Well done to everyone who made it Canary Wharf last week and to those who took an unexpected detour and made it to Stratford instead! You just never know where you may end up on a run in London!

Due to the American Thanksgiving holiday and no school at ASL, many of our runners are out of town or unavailable to run on Wednesday and Friday so we’ll do one route for Monday this week. We’re running to the Happening Bagel Bakery (LOVE that name!) in Finsbury Park via Highgate and the Greenway. (Bring cash, I don’t think the bakery takes cards.) This is a WRW favourite and we don’t do it often because the first part takes us up the hill in Hampstead, which we usually do on Friday. The first part is the hill, but the second part is beautiful as we run through Highgate and then a area of woodland known as the Parkland Walk. Parkland Walk is a stretch of forest that follows an old train line. (History lesson – the train line first opened in 1872, but was eventually replaced by the extension of the London Underground. Passenger service ended in 1954 and freight service in 1970.) If you’ve never done this route before I strongly encourage you to give it a try. If I can’t twist your arm to try it, you could always do one of our other Heath routes.


I know it sounds crazy, but it is really worth it to get up early to see the Christmas lights in the dark and without the crowds. We’ll meet at Barclays at 6:00am. Last year I did the 4.5 mile route and took the tube from Bond Street and was home to help the kids by 7:15am. We recommend that you wear some reflective clothing and ideally have a bike light or head lamp. The streets, especially in Regents Park, are very dark at that time of the morning. You may want to purchase or borrow something before the run. (If you’re not up for an early start, or you can’t swing it with your family, there’ll be a group that meets at the normal time as well.)

Keep running,

Jane

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For this run we start up Fitzjohn’s like we’re going to the Heath but pass the entrance and continue up Spaniards/Hampstead Lane to Highgate. At the very top of the hill bear right and run slightly downhill towards Highgate High Street. At the second circular intersection, cross the high street at the zebra crossing and go down Southwood Lane. At the bottom of the hill veer to the right onto Jackson’s Lane (which is a very narrow road). Continue down Jackson’s to Archway Road, cross the road and make a right, then a relatively quick left onto Holmesdale Road.  Run a short distance on Holmesdale and the entrance to the Finsbury Greenbelt will be on your left.  Follow the path until it ends, turn left, cross the bridge over the train tracks and enter Finsbury Park. Turn right and run along the western edge of the park until the entrance on Seven Sister’s Road. After we stretch we will head over the street to the Happening Bagel. Once we’ve bought our bagels we will cross back over the street to Costa for coffee and then take the tube home from the Finsbury Park Station.

Hi Everyone,

I’m looking forward to another great week of running. Monday we have an option to go to Canary Wharf, more on that below. Wednesday we’re going to Regents Park to do a different type of tempo/speed drills, make sure you read the directions in the routes section. Remember that these work-outs are more fun if you can stick together with your group and tackle the challenge together. It’s also easier for the group to stay together during this workout, because we’re not on the track. Friday we’re running to Borough Market. As always if you want to stick closer to home on Friday you can run the hill.

This week we have another long destination run on the schedule for Monday – Canary Wharf at 9 miles. Please note that the standard training program has a base of 7-8 mile long runs in November-December with a suggestion that you try a 9-10 mile run if you’re feeling strong. The gradual training program has a base of 5-7 mile long runs. Here’s the LINK to our training plans if you would like to take a look. Don’t feel like you have to do this run just because it’s on the schedule. Take stock in how you are feeling and whether you have tackled some longer runs this fall.  If you feel you aren’t up for Canary Wharf you can join the group to the Wall and then turn around and run home instead and continue to do the 7- and 8-mile runs on the schedule for the rest of November and December. We’ll be doing the 9-mile Canary Wharf route again on 29 January 2018. If you want to run to Canary Wharf, that’s great! Try to arrive early to Barclays and find your group right away so the pace groups can start together.

We booked our entire original block of rooms which means that right now we have 95 women signed up for Utrecht. Wow! We added more rooms to the block at the same rate. However, if we need to add even more rooms again it will be at a higher rate. So if you are considering going to the race, please book now. We have a generous cancellation policy, so you could cancel later. Also, if your plans change for any reason and you are no longer going to the race, please let us know first before you cancel your room. Here’s the link to our dedicated booking page: https://www.nh-hotels.com/event/women-running-the-world

Keep running,

Jane

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.  (NB:  There is a public Ladies Room at the end of White Conduit Street, which intersects with Chapel Market about midway.)  Turn right at Liverpool Street to the major road Upper Street.  Cross Upper Street and turn left.  (NB:  Angel Tube Station is to your right if you are going home from here.)  Make your first right at Duncan Street and follow until the end.  The entrance to the canal path will be directly in front of you.  Go straight along the canal (NOT a sharp right turn.)

Section Three – Canal to Limehouse Basin
We run for about 4 miles following the canal path past Victoria Park to the Limehouse Basin.  We exit the canal path at the wire looking bridge – see picture below – and take the brown brick steps up to the left.

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!

Hi all,

Halloween was so much fun with WRW this year! I loved your running costumes! Everyone was very creative and we had a large group run to Brompton Cemetery and stay for coffee at Whole Foods. I also liked all the photos of costumes and pace groups that you posted on our Facebook group. (I recommend joining our Facebook group if you haven’t done it yet. All you need to do is request to join the group “Women Running the World”).

We’re sticking closer to home this week and running to Hyde Park on Monday. The training schedule calls for 8 miles. If you’re not quite ready for 8 miles, that is fine. If you are feeling strong, consider pushing yourself to do a bit more mileage than you have been doing even if it isn’t 8 miles. We’re going to Paddington Track for a tempo run on Wednesday and the Heath on Friday.

This week we’re trying something new and heading to the Paddington track so make sure you read the description below in the route section. Over the next few 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’re 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!

If you are considering joining the half-marathon trip to Utrecht, please book your hotel now. Most of the rooms in our block have been reserved and we may need to add more rooms. The sooner we know if we need more rooms, the better. We have a very generous cancellation policy so you could always cancel later if necessary. The link to our dedicated booking page is:  https://www.nh-hotels.com/event/women-running-the-world

We have a growing group of WRW runners from London and the US who are planning to do the San Francisco half marathon this summer. It follows either the first half or the second half of the San Franscisco marathon. The WRW group is doing the first half and the early start at 5:30am so they can run over the Golden Gate bridge. What an amazing life experience! If you want to connect with the group, some of the people who are either signed up or are seriously considering it are: Maureen Fossum, Darcy Fautz, Mee Lee, Carmine Najjar, Kathy McMahon, Danja Roberts and Poornima Guruprasad. If you have any questions you can email Maureen at [email protected]. You can follow this LINK to the race website.

Keep running,

Jane

Hyde Park  8 miles
This run takes you around the periphery of the park.  As before, you turn right at the silver sphere after entering the park.  Cross over N Carriage Rd and keep going until the end of the park.  Turn left to run along the edge.  Just keep turning left until you’re heading  back up along the eastern edge of the park.  Exit at Upper Brook St/Animals of War Memorial.