Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the great feedback on our Christmas lights run! We had a big group for such an early start. You have amazing spirit!

This week we’re keeping things simple with Hyde Park on Monday, Kensal Rise on Wednesday and The Hill on Friday. If you’re training for the Warsaw Half Marathon, both the standard and gradual training programs suggest 7 miles on Monday. Challenge yourself to finish the year on a strong note!

THANK YOU to Starbucks – Last chance! We need your help!
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. I’ll be collecting money on Monday and Wednesday before the runs. We’ll also be donating some baked goodies. Please email [email protected] if you would like to contribute baked goodies. We’ll gather the baked goods on Tuesday Dec 13 and we’ll give the gift to Starbucks on Wed 14 Dec. before we start our run so please get your gift to us soon if you would like to participate.

Warsaw Hotel Update – Cancelling? Roommates?
Our hotel in Warsaw is fully booked on Friday night and we have no more rooms available at the WRW rate for the other nights. If you can no longer go to the race for any reason, please email us first before you tell the hotel because we may transfer your room to someone in the group who is on a waiting list. We also have a runner who is looking for a roommate, so please email wrwlondon@gmail if you would like to share a room. Thanks!

Running over the holiday
We aren’t setting official routes for the weeks of 19 and 26 December. We’ll be back training as a group on Wednesday 4 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 long-run mileage will increase over the weeks leading up to the race.

New Year’s Resolution
We currently have 97 women signed up to do the race in Warsaw! I love it! When we return in January we have only 11.5 weeks, including Feb break, before the race. If you are coming to Warsaw, you need to commit to your training and make it a priority to be out running regularly and ideally running with the group. At this point in the training, the Monday long runs are most important. If you are battling some aches and pains or an injury, make sure that you see an expert to help manage your recovery. OK, that’s it for the “gentle” reminder for now, but stay tuned for more arm twisting in the New Year!

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday!

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 12 December – 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!

Wednesday 14 December –  Kensal Rise (4-5+ 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, turning left on Cunningham then right on Aberdeen to work your way to the canal entrance on Bloomfield.  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 16 December – 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.

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. 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.

Hi Everyone,
We have two unique runs planned this week where we’re doing something different so please read the email below. Should be very fun, hope you can join us!

Monday – Wembley Central IN REVERSE
On Monday we’ll plan to meet at Barclays as normal, but then we’re going to run to the Maida Vale station and take the Bakerloo line to the Wembley Central station. (You may want to stretch again on the train.) We’ll take a minute at the Wembley Central station to get organised into our pace groups and then we follow the canal back to St. John’s Wood. There are a few benefits of doing the route in reverse. We miss a lot of the bike traffic on the canal and we end at home so we don’t have to take a cold tube ride back. In addition, if you find that you are struggling near the end of the run, you’ll be in familiar territory and could always walk a bit. If you’re not sure if you want to tackle 8 miles, it’s 6.5 miles to the canal exit in Little Venice so you could easily walk to town/home from there. If you tackle the entire route, you’ll have Starbucks waiting as a reward!

Wednesday – Christmas Lights, 6:00am start
Why get up so early? It really is quite spectacular to see the Christmas lights at night and without the crowds. The picture at the top of the email is from the run last year. For those who are interested, meet at Barclays at 6:00am. When we’re waiting at Barclays and when we run by the houses in town, be VERY QUIET. No talking or only whispers. Our group is very loud and we don’t want to wake up the entire neighbourhood at that early hour! It’s 4.4 miles to Bond Street station and 5.3 miles to Baker Street. (Last year I took the tube from Bond Street and was home around 7:15.) Everyone should look at the map because the group usually gets divided as different groups stop for pictures. If you’re planning to run at 6:00am please wear bright or reflective clothing and maybe even carry a bike light or head lamp if you have one. And be extra careful of the cars! On a side note, I happened to be near Jermyn Street yesterday and it is decorated with the most extraordinary angels. It’s not on our route map below, but you may want to take a quick detour when we run past Fortnum and Mason on Piccadilly and go see Jermyn Street as well.

