WFC Runners: WFC Runners - How far should I be running?

News

This week was fairly eventful for a number of reasons for myself and for the wonderful Fit Club family.

Firstly Fit Club turned 2! Mike and Laura formed Fit Club in 2016 and our merry little band of runners was added in September last year. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of the coaching team and would like to thank Mike and Laura for giving me the opportunity to coach such a wonderful group of runners!

The following day Sarah and I had the surprise arrival of young Bertie, two weeks early! Thank you again to everyone who sent messages of support and love. I can't wait for you all to meet the little man.

Wednesday was Mike Day's 39th birthday! Happy birthday boss man! Hope you are enjoying your honeymoon!!

Thursday was the WFC Runners weekly session. With me otherwise engaged the group was led by coaches Mike and Anna H, Anne and Sharon "One R". 16 of you wonderful runners met at Garnier Road for a social run over to Hockley Golf course and back.

Read all about it here: http://wfcrunners.blogspot.com/2018/08/wfc-runners-9th-august-training-session.html

On Saturday we had a number of runners doing parkruns at various locations. The official Fit Club summary shows 11 runners at 4 different parkruns.

Mike, Anna and Eric ran at Moors Valley with Anna securing a PB by a whopping 3 seconds. Olivia ran at Upton House with my brother and sister. She had had a late night the day before so had a very leisurely walk/run. Karen P was in Weymouth, see her full write-up below.

We also had Charlotte W and Rachel P running at Southampton on a Vegan Runners get together. Adam ran, and came third at Leszno, in Poland although it appears that he forgot his barcode!

The rest of us ran at Winchester. Tom was first home in a new PB of 20:50, however he also forgot his barcode! I was surprised with my time of a little over 23 mins given the lack of sleep I had had! Alice recorded a post baby PB with her fastest time since May 2016! Congratulations!

Jo H ran her fastest time since July 2017 and Glenna once again recorded an age grading of over 75%. Well done ladies! Rachel was trying to pace Felicity to a new PB. They went out fast, possibly a little too fast, as in the last half a km Felicity was a little sick! I applaud the effort though as it takes a lot of guts to push yourself so hard that you go beyond what your body is comfortable with. It is very easy to back off when it gets hard, but Felicity went for it. And for that I think she should be proud of her efforts, despite missing out on that PB.

Next weekend I have my family all coming up to celebrate my Sister's 100th parkrun. There will be cake!

Here is the consolidated parkrun club report for this weekend: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2018-08-11

Continuing with the parkrun theme...the juniors were out in force on a wet and dreary Sunday morning. Ruben Price cracked out a fantastic 8:08 (for 2km) to come second. Olivia ran with Emma Swift's son Edward and they ended up recording the same time 11:13, with Edward just pipping Olivia on the line. Amber Price was a few places behind them with a great time of 11:58 with Megan Swift followed closely behind with a cracking time of 12:16. If these wonderful kids continue then Fit Club has some excellent future prospects!! Well done all!

Whilst I was stood cheering the kids on in a wet field in Winchester Lynn was running the Dublin Rock 'n' Roll half marathon. Here is Lynn's write-up:

Dublin Rock 'n' Roll half marathon by Lynn McKeague

It was a very well organised event and I enjoyed it. Highlights with respect to the bands were the Dublin City Rounders who played around 1 mile in and the Blizzards who were on the finishing stage.

There were some areas for improvement - there were really long stretches without any live music (contrary to what was advertised; friends of mine said that it was better last year) and the route isn’t particularly interesting, as it skips the city centre and then goes along the side of the Phoenix Park but doesn’t go into it.

The race had a nice medal and tshirt, free non-alco beer and snacks, some tedious hills including a notorious one at Chapelizod (good for anyone training for Dublin full marathon), plenty of toilets, waves that worked well to avoid congestion at the start, and cool weather along with drizzle (a welcome change!).

I bumped into some lovely people who had travelled over from Brighton and also the New Forest. I stayed in a friend’s place near the Guinness Brewery which was perfect location-wise for the start. You can smell Guinness as soon as you step outside the door, but no, I haven’t had a recovery drink yet!

Weymouth parkrun - by Karen Parker

I decided to try a different parkrun whilst away on holiday. There were 3 objectives:

- Try a new venue, as I had only been to Winchester
- Introduce my brother and my nephew to park runs
- To have fun

Arriving in Weymouth I realised how much I appreciate Winchester Fit Club runners, and I missed your friendly faces. I went to the first timers meeting, which was my first. Then off to the start.

The start had time zones. I put my brother and nephew at about 25 mins, (They do triathlons, and are fast) and I popped in at 30 mins. We had the usual talk about the route, etc. I was then rather shocked when they all started singing “ happy days” and clapping. Then as I was still in a bemused state, the run started.

