Hi Everyone,

What a beautiful run in the Heath on Friday!  Thanks to Maureen for the stunning photo of our runners on a spectacular winter day.  

On Monday we have a 7-mile loop out the canal and then down to Hyde Park, entering near the Italian fountains.  We head to Green Park and then turn back toward St. John’s Wood.  Remember to watch your pace.  We have a few weeks of 7-8 mile runs so that we can build to our 9-mile run to Canary Wharf on Feb. 9.

Wednesday we’re doing another new tempo/speed workout in Regents Park.  We’re doing Fartleks!  Make sure you read the directions in the route section.  As always, these workouts are so much more fun if you stick together as a group and encourage each other along the way.   Here’s a LINK to a short but informative article about why Fartlek workouts are good for your training.

Padua Trip

I sent two emails this week about the Padua trip regarding race registration and the Giotto Fresco tour.  If you didn’t receive the emails please first check your SPAM folder and if you still didn’t receive it, please email back and let me know.  We want to make sure that our master email list is correct!  (If you want to go on the tour, a reminder that you need to email Karina Kalb at [email protected] today.)

ENERGY GELS for training and the race

Looking ahead to our longest training runs, it is time to start to think about what type of gel or fueling you’ll use during the race.  Fueling is different for each runner but I’ll give you some of Paula’s general guidelines.  The rule of thumb is that after about 80-90 minutes of running you’ll have used up natural fuel sources and you’ll need to top up the tank with something.  (That is based on our type of running, if someone is running a marathon at a 6 min/mile pace, their fueling needs will be different!)  Most of the women in the group use some sort of sports gel.  If you have never used a sports gel before it is crucial that you try it out during some of our long training runs.  The gels are very concentrated so a brand that might work well for one person could make another person feel sick.  Below are some recommendations from members of the group.  It is worth stocking up now so you’ll have them for our longest runs.  You can go to a Runner’s Need store or order them on the internet.  Amazon also has a good stock.  (If you have some leftovers at home, make sure to check the expiration date because they don’t last forever.)

Amy – GU Energy, Tri-Berry

Syma – TORQ, Forest Fruits

Jane – GU Roctane (has caffeine), Blueberry Pomegranate

Vicky – Clif Shot Bloks, Berry or Orange

We’ll review this again before our longest runs, but in general during a race you would take a gel somewhere between 7-8 miles and then don’t take another one for 35-45 mins.  (Don’t be tempted to take more than one gel in 30 mins! – you’ll need to keep an eye on your watch.)  If you don’t want to get into too much of the science of it all, Paula recommends that you take a gel at 8 miles during the race if you’re running at a medium pace for you (not as compared to anyone else) or 7 miles if you’re running fast for you.  For me, during training, I will take a gel around 7-8 mile mark of a 10-mile run.  Even if I don’t feel that I desperately need it at that point, it helps me feel better at the end of run, and helps me practice taking a gel.  If you are interested in learning more about fueling, gels and the different brands, CLICK HERE to read Paula’s full note.

Royal Parks Half Marathon- October 11, 2015

The ballot for spaces in the Royal Parks Half Marathon opens next week.  It will open on Tuesday 27 January and stay open until Wednesday 4 February.  This is a great race because it is very close to home and you get to run in some of London’s iconic spots like Hyde Park corner and past Big Ben with no cars, only runners.  I ran this race two years ago if you have any questions.  Here’s the LINK to the race website.

Winter weather

One quick note on London weather forecasts.  Some news sources were predicting snow for last weekend and into Monday. They made it seem like we’d get two feet of snow but instead we got about 2 minutes on Saturday afternoon.  If you run in London you can’t be too swayed by the weather.  Wake up, put on your running clothes and come run. If it is snowy or icy, we won’t run, we’ll go straight to coffee.  But in the last 4 years of running in London that only happened once or twice!

Thanks for reading another long email – keep running!

Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 26 January – Canal West/Paddington/Hyde/Green/Mayfair Loop (6.89 miles)

Start out by heading west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End to St John’s Wood Road and go west, running along Blomfield towards the canal.  Do not get on the canal but instead cross over the canal and take the Westbourne Bridge over the Westway A40.  Run south on Westbourne Terrace and at the fork, bear right to enter Hyde Park at Lancaster Gate.  