THANK YOU to Starbucks

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 me before Tuesday 13 December. Please email [email protected] if you would like to contribute baked treats. We’ll gather the baked goods on Tuesday 13 December and we’ll give the gift to Starbucks on Wednesday 14 December before the run. Please get your gift to us soon if you would like to participate.

Keep running,
Jane

Wednesday 7 December

Option One (6:00 am start) – London Holiday Lights (4-6 miles)

The first part of the route we run through Regents Park. Head out St John’s Wood Terrace, right on Charlbert and enter Regents Park. Turn right at the Outer Circle and follow the outer edge of the circle until we exit at York Gate. [Note we are running by residences in Regents Park so try not to talk—our conversations echo in the early morning calm!] Cross Marylebone Road, running through the Marylebone Church courtyard and follow Marylebone High Street down until you turn right on George Street, then left on Spanish Place to Manchester Square (past the Wallace Collection) then right on Fitzhardinge Street, left on Orchard Street until you reach Oxford Street.

Turn left on Oxford Street and continue until you reach Regents Street and turn right. Follow Regents Street to Great Marlborough Street, take a left, go past Liberty and then take a right on Carnaby Street.  Follow Carnaby to its end at Beak Street, right on Beak then left on Regents Street, all the way into Piccadilly Circus.  Turn right on Piccadilly Street and then right on Old Bond Street. Follow Old Bond which turns into New Bond back up to Brook Street. Turn left then right onto South Molton Street up to Oxford Street.  You can stop at the Bond Street Station (4.4 miles) or continue up Gee’s Court (a tiny alley street diagonally across from Bond Street Station) which becomes St. Christopher’s Place. Cross Wigmore Street up Marylebone Lane, back up the Marylebone High Street, through the Marylebone Church courtyard to Marylebone Road.

Options:  turn left at Marylebone Road to reach Baker Street Station and you will have run 5.4 miles; alternatively, retrace your steps through Regents Park outer circle back to Starbucks via Allitsen and St Johns Wood Terrace and you will have run 6.5 miles. Latte time!

Option Two (normal 8:20 start) – 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 countJ ].  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 December – The Heath 4-8 miles
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.

Thanks for all the great feedback about our Monday adventure run to Hampton Court Palace. WRW is certainly up for an adventure! There were more than 30 women who did the run to the Palace. We had a beautiful autumn day and it’s a stunning route. We’ll plan to do this run again in the spring.

Building distance in our training – Monday to Canary Wharf
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 5-6 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. Did you run to Hampton Court? How did you feel? If you had a few aches and pains at the end, you may decide to do a shorter option on Monday (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 6 Feb 2017. 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.

Wednesday and Friday this week
Since we’ll have a group of runners who run to Canary Wharf on Monday, we have a shorter run on the schedule for Wednesday. We suggested a 4-mile Regents Park route. This is to make sure that we don’t increase our mileage too much in one week. If you don’t run to Canary Wharf, and you’d like to do a longer run on Wednesday you can easily add additional mileage in Regents Park or you can choose a different route of your choice. Friday we’re planning for a run to Borough Market. Get your shopping lists ready! As always, if you can’t go to Borough Market for any reason, you could always tackle our usual Friday hill run.

Warsaw Hotel Rooms – LAST CHANCE
Thanks for all your patience with the hotel website. The site is up again and we’re requesting that if there’s any chance you are going on this trip, please book your room now! (You can cancel with no penalty before March.) We heard from the race director that the race registration is going to open very soon, maybe even next week. We’re staying at the hotel that is most convenient for the race, so we fully expect that the hotel will sell out quickly once the race registration opens.

We’re getting close to booking all the rooms in our original room block. If you go on the site and there are no rooms listed, let us know and we’ll get more added. (The hotel doesn’t want to give us more rooms until we fully book the original rooms, which is a bit annoying, sorry.) All the details and the links to the hotel booking site are on our website under the “Spring Half Marathon” tab at this LINK. If you have any issues with the room booking, please let us know and we’ll help you get it sorted. Remember that after you book to email Jen Skor with your room type and flight information.

