Hi Everyone,

We’ve made it to spring break! If you’re in London this week we’ll plan to meet at Barclays at 8:30 and decide our route on the day. The plan is to maintain fitness by doing 6-mile runs. If you’re unable to run this week because you’re in the middle of the jungle or the ocean, you’ll still be fine for the race. Any type of cross training (2-3 sessions over the week) will be a bonus. If you’re really pushing for your best time during the half marathon, you may want to use the runs this week to practice your race pace or faster. One option would be to run your race pace less 30-60 seconds. That will be a good work out!

Looking ahead, our first official day back after the break will be next Wednesday 8 April. The plan that day will depend on how much you’ve been able to run over the break. If you’ve been able to run over the break, we’ll plan to do the 8-mile Hyde Park loop. If you’re just back to running, you may want to do a shorter route. If you have been running and are really pushing for your best time, you may want to do a longer run, maybe to Kew Gardens or another route of your choice.  

Padua Photo Book

A gigantic THANK YOU to Amy Grace for offering to compile a photo book for those attending the Padua race. Please get your answers to Amy ASAP. She says she may make up answers for anyone she doesn’t hear from – you’ve been warned!  You can send your answers to our gmail account – [email protected].

Padua Health Form and Run Card

The race director has reemphasized that you must have a completed health form and run card in order to run in Padua.  If you’re trying to find the run card in your inbox, you’re looking for an email from “[email protected]” with the subject “Ecco la tua Runcard.” Attached to the email should be a PDF file with a photo of the run card with your name and birth date on it. Also the link to the health form is on the WRW website on the half marathon page, if you need another copy.

Keep running,

Jane

Hi Everyone,

We’ve made it to our longest training run of the season – 11 miles to Kew Gardens!  I hope the photo above 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. 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.  (If you are away and can’t run on Monday we do have some groups who are planning to do the run either next week or the week after.  Just let me know and I can link you up with a group.)

Good Luck Racers!

Good luck to Amy Grace, Vicky Timbers, Lisa Noel, Meg Stone and her daughter Alex and Shan Mercer and her husband Jamie who are running the Richmond Half Marathon on Sunday.  This will be the main race for Vicky, Meg and Amy because in Padua they will be leading the women in the Beginner Group. (Thank you!) We hope you all have a great race!

Padua – New directions for health form

When you fax or email the health form to the race directors, please also send in a copy of the Runcard or your Runcard confirmation. We’ve had a few women who sent in the health form and then got an email saying that they needed a Runcard when they had already bought one. It seems like the info systems in the race office are not amazing.  Basically if you send in both forms together it will save you from going back and forth with the race office about the Runcard as well. If you have already sent in the health form, you’re probably all set but make sure you have a copy of the Runcard with you at the race expo in Padua.

Hats for Sale

We have extra Padua hats for sale, only £10. Would you like a second hat just in case something happens to the first one? One maybe one for your husband, kids, friends?  If you want one, just tell me or Chris Roberts.  Thanks!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

CONDITIONING LONG RUN  Kew

Monday 23 March

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 parallel Park Lane.  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 bottom right corner of Hyde/Kensington Park.  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 and run under it 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.  It looks like you need to walk through a 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.  (I’ve gotten slightly lost in Kew village before so I’m hoping this might help.)  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! 

TEMPO (or not) RUN  The Wall

Wednesday 25 March

Today we all run to The Wall but it is YOUR CHOICE as to whether you run it ‘steady’ or resume your tempo training by doing Fartlek ‘speed intervals.’  If you choose to do interval sprints, try to pick areas that are less crowded before you turn on your super speed for intermittent speed runs, followed by slow recovery running.  Mix these up as you choose, different interval lengths and speeds are fine, provided you are in control of your body as you run by the grommets, bikes, walkers and other runners.

 Run South on Finchley/Wellington Road to the SJW Church Roundabout, follow the sidewalk to the left and cross Prince Albert Road at the crosswalk just beyond the SJW Church.  Continue east and enter the canal at the Charlbert entrance.  Run east [left], cutting through the Camden Lock Market until you 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.  When you come off the canal at Regents Park, take Charlbert to Allitsen to SJW High Street to Starbucks.

HILL RUN  The Heath

Friday 27 March

It’s Friday again, so everyone up Fitzjohn’s.  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.

In addition, every week there are a group of women who prefer to do a flat run.  We can help make sure that you find each other.  