Run along the west side of the Italian Gardens and continue along the south side of The Serpentine until you reach Hyde Park Corner.  Run through Wellington Arch and turn left to enter Green Park.  Run to the Green Park Tube, cross Piccadilly and head north (turn left) on to  Berkeley Street.  After Berkeley Square Gardens, turn left and then right onto Davies Street.  Run north on Davies to the Bond Street Tube.  Go left on Oxford and then right onto James Street.  Run north on James which becomes Marylebone High Street.  At Marylebone Road, turn left and then right to enter Regents Park at York Gate.  Once in Regents Park, turn left and run along the Boating Lake back to the Charlbert Street exit.  Take Charlbert back to SJW Terrace and Starbucks.

Wednesday, 28 January – Tempo Track Sprinting and Fartleks

Time for more tempo training—this week we incorporate 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!

Friday, 30 January –  The Heath

Today is hill day and you can pick your choice of the Heath Runs.  Want to try a new hill run that front loads the hills [almost all downhill after the half way point] and avoids the muddy Heath?  Try the Highgate option, below.  After this week, we will call this the 7.5 mi Highgate route and the Heath run link will include it on our web page.

 

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 the model boating pond, the men’s bathing pond and a third 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.

 

 

Regular Heath routes (4 – 8 miles):

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
8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

Hi Everyone,

Welcome back – it was great to see so many women running last week!  This Monday we’re heading to Sloane Square, the Embankment, Westminster and Green Park.  This is a great route with many distance options and a chance to see some beautiful parts of the city.  We’re also starting our more intense tempo training this Wednesday (more on that below).

We’re in an important part of our training – only 12 training weeks until the race (plus 2 weeks of vacation).  Try to block out the running time in your schedule and make it a priority.

Long Runs are KEY!

We’re now in mileage building time!  The long run is the most important thing during this period.  If you’re struggling to remain motivated or are dealing with aches/pains, consider doing less mileage on your mid-distance run.  You could also consider doing less on the hills. You’ll see from our training schedules, that we’ll build mileage over a few weeks and then have some periodic cutback weeks.  It’s important to give your body some recovery weeks with less mileage.

Looking ahead

We have the following long runs on the schedule:

Jan. 12 – Sloane Square/Westminster/Green Park (7.5 miles)

Jan. 19 – Big Ben Loop (8 miles)

Jan. 26 – Canal West/ Hyde Park/Mayfair (7 miles)

Feb. 2 – Wembley Park (7-9 miles)

Feb. 9 – Canary Wharf (9 miles)

Feb. 16 – Winter Break

Also on Friday Jan 23 we’ll be adding a 7-mile Heath route for those who would like to build to doing the full 8-mile Heath route.

Plan for Canary Wharf – Feb 9

February 9 is an important training day because if you’ve been following either the standard or gradual training schedule all groups need to do a 9-mile run.   Mark your calendars – I’d love to see the entire group make the run to Canary Wharf that day.

Tempo Run this week 

Make sure you read the description below in the route section.  Over the next two 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 is important that you don’t jump right into doing sprints.  You’ll see that this week, we have an easy/gentle run to Hyde Park with some stretches of fast running in the park and then an easy run (or bus/tube ride) home.   THIS 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 SJW together.  Some of the most difficult workouts can be the most fun if you do it with the group!

Getting back to running

If you’ve been injured or haven’t been running in the fall please plan to gradually build your mileage.  If you add too much too soon, you risk injury.  If you would like to link up with some other runners who are getting back into running, please let me know.

That’s all for now!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 12 January  – Sloane Sq/Westminster/Green Park (7.5 miles)

Everybody starts out to Hyde Park, taking the usual route: west on Circus Road, left on Grove End, all the way down to Seymour Place where the road ends.  Right on Seymour, across Edgware, left on Stanhope and enter the park. At the silver orb, turn left and run down to the southern edge, following the path to the right before it leaves the Park.  Run to exit by the tall shiny new ‘One Hyde Park’ complex, cross over Knightsbridge and continue ahead on Sloane Street.  Continue past Sloane Square down Lower Sloane St/ Chelsea Bridge Road to the Thames.  Turn left on the Thames side of Grosvenor Road and run along the embankment.  Continue left on Birdcage Walk, cutting through St James Park to the Mall, then left on the Mall towards Buckingham Palace, crossing before the circle to reach Green Park.  Run up to the Green Park Tube on Piccadilly St and head home!