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.

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 14 November – Canary Wharf  – (9.3 miles)

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 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!

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 skyscraper 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, just right of the entrance.  After a much earned coffee, we’ll head to the Canary Wharf Tube station [Jubilee Line] and tube it home to SJW.  Congratulations!

Wednesday 16 November – Regents Park (4 miles)

We are going to ease up a bit and run a familiar local loop after the long run to Canary Wharf.  Head down Grove End Road as though going to Hyde Park BUT at Marylebone Road, turn left and follow Marylebone Road, past Madame Tussauds, then turn left at York Bridge/York Gate and right at the Outer Circle. Follow the Outer Circle counter clockwise, all the way to the crosswalk by the US Ambassador’s House. Cross out of the Park and head to Starbucks.

If you want a longer run, you can add another loop on the outer circle the total will be 6.8 miles.  We’ll meet you at Starbucks when we’re finished!

Friday 18 November – Borough Market via Westminster Bridge – 6 miles
We head to Hyde Park via the usual route. Start heading west on Circus Road and turn left on Grove End 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 left to enter Hyde Park at the intersection with Stanhope Place.   Run along the eastern edge of the park to Hyde Park Corner, under Wellington Arch and down Constitution Hill.  Run past the Victoria Memorial down the mall and enter St. James Park.  Run over the pond and out of the park, turning left onto Birdcage Walk and down into Parliament Square to Big Ben.  Continue past Big Ben and cross Westminster Bridge. After the bridge turn left to run along the Thamesuntil the river path ends after Southwark Bridge. Borough Market is under the railway bridge near the London Bridge station. The official address is 8 Southwark Street SE1 1TL.

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 pace group photos at the Cemetery 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.)

You received lots of emails from WRW this week! We announced that we’re collecting WRW shirt and hat orders and that we’re booking hotel rooms for the half marathon in Warsaw. More details on both of those below. Please read the important update on the HOTEL rooms below.

This week is our adventure run to Hampton Court Palace on Monday. Wednesday is Notting Hill and Friday is the Hill.

RSVP – Adventure Run Monday Nov. 7
An adventure run means that we ride the train to a location at the start of the run and then we take the train home at the end of the run. This means that if you are doing this run we are NOT meeting at Barclays – see the details below. (If you can’t do this run, there will be a group that meets at Barclays and decides on a route of their choice.) Monday we’re running from Richmond to Hampton Court Palace. We run along the Thames path for pretty much the entire way and it’s a beautiful route. Plus you can’t beat coffee at the Palace cafe when you’re done. Block out the entire morning or more if you want to stay for a long coffee afterwards.

If you’re planning to attend, please email [email protected] so we know to look out for you at the station. But please be aware that we are not waiting for anyone. You must be on time to catch this train or we’re leaving without you.

Here’s the plan: We’ll meet at the Finchley Road and Frognal Overground Station at 8:30 for the 8:41 train to Richmond. We will arrive in Richmond by 9:15 to start our run. (You can take a bus up Finchley Road to the station or take the tube to Finchley Road, turn left and walk up to the Overground Station.) When we arrive in Richmond we’ll run along the Thames all the way to Hampton Court Palace. Take a look at the route directions below. (The entire run is approximately 8 miles or you can exit at the Horse Fair bridge for a 6-mile route and take a train from Kingston station.) We’ll take the train back to London Waterloo from the Hampton Court train station. The train runs every 30 minutes, at 23 and 54 past the hour from Hampton Court and it is an approximately 40 minute train ride back to London.

2016-2017 Shirt and Hat Order – DEADLINE SOON
I sent an email on Thursday afternoon announcing that we’re collecting orders for the 2016-2017 Women Running the World T-Shirt. This year we are also offering a WRW half-zip, long-sleeved shirt and WRW everyday hat. If you want to order, please complete the Google Doc at this LINK We need to have a very quick turnaround on the order collection because the inventory levels are constantly changing. When we know the style/colour is in stock we need to get our order in ASAP. Orders are due before Thursday 10 November at 5pm.