4 miles:  A great way to ease into running the hill.   Run up to the Hampstead tube station and back.
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.

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a good recovery week.  I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and getting back to running.  We’ve only five more long runs before the half marathon!  (For those of you really pushing for a time, you may want to do an additional long run after the spring break.  More on that later.)  This week our long run is the Battersea Park Loop.  The entire loop is 10 miles, but there are many options to do a shorter loop or take a tube home if you are not up for the full 10 miles after our recovery week.  Looking ahead we have the following long runs:

Feb. 23 – Battersea Loop, 8-10 miles

March 2 – Big Ben Loop, 8 miles

March 9 – Canal to Greenford Destination, 10 miles

March 16 – Canal, Farringdon, Embankment Loop, 9 miles

March 23 – Kew Gardens Destination, 11 miles

March 30 – Spring Break

April 6 – Easter Monday holiday

April 13 – Green Park Loop, 6-7 miles

April 19 – RACE DAY

You’ll see that we have a mix of destination and loop runs.  Try to plan in your schedule for the destination runs, especially Kew Gardens.  It takes more time, but it’s great for your training and can give you a real sense of accomplishment to make it to the final destination.  Plus it can be very fun to tackle the challenge with the group.

Wednesday we’re running to The Wall and you can decide if you’d like to do some tempo training as part of that run or maybe practice your race pace for a bit.  Friday ASL is off for conferences so we’ll start at 8:30 for anyone who can make it.

New Running Shoes

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!

Finally, well done to all of you who made it to Canary Wharf before the break!  You get extra credit for surviving the bikes (and skate boards and motorcycles!) on the canal – I’ve never seen it that crowded!   Super proud of all of you.  We’re really in the home stretch as far as race training goes – keep up the good work!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday February 23 –  Battersea Loop  7.5-10.3 miles

Today we do an up and back and you can pick your turnaround point to meet the distance in your training schedule. 

We head out to Hyde Park, along the eastern edge of the park, and down Sloane Street to Sloane Square the usual way.  We continue through Sloane Square, down Chelsea Bridge Road, and over the Chelsea Bridge to the south bank of the Thames.  We will then turn right into Battersea Park and run along the south side of the Thames to the Albert Bridge, where we cross back over the Thames and then turn right again and run along the north side of the river back to Chelsea Bridge Road, where we will turn left and run back up through Sloane Square to Knightsbridge, turning right then left to retrace our way back into Hyde Park by the French Embassy.  Run to the paved path, turning right towards Hyde Park Corner, then left long the eastern edge of the park to the exit at Upper Brook Street [by the Animal war memorial] and back to Starbucks the usual way.

Wednesday February 25 — The Wall 6 miles

Today we all run to The Wall but it is YOUR CHOICE as to whether you run it ‘steady’ or resume your tempo training by doing Fartlek ‘speed intervals.’  If you choose to do interval sprints, try to pick areas that are less crowded before you turn on your super speed for intermittent speed runs, followed by slow recovery running.  Mix these up as you choose, different interval lengths and speeds are fine, provided you are in control of your body as you run by the grommets, bikes, walkers and other runners.

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 and hit “The Wall.”  [Don’t forget to touch The Wall or else your run doesn’t count :p ].  At The Wall, we turn around and head back to St. John’s Wood.  Easy!

Friday February 27 —  The Heath [all options]

It’s Friday so everyone head up Fitzjohn’s.  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.

4 miles:  A great way to ease into running the hill.   Run up to the Hampstead tube station and back.
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.

Hello Runners,

Monday we’re off to Wembley with options for 7, 8 or 9 miles.  Spend a minute at Barclays making sure you get in your pace group before we start.  Since we have a long stretch on the canal you’ll want to make sure to look out for each other and not leave anyone behind.  It’s a good idea to wait for your group at the canal exit, see the photo below.  ASL Lower School is off on Monday so we have runners planning to go to Wembley on Tuesday as well.  Let me know if you need guidance linking up with your group.

Wednesday we return to tempo work in Hyde Park – the famous Hyde Park Tempo Triangles!  Friday we’re doing something a bit different, we’re running to the Finsbury Happening Bagel through Highgate and the Greenbelt.  This is one of my favourite runs, which we don’t do that often because we usually run in the Heath for our hill days.  It takes a bit longer because we tube home but to me it’s worth it.  I love the Greenbelt – a stretch of wild green in the middle of the city- and truthfully I LOVE the bagels at Happening Bagel.  (If you can’t run to Happening Bagel, you can always do one of our standard Heath routes.)

