 4-mile run (and if you cut through the park, it could probably be around 3.5 miles – I won’t tell on you). It might feel good to get your legs moving again and shake out some of the post-race rust. Upstairs at Whole Foods, there is a big space for us to have coffee and you can do some shopping afterwards. If you are really not up for a run, you could also come meet us at Whole Foods. Friday we’re back up the hill, but if you can’t face the hill, come meet at Barclays and you can organise a group to do a flat run.

Welcome Ex-Beginners – Class of 2017!


Love that name! We’re excited to have the ex-beginners join our MWF group! As a reminder, we have five pace groups (8s, 9s, 10s, 11s, and 12s) but the groups are really just a simple way to organise folks who run at roughly the same pace. Most beginners start in the 11s or 12s. There is a big group of ex-beginners, so wherever you end up there will be other ex-beginners with you. We all know that joining the big group can be intimidating at first, but please know that the first day is the hardest. Everyone is so friendly that you will quickly fit right in. The beginner coaches also help you to get settled into the MWF group. It is also fine if you want to continue to run with the beginners for a few runs, but plan to come on MWF if you can. If you find that on the first day the group that you are in is too fast or too slow, don’t worry. It may take a few tries to get a sense of where you should be. It is much easier to join the MWF group in the spring, because in the fall there are many new runners that just moved to London. As a reminder we meet at Barclays at 8:15, and we try to start running at 8:20. Let me know if you have any questions about the pace groups or the MWF group. We know that leaving the beginner group and joining the MWF group can feel a bit scary, but we’ll help you make the transition. I promise!

We’d love your help!

Please let us know if you’d like to help in any way with WRW next year. There are lots of jobs, both big and small.

That’s all for now – except to keep running!

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 27 March – Travel day back from Warsaw!

Wednesday 29 March – Wholefoods S. Kensington thru Hyde Park (4 miles)

This route heads to Hyde Park in the usual way, heading down Lisson Grove to Seymour Place, taking a right at the end of the Seymour Place to cross over Edgware Road, then taking a left on Stanhope Place to the park entrance. We will then run to the left, heading towards Hyde Park Corner, but before we get to the corner we will head off to the right and run along an inner path towards Carriage Drive. Here we cross the road and continue on Flower Walk until we reach the south west corner of Kensington Gardens. We can cross Kensington High Street at Kensington Church Street to get to Whole Foods, which will be directly in front of us, where we can enjoy a coffee together and do a bit of shopping!

Friday 31 March  – The Heath (4-8 miles)

Even after the ½ marathon we run up the hill on Fridays–it’s tradition!

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.

20 – 24 March 2017 Running Info

Hi Everyone,
This is our last week of training before the race! Well done to everyone who ran to Kew Gardens last week. On Monday, we have a 6-mile loop through Hyde Park and on Wednesday we have a 5-mile loop through Camden and Regent’s Park. Most of us will be gone on Friday and next Monday, but if you’re not going to the race please meet as usual and you can decide a route on the day. The next weekly email will go out on Tuesday 28 March after the race.
Warsaw details
If you are going to the race, you should have received a series of emails with details about the trip including an itinerary, flight list and the famous photo directory (THANK YOU AMY!). Let us know if you have any questions.
Keep running,
Jane
ROUTES

Monday 20 March – Hyde Park 6 miles

It is race week so the run in Hyde Park is a shorter loop than previous runs.

We start from Barclays and run down Circus Road and turn left on Grove End/ Lisson Grove. Cross diagonally at the light to be on the west side of the street. Cross over Marylebone Rd (now you’re on Seymour Pl) and run until the road ends. Turn right on Seymour St, cross Edgware Rd, and turn left at the next street (Stanhope Pl). Cross into Hyde Park, cross over the Carriage Rd and you’re ready to go.