Warsaw Hotel Rooms – UPDATE
We sent an email on Friday announcing that you can now book hotel rooms from the Warsaw half marathon. Thanks for being so responsive! We’ve had many women book rooms already. At the moment the hotel website is showing that there are no rooms available, but this is a technical issue on their end. We will let you know when the hotel website is back up but it might not be until Monday or early next week. (We also heard from a few of you who received a “privacy” message when you tried to book and we’re looking into that as well.) If you would like a hotel room and you haven’t booked yet, please email [email protected] and let us know if you are planning to have a single room or share with a roommate so we have a sense of the total size of our group and whether we are going to need add rooms to our block. Thanks so much!

ROUTES

Monday 7 November – Richmond to Hampton Court (8 miles)
We will meet at the Finchley Road and Frognal Overground Station at 8:30 for the 8:37 train to Richmond. We will arrive in Richmond by 9:15 to start our run.You can take a bus up Finchley Road to the station or take the tube to Finchley Road, turn left and walk up to the Overground Station.

Leave the Richmond Overground Station, cross the road at the traffic lights and go down Old Station Passage. Turn left at the end and run a few yards until you get to Richmond Green. Cross the common, using the paths on a diagonally right direction, aiming for Old Palace Lane. Follow Old Palace Lane until you reach the river and turn left.

Now we stick to the river path along the Thames for the rest of our run. We will pass Petersham, Ham House and run briefly along Lower Ham Road. We keep right at Canbury Gardens and run into Kingston. In Kingston, we run as close to the Thames as possible, first on Thames Side past the pier, then right onto a small path which leads to the bridge pictured below.

Bridge in Kingston – Richmond to Hampton Court run

At the bridge you have two options:

6-mile route:  Go up the stairs on the near side of the Horse Fair bridge and turn left into town. Follow the road to Kingston Overground station.

8-mile route to the Palace:  Go up the stairs on the near side of the Horse Fair bridge and cross the bridge.Come down the stairs and turn right under the bridge to continue along the Thames on a very pretty path called Barge Walk. This path continues all the way to Hampton Court Palace where we will pass some of the gardens and see the palace from the outside. If you can stay for a coffee, we’ll meet at the Tiltyard Cafe which is one of the restaurants on Palace grounds. If you cross the courtyard in front of the palace and then walk past the rose gardens you’ll see the Cafe. (No need to pay Palace entrance fee.) Enjoy a coffee and a treat before we get on the train back to London.

We will head back to London from the Hampton Court train station which is across the bridge from the palace. Coming from the path with the palace on your right, turn left across the Hampton Court Bridge and the train station is on your left. The train runs every 30 minutes, at 24 and 54 past the hour.

Wednesday 9 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, past the tube stop, to Elgin Crescent and make a left. Cross Portobello Road and continue on what is now Colville Terrace until it meets Ledbury Road where we turn right and then left at Westbourne Grove. Run down Westbourne Grove to the top of Bishop’s Bridge, then left down the steps into Sheldon Square (across from the Paddington Station entrance). Stay along the canal to where you entered, then run back on Blomfield to SJW and Starbucks.

You also have the option of a shorter run by not running as far as Ladbroke Grove. Instead, run half the distance you want, turn around and head home. For example, running to the Westway flyover and back is about four miles.

Friday 11 November – 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. 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.

Hi Everyone,

Love this picture – we had the entire table at Starbucks! And there were a few more runners waiting for coffee and not in the picture.

On Monday we’re celebrating Halloween with a run through the Brompton Cemetery ending at the Whole Foods in South Kensington. The Brompton Cemetery is one of those hidden London jewels! It was opened in 1840 and designed to be a garden for recreation as well as providing burial space. The cemetery covers 39 acres and 205,000 people are buried there including the famous suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. To top it off, the South Ken Whole Foods has a large seating area upstairs for sharing a post-run coffee. I hope you can join the run! We have a large group this year, so make sure you take a look at the route. We try hard to have to the pace groups stick together as much as possible but if the group is very large, we’ll likely split into smaller groups along the way. Wednesday is The Wall and Friday we’re back up the hill.