Wednesday 14 January – 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 16 January – The Heath (4-8 miles)

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

8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

______________________________________

Hi everyone,

Happy New Year!  I can’t believe we’re in 2015.  I hope you had a fantastic holiday break!  It will be great to see you all again.  This is the week to get back into running.  The routes this week are straight forward.  If you didn’t run at all over the holidays, you might consider limiting your mileage this week and easing back into a regular running routine.  I know it can be difficult to get back to running, especially in the dark January days.  But try to block the time in your schedule and plan to run.  You’ll be glad you did it – I promise!

Keep running!

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 5 January – Hyde Park (3 to 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—you’ll see a silver orb just inside the Park.  After entering the Park, turn right and run towards Speaker’s Corner.

3 Milers:  Continue south through Hyde Park, past the Serpentine and at the Carriage drive, make a left and head back toward Hyde Park Corner.  Take the Hyde Park Corner tube home.

5 Milers:  At Hyde Park Corner continue back up/north on the carriage drive.  Exit the park at the Animals in War memorial and follow Upper Brook Street.  Turn left on Park Street which becomes Gloucester Place and then Park Road back to St. John’s Wood.

6 Milers: upon entering the park, turn right at the silver sphere and run until you meet N Carriage Road where you turn left.  Run down to the Serpentine, crossing over the bridge then left to run along the Serpentine. At the end of the Serpentine, turn left again and make your way to the eastern edge of the park before exiting at the Upper Brook St/Animals in War exit.  Continue along Upper Brook Street to Park Street, turn left, take it to Park Road and into SJW.

8 Milers: follow the 6 mile run but do not turn left at No Carriage Rd, instead cross over [this is tricky, be careful] and follow until you reach the large broadwalk where you turn left.  Run past Kensington Palace (on your right) and take a left to run along the southern edge of the park towards Hyde Park Corner, then turn left on the eastern edge and exit at Upper Brook St/Animals in War exit as above.  Take Upper Brook Street to Park Street [left] to Park Road and home to SJW.

Wednesday 7 January – The Wall (3 to 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 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.  This is a great route to do a tempo run because there are no traffic lights.  But please be careful and aware of the bikes on the path.

If you run all the way to The Wall and back it is 6 miles.  But it is very easy to run half the distance if you want and turn around and head home.  As a marker, if you run to the Camden market (where we have to exit the canal path and run past the food stalls for a minute) and return home it is a 3 mile round trip.

Friday 9 January – The Heath 4-8 miles

It’s a NEW YEAR and Friday so everyone up head up for our FIRST HEATH RUN of 2015!!!  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

8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

Hi Everyone,

This was another great week for WRW.  I loved how many people were up for an early morning run to see the Christmas lights!  You have amazing spirt!  We had 27 runners including two special guests – Lesley’s husband David and Meg’s daughter Alex.  The picture above is dark but that’s the point – it’s proof that we were actually at Barclays at 6:00am!  It was quite an experience to see the lights without traffic or crowds.  A big THANK YOU to Diane for the great suggestion and for leading us that morning. I think we’ve started a new WRW tradition.  If anyone has ideas for new fun routes, please let me know.

On Monday we’re returning to the Sloan Square/ Embankment/Westminster/ GreenPark route.  It offers one more chance to see the shops on Sloane Street and many options for distance depending on which tube you take home.  Wednesday we’re doing the Kensal Rise loop and Friday we’re back up the hill.

Reminder:  T-Shirt order due now

I sent an email mid-week but just in case you missed it – It’s time for the new t-shirts!  The cost is £25 per shirt.  It will be the same Nike Dri Fit shirt we’ve had the last two years, but in a new fun colour.  We’ll have our WRW logo on the front and a new saying on the back.  If you want to see a sample, there will surely be someone wearing one from last year on any given running day.  You should also ask your fellow runners about their sizes because the shirts run a bit big.

If you want a shirt please:

1.  Respond to this email and say you want a shirt

2.  Include your size in the email

BEFORE next Wednesday 17 December 

(Our supplier has suggested that we get the order in before January so we’re having a quick turnaround.)  We’re going to collect money in January!  We’re also looking into offering a long-sleeve half-zip.  More details on that in the new year.

THANK YOU to Starbucks – Last chance!

The holiday time of year is here and we’ll be organising a gift for the employees at our local St. John’s Wood Starbucks.  We’re suggesting a £5-10 donation but feel free to give whatever you would like.  We’ll also be donating some home-baked goodies.  Give your donation, in an envelope with your name, to Bonnie Bandeen or me before Tuesday Dec 16.  Please email Bonnie ([email protected]) if you would like to contribute baked treats.  Bonnie will gather the baked goods on Tuesday Dec 16 and we’ll give the gift to Starbucks on Wed 17 Dec. so please get your gift to us soon if you would like to participate.  