Upon entering the park, you turn right at the silver sphere. Cross over N Carriage Rd and turn left just after the Italian Gardens. Run along the Serpentine, past the gardens, swimming pond and cafe. Turn left at the end of the Serpentine, over the bridge at the cafe. Take the diagonal path off to your right across the park and head back up along the eastern edge of the park before exiting at the Upper Brook St/Animals of War exit. After crossing Park Lane proceed straight to the next light and turn left at Park Street. Head straight up this street all the way back to St John’s Wood.


Wednesday 22 March – Camden/Morningside Crescent/Regent’s Park (5 miles)
We will run to the canal going eastbound to Camden Market, where we exit the canal and turn right onto Camden High Street. We’ll run down Camden High Street to Mornington Crescent Tube Station and veer right onto Hampstead Road, which we will take down towards Euston Road. Just before reaching the huge intersection at Euston Road we turn right at the Sainsburys/Itsu and run between the office buildings and past the nice fountains. When we get onto Triton Street stay on the right side, cross Osnaburgh and continue to the zebra crossing to cross Albany Street. Run to the corner at Euston Road, take a right and the next right to enter the park. We make the first left onto Outer Circle and run around the loop to the Charlbert Street exit (where we usually enter for the canal or park). We’ll run up Charlbert Street to Allitsen Road, make a left, and head back to Starbucks.

Friday 24 March – We leave for Warsaw!

All others – up the hill or whatever you would like.

13 – 17 March 2017 Running Info

Hi Everyone,
We’ve made it to our longest training run of the season – 11 miles to Kew Gardens!  I hope the above photo inspires you. Once again our route takes us to a beautiful part of London as we run along the Thames. Don’t forget your Oyster card, water and gels. Remember, nothing new on race day! This is a perfect run to try out a water belt or anything else you expect to wear or use during the race. Please take a minute to read the route and especially note the directions for entering and exiting the Thames path. Please be on time to Barclays and get into your pace groups right away. We’ll do a staggered start since we’ll be a very large group and we don’t want to overwhelm the sidewalks. Watch your pace! I heard from a few of you that you ran too fast on Monday and suffered. Don’t forget that by running slower on the long runs it allows your body to build mitochondria, which we need for fuel on race day.
Wednesday we’re running to The Wall. Even with the small diversion (look at the map below), it’s still a good (almost) non-stop route which we need to prepare for the race. Friday we’re back up the hill.
Warsaw Update
Everyone should have submitted the photo directory, menu choices and bus money by now. Early next week we’ll be sending out the Itinerary and list with everyone’s flights. Make sure that you read the emails. They will have important information about the weekend travel, but also about packing and preparing for the race. Tomorrow is two weeks to race day!
Need some inspiration?
Sport England has released a follow-up to their very successful 2015 “This Girl Can” campaign. The following article has the new ad as well as the original. The aim is to encourage all women to be active regardless of age, shape or ability and it rose out of research that showed that many woman didn’t participate in sport because they thought they didn’t look the right way or they weren’t good enough. Anyway, I think they’re brilliant, very fun and give me inspiration. Hope you enjoy as well! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2017/02/24/watch-new-girl-can-advert-released-sport-england/
Lululemon yoga
Lululemon is offering a yoga class geared towards runners on Tuesday, 14th March at 8:45am in the Marylebone store (74 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5JW.)  RSVP to Kathy or Stephanie . Please note that if you’ve done yoga before and found it helpful this could be a good way to get an extra stretch. However, if you have never done yoga before, it may not be the time to try something new as we are so close to the race.
Hats for Sale!
We have extra red Warsaw hats. If you aren’t going to Warsaw, but you’d like a hat the cost is £10. If you are going to Warsaw and you already have a hat, but would like a second hat, the cost is £5. So basically, first hat costs £10 and second hat costs £5. (The supplier requires a minimum order so we have extras available.) I’ll bring them to Starbucks after running on Wednesday and Friday this week.
WRW Photos
Thank you to everyone who has sent in photos! If you have any photos from this year, send them along to [email protected].
Keep running,
Jane
ROUTES
Monday 13 March – Kew  (11 miles)
Bring your Oyster or contactless card!
You’ll be feeling exhilarated as we do our 11 mile run to the cute village of Kew. We start out the normal way running to Hyde Park. Once in the park, we’ll turn to the left and run down the main walkway as we regularly do, to Hyde Park Corner. At the end of the walk, turn right to follow the main cross route in the park—beware of the bike lane! When this ends at West Carriage Drive, cross the road at the crossing and continue on the pathway towards the southwest corner of Kensington Gardens. We’ll run out of the park at the Broadwalk, turning right onto Kensington High Street and continue for about two miles until we reach the Hammersmith Tube gyratory. Run counter clockwise towards the left, ending up on Queen Caroline Street which gets you to St. Paul’s Church green.  Run along the green to the right, heading to and crossing over Hammersmith Bridge. Exit Hammersmith Bridge Road to your left, go down the stairs and run under the bridge onto the Thames footpath. Now it’s time to enjoy the view as we run along the Thames for almost four miles—it’s beautiful! We will exit at the Kew Bridge, see photo below:
Run UNDER the bridge and then turn left, past a couple of tiny shops and garages.  Run through the small parking lot until you see the stone steps leading to the top of the bridge.