Halloween Costumes on Monday!
It’s time for our Third Annual Halloween Costume run! Plan to dress up for Halloween – nothing too elaborate because you still have to run – but be creative! A crazy hat? A Halloween top? Last year we had some great running “costumes” and I can’t wait to see what you come up with for this year! And as I mentioned above, this year we have the extra treat of being in the Brompton Cemetery on the spookiest day of the year.

RSVP – Adventure Run Next Monday Nov. 7
An adventure run means that we ride the train to a location at the start of the run and then we take the train home at the end of the run. This means that if you are doing this run we are NOT meeting at Barclays – see the details below. (If you can’t do this run, there will be a group that meets at Barclays and decides on a route of their choice.) We tried our first adventure run last spring from Richmond to Hampton Court Palace and it was a big hit. We run along the Thames path for pretty much the entire way and it’s a beautiful route. Plus you can’t beat coffee at the Palace cafe when you’re done. Block out the entire morning or more if you want to stay for a long coffee afterwards.

If you’re planning to attend, please email [email protected] so we know to look out for you at the station. But please be aware that we are not waiting for anyone. You must be on time to catch this train or we’re leaving without you.

Here’s the plan: We’ll meet at the Finchley Road and Frognal Overground Station at 8:30 for the 8:41 train to Richmond. We will arrive in Richmond by 9:15 to start our run. (You can take a bus up Finchley Road to the station or take the tube to Finchley Road, turn left and walk up to the Overground Station.) When we arrive in Richmond we’ll run along the Thames all the way to Hampton Court Palace. (The entire run is approximately 8 miles or you can exit at the Horse Fair bridge for a 6-mile route and take a train from Kingston station.) We’ll take the train back to London Waterloo from the Hampton Court train station. The train runs every 30 minutes, at 23 and 54 past the hour from Hampton Court and it is an approximately 40 minute train ride back to London.

That’s all for now!
Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday 31 October – Whole Foods via Brompton Cemetery (6.5+ miles)

Today we’ll earn our post-run treat by ending at Whole Foods on the Kensington High Street!  Bring your shopping list if you want.

We start out the normal way to Hyde Park.  Once you enter the park, turn left and run along the east side of the park.  At Hyde Park Corner turn right and run along the south side exiting at the gate we normally use at William Street [next to the French Embassy].  Cross the street, take a right.  Turn left at Brompton Road (just past the tube) and take Brompton all the way (admiring Harrods as you pass) until Fulham Road.  Veer left on Fulham Road and continue to Brompton Cemetery.  Turn right to enter the Cemetery.  Run through the Cemetery then exit and turn right onto Old Brompton Road, then turn left onto Earls Court Road. Cross Cromwell Road, then turn right onto Cromwell Road and then turn left onto Marloes Road. Continue north on Marloes making your way through the streets to Kensington High Street.  Whole Foods will be to your right.

Wednesday 2 November – 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”.  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 6 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.

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. 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.

Hi everyone,

We had a fantastic turnout for the run to Brick Lane and I’m so happy that so many of you tried the route. We were very disappointed that our favourite funky coffee shop, Brick Lane Coffee, has been taken over to be a Crosstown Doughnut and Coffee Bar. At least we got some delicious donuts due to the change.

This week, we’re sticking closer to home with the Hyde Park routes on Monday. There are many distance options so it’s a good way to get back into running if you’ve had some time off or try to add some mileage if you’ve been regularly running. Wednesday we’re doing the Kensal Rise loop and Friday we’re back up the hill or you can do a route of your choice. ASL is off on Friday for teacher conferences so we’ll meet later at 8:30.