Running over the holiday

We aren’t setting official routes for the weeks of 22 and 29 December.  We’ll be back training as a group the week of 5 January.  For those of you in town over the holidays, there’ll be a group meeting at Barclays on MWF at 8:30.  If you need some route ideas, scan back through the weekly emails on our website.  For everyone, those staying in town and those travelling, feel free to take it easy over the break.  There is no harm in giving your body a break.  Running 2-3 times a week for 30-40 minutes will allow you to maintain fitness.  For those of you training for the half-marathon in the spring, we will start back in January with 6-7 miles then our mileage will increase over the weeks leading up to the race.

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday!  I feel very grateful for WRW and each one of you!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 15 December  – Sloane Sq/Westminster/Green Park (3.75-10 miles)

Choose your distance!

Everybody starts out to Hyde Park, taking the usual route: west on Circus Road, left on Grove End, all the way down to Seymour Place where the road ends.  Right on Seymour, across Edgware, left on Stanhope and enter the park. At the silver orb, turn left and run down to the southern edge, following the path to the right before it leaves the Park.  Run to exit by the tall shiny new ‘One Hyde Park’ complex, cross over Knightsbridge and continue ahead on Sloane Street.

3.75’ers:  at Sloane Sq, take the Tube home!

6.33’ers:  continue past Sloane Sq down Lower Sloane St/Chelsea Bridge Road to the Thames.  Turn left on the Thames side of Grosvenor Rd and run along the embankment to Westminster Tube–you’re done!

7.5’ers:  continue left on Birdcage Walk, cutting through St James Park to the Mall, then left on the Mall towards Buckingham Palace, crossing before the circle to reach Green Park.  Run up to the Green Park Tube on Piccadilly St and head home!

10 milers:  for anyone needing a longer run today, continue past Green Park Tube, through Mayfair to Baker Street and head to SJW Starbucks–this will give you 10 miles.

Wednesday 17 December – Kensal Rise 4-6 miles

The beginning of this run takes us along the canal to the west.  Please be aware of bikes along the canal and move into single file whenever you hear a ‘bike!’ shout.

Start out heading west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End to St John’s Wood Road and go west, working your way to the canal entrance on Blomfield.  Enter the canal heading west and run to the Ladbroke Grove exit.  Here we turn right and run over the bridge along Chamberlayne Road to Harvist Road. Turn right on Harvist, which turns into Brondesbury Road, and take that to Kilburn High Road/Maida Vale.  Turn right and follow Maida Vale to Hall Road where you turn left and run back to Starbucks. If you want to shorten this route, run west on the canal and turn back at your desired half-way point.

(The two mile mark is at the point on the canal when the Westway highway is over our heads.)

Friday 19 December – The Heath (4-8 miles)

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.

If you are not up for a hill run yet, no problem, just let us know.  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

6-7 miles:  The partial Heath route

8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

______________________________________

Hi everyone,

This week we’re all about Paddington Bear! There are 50 Paddington Bear statues across London to celebrate the arrival of the Paddington movie in cinemas.  Each bear is different and they’ve been designed by an interesting group of celebrities and artists.  At the end of December, the bears will be auctioned off to aid charity.  This week we have two routes that will lead you to see some Paddington Bears.  Monday we have a modified Hyde Park/Green Park route that leads you past six Bears and on Wednesday we have a Paddington route that leads you past nine bears including the original Paddington Bear in Paddington station.  If you’re not up for the new Paddington routes you can do the original routes planned for this week, Hyde Park on Monday and Notting Hill on Wednesday.

Here is the link to the map of ALL the Paddington Bears:

http://www.visitlondon.com/paddington/trail-map

To give you a little inspiration, here’s our small group from last Friday that found the original Paddington!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

OPTION 1

Monday 1 December – Paddington Bear in the Three Parks (6-7 miles)

(Bring your Oyster card, we’ll tube home from Westminster or Green Park)

Bear 1

For this route, we head to Hyde Park in our regular way of Circus Road, to Grove End Road, to Lisson Grove/Seymour Place and into Hyde Park.  We’ll turn left and head along the Park Lane path to Hyde Park corner.   Follow the path to the end of the Serpentine and you’ll have found the first bear, The Journey of Marmalade, On the Bridge near the Serpentine Bar and Kitchen, Hyde Park, SW1X 7LA.