At the top of the steps turn right towards town (not back over the river) and run along this road [Kew Road] for about a third of a mile until you reach a 3-way intersection.  Here there are two options.  Option 1 is on the route map but option 2 may be easier to remember. The distance is the same.

Option 1 – At the 3-way intersection, veer left on Mortlake Road, then shortly thereafter turn right on Cumberland Road, which will merge into Kew Gardens Road. You’ll do a turn to the left onto Station Approach [follow the Kew Gardens Station signs].  There is a Starbucks around the small bend where we’ll all meet up to congratulate ourselves on such a great run!
Option 2 – At the 3-way intersection, veer right and follow Kew Road along the boundary wall to Kew Gardens until you reach the first main pedestrian entrance to Kew Gardens, the Victoria Gate.  Across from Victoria Gate, is Lichfield Road (it is only sign posted on the left-hand corner).  Follow Lichfield Road straight into Kew village.  Starbucks is on the left where we’ll all meet up to congratulate ourselves on such a great run!
 
 
 
Wednesday 15 March – 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.  Touch the canal boat tunnel wall—this is The Wall!—then turn around and re-trace your steps back to SJW.  You can turn around before the wall if you want to have a shorter run.

 

CANAL DETOUR
Exit the canal at Camden Road, which is where the canal is now blocked. Turn left on Camden High Street and then make your first right. On the map, this is Castlehaven Road which becomes Harley Road but it is not well marked on the street. Turn right on Kentish Town Road. You can re-enter the canal at the Kentish Town Rd bridge. There is a small unmarked entrance to return to the canal along the construction boards.

​
Friday 17 March – The Heath
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.

6 – 10 March 2017 Running Info

Hi everyone,
A massive CONGRATULATIONS to our Beginner group who ran to Canary Wharf on Wednesday. They started this journey in September by running one minute and walking two and in a few weeks they’ll run a half marathon!  I’m looking forward to you meeting them and celebrating together. THANK YOU to the Beginner coaches Amy Grace, Meg Stone, Stacey Towfighi, Karina Kalb and Melissa Kay. They have done an amazing job!
Congratulations to everyone who ran last Monday. That was a difficult run! We had a major diversion off the canal where we explored the warehouses of London and then we had serious rain and mud for miles. As if running 10 miles wasn’t hard enough! But we did get to practice our mental toughness and find our inner warrior!
We had planned to do Wembley Reverse on Monday, but due to the canal construction and extensive diversion, we’re going to scrap that plan. We have a new route for Monday. We are going to run west on the canal, like we are running to Wembley regular, and turn around at four miles and run back. We are at a key point in the training and it’s important to get the milage, but also non-stop running. So even though this is a bit boring route, it enables us to do the non-stop run and avoid the canal diversions on both the east and west canal routes. Plus Kathy McMahon pointed out that nothing is boring when we have our lovely pace group friends to keep us company! Wednesday we’re doing the Camden to Regents Park route, check out the map below, and Friday we’re recommending the Highgate Heath route, but you can do another Hill route if you prefer.
Warsaw Update
We’re finalising the details for our trip to Warsaw. Make sure you read all the emails and respond to all our requests ASAP. Right now we need your responses for the photo directory and the meal choices. Thanks so much! There will be more information coming soon about the race course and other travel details.
Save the Date – Lululemon yoga
Lululemon is offering a yoga class geared towards runners on Tuesday, 14th March at 8:45am in the Marylebone store (74 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5JW.)  RSVP to Kathy or Stephanie. Please note that if you’ve done yoga before and found it helpful this could be a good way to get an extra stretch. However, if you have never done yoga before, it may not be the time to try something new as we are so close to the race.
London 10-mile race, 4 June 2017
Some of the WRW runners have signed up for the Richmond Park London 10-mile run on 4 June. Check it out, looks like it could be a fun race! https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond-park/richmond-park-attractions/upcoming-events-in-richmond-park/london-10-mile
Keep running,
Jane
ROUTES

