Hello Runners!
I hope you’ve had a wonderful break and are looking forward as much as I am to running together on Monday!  Hopefully most of you survived holiday travel and activities without injury, though I’m sorry to say we have already heard about a couple of ski injuries.  (Ladies, we will be cheering you on as you take on your treatment and recovery!)

Thanks to everyone for coming out for kit pickup and race payment just before break.  A big thank you and congratulations on a job well done to kit-master Marissa O’Malia for all the hard work creating a fabulous annual shirt for us!  What a smooth kit distribution she ran, along with helpers Stephanie Gladis and Miki Neant.  And another thank you to Carolyn Perelmuter for opening her home to be our distribution center, in addition to sourcing the cool race hats and all the other things she is already doing to get this race and trip organised for us all!  Thanks also to Carolyn, Sue Wheeler, Amy Grace, and Melissa Kay for being the data, finance and banking team.  Keeping the records straight for all of us is a big effort!  

Running this week.  Monday we have our 8-mile Holland Park to St James Park route.  It’s a lovely run, and a good way to pick back up on our long, slow run training if you took a bit of a break last week.  If you feel you need a bit more mileage, it’s easy to add with an extra loop in the park or by continuing back to the Green Park tube station or beyond.  Wednesday we will resume tempo training– if you’ve been doing it all along– with the tempo pyramids in Regents Park.  If you haven’t been doing tempo work, a 5- or 6-mile loop such as the Regents Park Inner/Outer Circle would be a good route for keeping us all somewhat together, and getting us all back to St Johns Wood for our coffee.  And Friday we will head uphill as usual, but this time to Finsbury Park and Happening Bagel.  If you can’t take the time for a destination run, you could always do the Heath Highgate route, which allows you to run with the group all the way to Highgate before cutting back through the Heath and toward St Johns Wood.  Both options are about 7 miles.

Training note.  Counting this week, we have four long runs remaining before Prague.  It is important to get those long miles in as the most important run of the week.  It’s also important to take good care of yourself as you take on increased mileage.  Stretch well and often, get enough rest, and pay attention to your nutrition and hydration.  If you are concerned about a niggling injury or a new ache or pain, see a professional right away.  They can often help you through a minor issue; but even more important, they can help make sure you are not risking a more serious injury by pushing through your training.

Looking ahead.  In the coming week, those of you planning to go to the Prague Half Marathon will be receiving two important trip e-mails.  Please look out for these, and send in your responses as promptly as possible, to help facilitate planning for our big weekend.  
Mark your calendars for these key runs and events:
Monday, 2 March – Canada Water (10 miles)
Monday, 9 March – Battersea Loop (9 miles)
Wednesday, 11 March – All-WRW Pre-race Coffee (details to come!)
Monday, 16 March – Kew Gardens (11 miles)
Thursday, 26 March – Depart for Prague!
Safe travels to all who are headed back to London this weekend.  And to those already in London, enjoy the calm, rested feeling you’ll have heading into Monday!  Can’t wait to see you all at Barclays!
xx Micki

ROUTES

Monday, 24 February– Holland Park to St. James Park cafe (8 miles)

We start out the same as our traditional Notting Hill Route [Circus Rd to Grove End, to St Johns Wood Rd to Cunningham, to Blomfield to the Canal, going west past the Westway to Ladbroke Grove].  Once on Ladbroke Grove, run south all the way until it ends at Holland Park Avenue.  Cross Holland Park Avenue, take a right and then a quick left on Holland Walk [just past Aubrey Road].  Holland Walk is a pedestrian way.  Run up Holland Walk until the first entrance into Holland Park on your right [opposite the Duchess of Bedford Walk].  Run into the park and then turn left on the broad walk which goes the length of Holland Park until it ends at Kensington High Street; turn left and run along Ken High Street.  (For a shorter run, you can leave at the Ken High St Tube which makes it about a 5 mi run).  Otherwise, continue on until you reach Kensington Park, where you enter it at the junction with the Broad Walk [just before Palace Gate road]. Take the Broad Walk to the first path on the right which turns into So Carriage Dr. You’ll run past The Albert Memorial and cross West Carriage Dr at the light. Continue on So Carriage Dr all the way to Apsley House/Hyde Park Corner.   Cross over Piccadilly and run under Wellington Arch, then cross at the light to run along the path to the left of Constitution Hill [the same route we take in going to Big Ben],  At the Mall, cross the street to run along the north side of St. James Park.  Turn right into the second entrance and go diagonally to the left (not straight as we usually do to run to Big Ben) and run to Benugo cafe where we will all meet up for coffee.  We can take the Jubilee Line home from Green Park after our coffee.  

Wednesday, 26 February — Regent’s Park Tempo Pyramids
Head over to Regent’s 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’ve been doing consistent tempo work and would like a challenge you can up your game with the following:

2 minutes, then 3 minutes recovery 
3 minutes, then 3 minutes recovery
4 minutes, then 3 minutes recovery
3 minutes, then 3 minutes recovery
2 minutes, then 3 minutes 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 Regent’s Park, just keep looping however you see fit.

Friday, 28 February — Finsbury Park via Highgate/Parkland Walk (7 miles) For this run we start up Fitzjohn’s as if we’re going to the Heath, but pass the Heath entrance and continue up Spaniards/Hampstead Lane into Highgate. Bear right onto Highgate High Street. Turn left down Southwood Lane (the road next to Gail’s) and go down the hill, then veer to the right (not a hard right turn!) onto Jackson’s Lane. Continue down Jackson’s to Archway Road and make a right, then a relatively quick left onto Holmesdale Road. Run a short distance on Holmesdale and the entrance to Parkland Walk will be on your left. Follow the path to Finsbury Park, cross over the train tracks, turn right and run along the western edge of the park and exit onto Seven Sister’s Road. Happening Bagel is across the street, Costa is to the right, and Finsbury Park Station is further down on the right (on the Piccadilly and Victoria tube lines).