Bear 2

Exit the park at Sloane Street (near Harvey Nichols) turn right on Basil Street and run until you see Flutterby (by Emma Watson) at Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge Tube exit, next to Harrods, SW1X 0LZ.

Bear 3

Turn Right on Sloane Street and left on Pont Street.  Run around Belgrave Square and head back to Hyde Park corner.  Run under Wellington Arch and along Constitution Hill until you get to Buckingham Palace and see Golden Paws (by David Beckham) Canada Gate, Green Park, Opposite Buckingham Palace SW1A 1AA.

Bear 4

Run along the Mall and then cross St. James Park and turn left along Birdcage Walk.  At the end of the park, turn left up Horse Guards Road to see Paddington Jack, Clive Steps, Horse Guard Parade, Outside Churchill War Rooms, SW1A 2AE

Bear 5

Turn right on King Charles Street and then left on Whitehall to see Paddington is Great, Downing Street, Whitehall, SW1A 2AA.  

Bear 6

Head back down Whitehall toward Westminster Tube to see the sixth bear, Good News Bear, Great George Street, Parliament Square, SW1P 3AL.

You can take the tube home from Westminster for a 6 mile run or head back to Green Park tube for a 7 mile run.

OPTION 2

Monday 1 December – Hyde Park (5-8 miles)

Let’s work off that turkey with our ever versatile run to Hyde Park!

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—you’ll see a silver orb just inside the park.  

5 Milers:  Run straight when you enter the park and turn left when the path end.  Turn left again at Hyde Park Corner and head back along the eastern edge of the park before exiting at the Animals of War memorial and follow Upper Brook Street.  Turn left on Park Street which becomes Gloucester Place and then Park Road back to St. John’s Wood. 

6 Milers: Upon entering the park, turn right at the silver sphere and run until you meet N Carriage Road where you turn left.  Run down to the Serpentine, crossing over the bridge then left to run along the Serpentine. At the end of the Serpentine, turn left again and make your way to the eastern edge of the park before exiting at the Upper Brook St/Animals in War exit.  Continue along Upper Brook Street to Park Street, turn left, take it to Park Road and into SJW.

8 Milers: Follow the 6 mile run but do not turn left at No Carriage Rd, instead cross over [this is tricky, be careful] and follow until you reach the large broadwalk where you turn left.  Run past Kensington Palace (on your right) and take a left to run along the southern edge of the park towards Hyde Park Corner, then turn left on the eastern edge and exit at Upper Brook St/Animals in War exit as above.  Take Upper Brook Street to Park Street [left] to Park Road and home to SJW.

OPTION 1

Wednesday 3 December – Paddington Bear in Paddington (5 miles)

Bear 1

Start out the way we head to the Blomfield Street canal entrance, taking Circus Road, turn left on Grove End, right on St. John’s Wood Road, left on Cunningham Place and follow around until you cross Maida Vale.  Continue across to Blomfield Road and run past the canal entrance to Warwick Ave, turn left and enter the little park on the west side of Warwick Ave.  (You may need to use the zebra crossing further down on Warwick Ave to cross the street.)  You have reached our first bear, Love Paddington X, Rembrandt Gardens, Little Venice W2 1XB.

Bear 2

Head back to Blomfield Road and turn left until you get to the canal entrance at the Westbourne Terrace Road bridge.  Follow the canal path toward Paddington.  (This is the way we return from the Notting Hill loop, but we’re going in the opposite direction.)  The second bear is in the green open area in the middle of the office buildings at Sheldon Square, across from Itsu.  You’ve reached Texting Paddington, Sheldon Square, W2 6EZ.

Bear 3

Run along the canal and you’ll find the next bear just past Bishops Bridge Road.  You’ve reached The Mayor of Paddington, Canalside Plaza, W2 1LA.

Bear 4

Continue along the canal until you reach the entrance to Paddington underground station.  Run through the station until you find area between tracks 8 and 9.  You have reached the original Paddington, Platform 8 and 9 Paddington Station, W2 1AE.

Bear 5

From the platform, exit straight out of the station to London Street, stopping at Norfolk Square Gardens.   You’ve reached the next bear, Paddingtonscape, Norfolk Square Gardens, London Street, W2 1RU.