Training Plans
We’ve posted two training plans on the website for the March 26 half marathon in Warsaw: https://womenrunningtheworld.com/training/spring-half/  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. (In the last six weeks of training, both training plans call for the same distance on the long runs.) We follow the standard training plan when we plan the routes for the group, but you’ll see there is a range of options for mileage in most of our routes. The half marathon is a month earlier than last year’s race so if you are planning to participate in the race it’s important that you commit to regular running and follow the plan to gradually increase your mileage. Looking ahead, we’ll plan to run the 9.5 miles to Canary Wharf on 6 February 2017. So you need to have tackled 6, 7, and 8 miles before then. If you are new to the group and all this sounds impossible – don’t worry! Just plan to come run with us regularly and we’ll gradually tackle each new distance. I heard from a few of you that you recently ran your longest runs ever – the first time you completed 6 miles – and I feel so thrilled and proud for each of your accomplishments!

Looking ahead – Halloween 31 October
Halloween falls on a running day this year and we have a few fun things planned. First, it is our Third Annual Halloween Costume run! Plan to dress up for Halloween – nothing too elaborate because you still have to run – but be creative! A crazy hat? A Halloween top? Last year we had some great running “costumes” and I can’t wait to see what you come up with for this year! Second, we’re running through Brompton Cemetery to the South Ken Whole Foods on Halloween. We love this route and it’s going to be fun to do it on Halloween.

Looking ahead – Adventure Run to Hampton Court Palace 7 November
An adventure run means that we ride the train to a location at the start of the run and then we take the train home at the end of the run. It takes more time to take the train both directions, but it gives us a chance to run some interesting routes that are outside our neighbourhood. We tried our first adventure run last spring from Richmond to Hampton Court Palace and it was a big hit. We run along the Thames path for pretty much the entire way and it’s a beautiful route. Plus you can’t beat coffee at the Palace cafe when you’re done. The entire route to the Palace is 8 miles, but there is also an option to take a train home at 6 miles. Mark your calendars now for Monday 7 November and block out the entire morning or more if you want to stay for a long coffee afterwards.

Save the Date
It’s hard to believe that we’ve reached the end of October already. Looking ahead we have the following runs on the schedule:

31 October – Brompton Cemetery and Kensington Whole Foods (6.5 miles)
7 November – ADVENTURE RUN – Hampton Court Palace (6 or 8 miles)
14 November – Canal/Farringdon (6 miles) or Canary Wharf (9 miles)
18 November (Friday) – Borough Market (6 miles)
21 November – Finsbury Park Happening Bagel (7 miles)
28 November – Holland Park to Green Park (7-8 miles)
5 December – Wembley REVERSE (8 miles)
7 December (Wednesday) – Christmas Lights run (early start)
12 December – Hyde Park

Lululemon event – this Tuesday!
Join us on Tuesday, 25th October 7pm for a very special event at the Lululemon Marylebone store!  (Unfortunately Lululemon has said that they can’t do the yoga part of the evening that we advertised earlier but we’re still going to have a great night of shopping.) Grab a glass of champagne and start shopping! The store will be open only for our group and this is a great opportunity to pick up a few cherished pieces for yourself and maybe start your holiday shopping. There will be a few surprises on the evening so don’t miss this unique and fantastic event! AND Lululemon is offering our group a 20% discount! If you are member of the SJWWC please sign up on the SJWWC website. If you are not a member of the SJWWC, please email Kathy Anderson ([email protected]) and Stephanie Gladis ([email protected]) to sign up. Space is limited so please sign up now if you are interested.

Keep running,

Jane

ROUTES

Monday, 24 October – 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!

Wednesday 26 October –  Kensal Rise (4- 5+ 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, turning left on Cunningham then right on Aberdeen to work your way to the canal entrance on Bloomfield. 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 28 October – The Heath (4-8 miles)

NOTE – LATE START AT 8:30 AM due to ASL parent conferences.  We run up the hill on Fridays–it’s tradition! It is hard, but you’ll feel great when you are finished.

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. 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
6+ miles:  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.