Good Luck Racers!

This weekend we have a big group of runners participating in the Cancer Research London Winter 10K including Gladys Al Saleh, Erin Collins, Alyse Driscoll, Lesley Gallagher, Joanna Gusich, Karina Kalb, Julie Moyle, Tammie Purdue, Vicky Timbers and Yianna Xenakis.  (Sorry if I forgot anyone!)  We hope you have a great race!

Important

Please don’t dash across the street just as the light is about to change. I know that sometimes we’re just chatting and not really paying attention, but this is really important.  First of all, it’s dangerous!  You may just make it across, but if other runners follow you, they’ll be stuck in the middle of traffic. (If you do happen to make it across an intersection, you can always wait at the other side of the road for the group.)  Second, it can be disheartening to be running ten steps behind someone only to watch them ditch you at the light – even if it’s unintentional.  I feel pretty strongly about this one – the ethos of this group is that we all look out for each other and run in groups.  You don’t have to wait for 50 people, but we all know the 5-10 people that tend to be in our group.  Look out for each other!  This is going to be especially important when we do some of our upcoming long runs.  Thanks for understanding!

Reminder – Padua Race Registration

The fees for registering for the Padua Race increase on Feb. 1.  Here’s the LINK to the directions for buying the race registration and the Runcard.

THIS GIRL CAN!

The UK Government has come out with a new ad campaign to encourage girls and women to be active.  They’re trying to specifically target women’s “fear of being judged” and I think they did an amazing job (and they’ve had over 5 million views on youtube.)  If you haven’t seen it yet, take a second to watch the video. http://www.takepart.com/video/2015/01/18/this-girl-can

Love this photo of our runners in the frosty Heath!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday February 2nd – Wembley (7-9 miles)

7 miles (Alperton Tube Station-Piccadilly Line)

8 miles (Wembley Central Tube Station–Bakerloo Line and Overground)

9 miles (Wembley Park Tube Station–Jubilee and Metropolitan Lines)

This is a great run – we go out the Canal to the west almost the entire way. No lights and soft on the knees! Continue out the canal and exit at Alperton.  The steps are just before the bridge labelled number “11” and “Ealing Road Alperton.”  (See photo below).  Turn right at the top of the stairs and your first right again onto Ealing Road.  Just after the turn you’ll see the Alperton station on your left for the 7-mile route. Follow Ealing Road to the High Road and turn right.  You’ll see Wembley Central on your right for the 8-mile route.  For 9 miles, continue until you make a left on Park Lane which becomes Wembley Park Drive. Continue past the stadium and to the Wembley Park Tube Station.

NOTE:  While the Alperton Tube station is at mile 7, it is a longer Tube ride home because of the necessary line changes.  You might want to push on to mile 8 and take Wembley Central which is a faster route home.

 

Here’s a photo of the exit off of the canal:

(You’re looking for the 243 Ealing Road sign)

 

Wednesday February 4th – Tempo Time!  Hyde Park Tempo Triangle

Head down to Hyde Park the usual way at a very gentle pace.  Once you reach the park pick up the pace a bit around Speaker’s Corner, and then run very fast down to the SE corner of the park. Jog slowly around the corner while you try to bring your heart rate back down to a recovered rate. Once you reach the straightaway, run hard again to Carriage Road.  Slow down to a recover rate again as you cross over the bridge and up to the path, where you will turn right and run hard along the diagonal back to Speaker’s Corner.  Jog very slowly back to SJW or, even better, hop on the bus or tube from Marble Arch. If you are not doing tempo work, you can do this run at a regular pace (if you go back to SJW it is about 6.5 miles).

Friday February 6 –What, NOT the Heath?!  No, it’s Happening Bagel via Highgate and Finsbury Greenbelt – 7 miles

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.  Cross the street at the big intersection and go down Southwood Lane and at the bottom of the hill veer to the right 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 the Finsbury Greenbelt 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 and we will go to Costa for coffee. We will take the tube home from the Finsbury Park Station.

Alternatively, you can run your favorite Heath route.  Your choice!

4 miles:  A great way to ease into running the hill.   Run up to the Hampstead tube station and back.
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.