Bear 6

Continue on London Street and turn right on Sussex Gardens.  Follow Sussex Gardens until you enter Hyde Park at Lancaster Gate.   The next bear is near the Italian Gardens.  You’ve reached Paws Engage, Kensington Gardens, Lancaster Gate entrance, W2 3PS.

Bear 7

Exit Hyde Park and head back up Sussex Gardens until making a left on Norfolk Place and then right on Praed Street.  Turn left on Sale Place, you’re back at the Paddington Basin.  You need to be on the far side of the canal to see Futuristic Robot Bear, Merchant Square, Paddington Basin, W2 1JS.  

Bear 8

Continue along the canal to see on the right, Bearing Up, St. Mary’s Footbridge, Paddington Basin, W2 1AF.

Bear 9

Just a little further along on the right you’ll see Brick Bear, Canal Towpath, Paddington, W2 1AF.

Cross the footbridge to reach the other side of the canal and then return to St. John’s Wood along the canal in the same way that we started.  You’ve run 5 miles and saw 9 bears including the original Paddington!

OPTION 2

Wednesday 3 December – Notting Hill (4-6+ miles)

Start out by heading west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End to St John’s Wood Road and go west, working your way to the canal entrance on Blomfield.  Enter the canal and run to the Ladbroke Grove exit then run down Ladbroke Grove to Elgin Crescent and make a left.  Continue to Ledbury and go right and then left at Westbourne Grove.  Run down Westbourne Grove over Bishop’s Bridge and down the steps into Sheldon Square [across from Paddington Station].  Go back along the canal and out where you entered, then run back to Starbucks.

You also have the option of a shorter run by not getting off the canal. Run half the distance you want, turn around and head home. As a rule of thumb, the two mile mark is the Westway overpass.

Friday 5 December – The Heath

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

6-7 miles:  The partial Heath route

8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

______________________________________

Website:  https://womenrunningtheworld.commm

Facebook Group:  Women Running The World (request to join)

Email: [email protected]

Hi all,

Due to the American Thanksgiving holiday, 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 Greenbelt.  This is one of my favourite routes 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 stretch of woodland.  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.)  

We’re not setting routes for Wednesday and Friday.  If you want to run, show up for an 8:30 start and as a group you can decide where you would like to go.

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 24 November

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.

Wednesday 26th and Friday 28th November

Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating this week!  We will not be setting routes during these ASL holidays but feel free to grab some friends and explore London.  You might want to run down to Borough Market to add to your Thanksgiving table.  The route is on the website: https://womenrunningtheworld.comm/Women_Running_the_World/Routes/Routes.html

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your flexibility with the route on Monday.  We had a few runners head out to Canary Wharf and many runners who took the route through Farringdon, but then headed east out to the Tower of London for a viewing of the Poppies.   It’s a good reminder to always bring your Oyster card because sometimes we do change plans on the day.  Sorry we didn’t advertise it ahead of time, but I took the good suggestion from others that morning.

Wednesday was a classic London day, pouring rain at 7:45 and sun by 8:45.  Friday was just straight pouring rain, but we still had a good turnout to run up the hill.  You never know what we’ll get from the London weather – just come out and run!

This week we head out to Putney Bridge on Monday, Kensal Rise on Wednesday and back up the Hill on Friday.   There’s a speaker at ASL on Wednesday so we’ll wait until early December to do our Paddington Bear run.

Good luck racers!

We have many current and former WRW members meeting in Las Vegas this weekend to run a half marathon.  Good luck from London to Molly Ashford, Susan Breeden, Colleen Crescenti, Kelly Ezickson, Peggy Ford, Christine Galiardo, Lynn Gilbert, Jill Granader, Lisa Hill, Georgine Hoffman, Lynne Hodge, Mindy Hollar, Francesca Howell, Colleen Kirkley, Betsy LaMaster, Mee Lee, Becky Lindon, Dorrie Marks, Kathy McMahon, Paula Mitchell, Carmine Najjar, Ariadne Petrucelli, Danya Roberts, Sue Rushmore, Diane Schlinkert, Pam Shields and Traci Tipple.  We hope you have a great race!

Training Plans

We’ve posted two training plans on the website for the April 19 half marathon in Italy.  There’s our standard training plan and also a gradual plan for runners who don’t want to tackle as many miles as part of training.

Foam Roller Exercises

In case you missed it on our Facebook page, here’s a link to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop website that did a post on different exercises and stretches using a foam roller, complete with photos.