Monday 6 March – Canal Run Towards Wembley (8 miles: 4 out 4 back)

With the race in sight, it is important to have uninterrupted running on the canal.  Unfortunately, there is SO much construction taking place on the canal some of the sections are closed.  We need to be flexible!  The longest stretch is out towards Wembley so we will run in that direction. We will 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 Blomfield.   Once on the canal run for approximately 2.5 miles on the canal and turn around and run back to Starbucks.  A hot coffee will be waiting for you!

Wednesday 8 March –  Camden/Morningside Crescent/Regent’s Park (5 miles)

We will run to the canal going eastbound to Camden Market, where we exit the canal and turn right onto Camden High Street. We’ll run down Camden High Street to Mornington Crescent Tube Station and veer right onto Hampstead Road, which we will take down towards Euston Road. Just before reaching the huge intersection at Euston Road we turn right at the Sainsburys/Itsu and run between the office buildings and past the nice fountains. When we get onto Triton Street stay on the right side, cross Osnaburgh and continue to the zebra crossing to cross Albany Street. Run to the corner at Euston Road, take a right and the next right to enter the park. We make the first left onto Outer Circle and run around the loop to the Charlbert Street exit (where we usually enter for the canal or park). We’ll run up Charlbert Street to Allitsen Road, make a left, and head back to Starbucks.

Friday 10 March – The Highgate (7.5+ miles)

Head up Fitzjohn’s, as usual, and continue past the Hampstead Tube and Whitestone Pond to stay on Spaniards Road. Do not enter the Heath at the normal entry point, but stay on Spaniards Road as it wraps around the outside of the Heath, past Kenwood House and past The Bishops Road where Spaniards Road turns into Hampstead Lane. Continue on Hampstead Lane as it edges around the outside of the Heath in a gentle rise until you reach The Grove, where you turn right. [The Grove is a pretty, tree lined street just before the Highgate roundabout]. Run to the first right lane, which is Fitzroy Park and has a traffic barrier across the road.] Pass around the traffic barrier—this is fine! And continue down the road, past lovely homes and a famous allotment on the right side. This road curves downhill to the left and takes you to the entrance of the Heath near a set of bathrooms [and just before Merton Lane to the left]. Enter the Heath, run past the loos and take the path to the left as it runs along a model boating pond, the men’s bathing pond and a third pond. [Due to the construction in the Heath, you may need to take the path on the near side of the first pond.] When the sidewalk dead ends, take a right to run along the exercise fields, track and swimming pool.

Exit the Heath past the swimming pool, crossing over the bridge onto Constantine Road. Take a right, running past South End Rd/Fleet Rd, past the Royal Free Hospital and cutting to the left just past the Royal Free’s entrance driveway to take a short cut to Haverstock Hill. Go left on Haverstock Hill to Belsize Avenue, veering to the left to stay onto Buckland Crescent and take this to Fitzjohn’s. Left on Fitzjohn’s to Swiss Cottage, then scoot over to St Johns Wood Park Road and back to Starbucks.