Feedback on shirts

We’re starting to plan the WRW shirt for this year and we’d love to get some feedback from you.  We can’t take everyone’s suggestion but we’d love to hear your preferences.  How do you feel about no-sleeve, short-sleeve, or long-sleeve, maybe with a half zip?  Any color requests?  Any great ideas for a slogan?

Finally, here’s part of Friday’s very wet group in front of the Hampstead tube station.

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 17 November – Putney High Street (7.75 miles)

We’ll start out with our usual trek to Hyde Park, turning right along the southern path until we get to the One Hyde Park complex where we’ll turn left, passing through to Sloane Street and running south all the way to the Thames [keep an eye out for some great window shopping!].  Turn right and run along the north side of the river on Embankment/Cheyne Walk.  Just before Lots Road, turn right onto Cremorne Road which becomes Ashburnham Road.  Turn left onto Kings Road and run through Chelsea, Parsons Green, all the way to its end at Fulham High Street.  Turn left, crossing the Putney Bridge and run to the Starbucks on the left hand side of the street [past Fulham Bridge Road].  Stop, stretch and stay for a coffee!  We’ll take the train home from the Putney Station to Waterloo, then transfer to the Jubilee Line to SJW.

***If you want to have a 3.5 mile option, run to the Sloane Square Tube station and take the Tube home.***

Wednesday 19 November – Kensal Rise (6 miles)

The beginning of this run takes us along the canal to the west.  Please be aware of bikes along the canal and move into single file whenever you hear a ‘bike!’ shout.

Start out heading west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End to St John’s Wood Road and go west, working your way to the canal entrance on Blomfield.  Enter the canal heading west and run to the Ladbroke Grove exit.  Here we turn right and run over the bridge along Chamberlayne Road to Harvist Road. Turn right on Harvist, which turns into Brondesbury Road, and take that to Kilburn High Road/Maida Vale.  Turn right and follow Maida Vale to Hall Road where you turn left and run back to Starbucks. If you want to shorten this route, run west on the canal and turn back at your desired half-way point.

 

Friday 21 November – The Heath

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

6-7 miles:  The partial Heath route

8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the great feedback about our Monday run through the Brompton Cemetery.  We had a large group run to Whole Foods and many women stayed for coffee.  Great fun!  I wish we had a big empty Whole Foods on the St. John’s Wood high street so we could meet there every week.

Building distance in our training

This week we have our first long destination run on the schedule – 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 are feeling strong.  The gradual training program has a base of 5-6 mile long runs.  I would suggest that if you haven’t run 7-8 miles a few times this year, then don’t be tempted to jump to the 9 mile run.  There are options to run shorter distances.  One easy option is to run with the group to The Wall and then loop back.  Another option is to run to The Wall and then follow the Farringdon/Embankment/Green Park route that we did a few weeks ago.  The maps for all routes are listed in the routes section.

Save the Date – Upcoming runs

17 November – Putney High Street (7.75 miles)

24 November – Finsbury Happening Bagel, via the Greenbelt (7 miles)

1 December – Hyde Park (as we recover from Thanksgiving!)

8 December – Wembley Park (7-9 miles)

15 December – Sloane Square, Westminster, Green Park (7 miles)

There are usually options to shorten the mileage on all these routes.

Paddington Bear Trail

Paddington Bear has come to London and there are 50 statues of the famous bear throughout the city from now until 30 December.  We’re going to create a few routes, probably for Wednesday runs, for those who might like to run to see the bears.  Stay tuned – we should have the first route for next week.

Feedback on shirts

The last two years we’ve created a WRW shirt and they’ve been a big hit.  I’m sure you’ve seen women wearing the “Run Like a Girl” and “We Run London” shirts.  We’re starting to plan for the shirt for this year and we’d love to get some feedback from you.  We can’t take everyone’s suggestion but we’d love to hear your preferences.  How do you feel about no-sleeve, short-sleeve, or long-sleeve, maybe with a half zip?  Any color requests?  Any great ideas for a slogan?

A group of friends

A small reminder to everyone that WRW is really just a group of friends who like to run together.  We have a lot of knowledge in the group from the experience of running, but none of us (especially me!) are professional experts.  We tend to offer general wisdom about training such as it’s important to gradually add mileage and it’s important to properly stretch.  It’s crucial that if something is bothering you, little or big, that you seek out professional advice from an expert.  Or if you are new to running or new to running longer distances, you may want to see an expert to make sure that you are healthy and OK to tackle this challenge.  We have the names of some experts listed on our website.

Padua trip update

On Thursday, I sent an update email to all the people who are attending the Padua half-marathon trip.  If you didn’t receive the email and you’re planning to attend the trip, please let me know so we can make sure that our records are correct.

Upcoming races

Thanks to Yianna who suggested the following upcoming races:

Regents Park 10K for After Adoption

Sunday 16 November 2014 at 10:00am

Cancer Research London Winter Run – 10K

Sunday 1 February 2015 at 9:45am

That’s all for now!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 10 November

Canary Wharf [~9 miles] –OR—The Wall [6 miles] – OR Farringdon/Embankment/Green Park (6-7miles)

Okay, ready for one of our iconic destination runs?  Today, we have a choice of long run [Canary Wharf] or a shorter run [The Wall] or a shorter destination to Green Park via the Embankment..  Either way, we’ll all start out and do the first three miles together.

Option 1:  Canary Wharf

Section One – Canal to the Wall

The route starts out as the Wall.  Run along Prince Albert Road to join the canal at Charlbert Street.  Run along the canal for approximately 3 miles until the canal pathway ends at the famous “Wall.”

Section Two – Angel Roads

We need to run through the Angel neighbourhood until we can re-enter the canal path.   At the Wall follow the ramp up to Muriel Street.  (This is a good place to wait for your pace group.)  Take a right and then an almost immediate left up a path that winds between the apartment buildings.  See the picture below for 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.  (NB:  There is a public Ladies Room at the end of White Conduit Street, which intersects with Chapel Market at the Euphorium Bakery.)  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 (Jack Wills shop at the corner) 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 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.  (You’ll see that the way we have gone in the past is blocked so we need to make a slight detour.)  When you reach the road (Narrow St.), turn left and run past the Dunbar Wharf and make your first right on Three Colt Street.  Run until you hit the water again and turn left.  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 sky-scraper 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 on the right, next to the DLR station.  After a much earned coffee, we’ll head to the Canary Wharf Tube station [Jubilee Line] and tube it home to SJW.  Congratulations!

 

Option 2:  The Wall

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.

Option 3:  Canal/Farringdon/Embankment/Green Park (6-7+ miles)

Head out the canal to “The Wall”.  Exit the canal and turn right at the top of the exit onto Muriel/Rodney Street.  This will turn into Penton Rise, then King’s Cross and eventually Farringdon Street. 

4.5 milers:  Continue along Farringdon Street until Clerkenwell Road.  Turn left onto Clerkenwell and then right onto Turnmill Street.  Farringdon tube will be on the right – you’re done.

6 milers:  Stay on Farringdon Street all the way to the river.  Once you hit the Thames, turn right and run along the embankment.  When you reach Embankment tube station, take the tube home. 

7.5 milers:  Continue along the embankment until Westminster.  (If you take the tube from Westminster, you’ll have run 6.5 miles)  Turn right onto Westminster Bridge Road and continue onto Birdcage Walk.  Cut through St James Park towards The Mall.  Turn left onto The Mall and then right onto the path just past Clarence House.  Run the path up and then take the tube home from Green Park.

 

Wednesday 12 November

Notting Hill 4-6+miles

Keep your eyes open as this is often a celebrity spotting route!

Start out by heading west on Circus Road, turn left on Grove End to St John’s Wood Road and go west, working your way to the canal entrance on Blomfield.  Enter the canal and run to the Ladbroke Grove exit then run down Ladbroke Grove to Elgin Crescent and make a left.  Continue to Ledbury and go right and then left at Westbourne Grove.  Run down Westbourne Grove over Bishop’s Bridge and down the steps into Sheldon Square [across from Paddington Station].  Go back along the canal and out where you entered, then run back to Starbucks.

You also have the option of a shorter run by not getting off the canal. Run half the distance you want, turn around and head home. As a rule of thumb, the two mile mark is the Westway overpass.

Friday 14 November

The Heath 4-8 miles

We run up the hill on Fridays–it’s tradition! It is hard, but you’ll feel great when you are finished. 

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

6-7miles:  The partial Heath route

8 miles:  The full Heath route

Click here for maps of all of the Heath routes.

______________________________________

Website:  https://womenrunningtheworld.commm

Facebook Group:  Women Running The World (request to join)

Email: [email protected]