It was flat, and beautiful, but in some places, narrow. I got wedged into a group on three occasions. I don’t think this slowed me down, but worth a mention if anyone wants to go for a PB . It is definitely a place to go for a PB as it is flat and nice underfoot.

So I achieved my 3 objectives, I had tried a new venue, impressed my bro and his son, and I had fun.

Looking forward to my next parkrun as a tourist, and of course to get back to Winchester.

How Far should I be running?

One the past few months i have been asked a number of time by runners how far they should be running every week. I recently found the following article on Runner's World that I though may be of some help!

Here’s the thing about race training: you want to run enough miles to physically prepare your body, but you also want to run as few miles as possible so you don’t overtax your body. But when training programs call for up to 200 miles of running before race day, it’s hard to know exactly where to draw that line.

How many miles should you run a day? A week? The answer really depends on your speed, your strength, and your experience—so there’s no one-size-fits-all mileage prescription. “Look at where you are right now,” says Melanie Kann, an RRCA-certified running coach for New York Road Runners. “If you’re running your first-ever 5K, you might start with a 5-mile-per-week program. If you’re running your first marathon, you might start with a 15-mile-per-week training plan.” Larger race distances require more of a base to start with (at least four months of consistent running, she recommends), but no matter what your end goal, you have to start with what you’re currently capable of doing versus what you want to be doing.

And, really, it’s less about blanket mileage goals and more about time on your feet, says Rich Velazquez, a running coach and chief operations officer at Mile High Run Club in New York City. “This allows the runner to progress safely, running/jogging/walking to their ability, yet still see cardiovascular benefits,” he says. “Ideally, in your longest training runs, you want to be on your feet for the amount of time you project it will take to finish your race. Your body is not a pedometer—it can’t measure miles, but it will quickly identify time and impact.”

If you’re not training for a race, just jogging five or six miles per week could put you at less risk for obesity, high blood pressure, cholesterol issues, diabetes, strokes, certain cancers, and arthritis, according to a review of studies analysing over 500 runners. So “a great starting point for a beginner is running 20 minutes—the minimum amount of time needed to achieve cardiovascular benefits—three times a week,” says Velazquez.

If you are training, the following six rules can help you figure out just how far you need to go:

Rule 1: The longer the race, the higher the mileage.

If you’re training for a marathon, you’re obviously going to need to log more weekly miles than if you’re training for a 5K. No matter the race distance, though, there are three main components to a cohesive running program, says Velazquez: a long run day, a speed day, and a recovery day. “Your long run should be conducted at a slow pace and eventually last as long as your projected race time (remember, it’s about time on feet versus miles); your speed day is shorter in duration but faster than your predicted race pace; and your recovery day should be an easy/slow pace and lower mileage than your planned race,” he says. So you’ll have some longer runs and some shorter runs no matter what you’re training for; the ultimate mileage, of course, depends on your race distance.

Rule 2: Mileage requirements increase as performance goals increase.

If your goal is simply to finish a race, you can run fewer miles than if your goal is to finish with a fast time. “But as your goals shift towards performance, weekly mileage will most likely increase to support the demands of these goals: aerobic capability, energy utilisation and sustainability over elongated periods of time, and efficiency of movement,” says Velazquez.

That’s because logging that time on your feet is what’s going to give you a stronger engine, adds Kann. “Obviously, your musculoskeletal system is going to get stronger as you spend more time on your feet,” she says. “But when you’re out there running, you’re fueled by oxygen—that’s what gets your muscles to fire and gets the blood moving around. So the more time you spend on your feet, the more it’s going to increase the capacity of your aerobic engine, which is going to fuel you to go stronger for longer.”

Rule 3: Not all miles are created equally.

No runner should go out and run the same pace every day; any good training plan should include speed, interval, tempo, and distance training, all of which offer different benefits. “Speed training is where the body will shape and improve its running economy (energy demand for a given speed) thus improving overall efficiency in energy consumption and oxygen utilisation,” says Velazquez. “Interval training aligns specific speeds with specific intervals and set rest periods, tempo running is about maintaining consistent speeds over longer periods of time, and distance training is about getting the body used to impact and elongated performance.”

The point of all those different training modalities? Ideally, you become a better, more well-rounded runner. “If you only run at race pace, that’s the only pace you know,” says Kaan. “You want to get your system ready to be comfortable moving at paces faster than race pace, so that when you get to race day, that pace doesn't feel so hard.” While the bulk of your miles should be easy, aerobic-based miles, those faster miles get you to that point where you're clearing away the waste product in your muscles at the same rate that you're accumulating it, she explains, which will make your body more efficient come race day.

Rule 4: Allow for adaptation when increasing mileage.

To avoid injury when upping your mileage, you need to take it slow and allow your body time to adapt to the increased workload. Many runners follow the 10 percent rule—i.e. never increasing your weekly mileage by more than 10 percent over the previous week. “Most programs will build mileage week over week for about three weeks before introducing in a low mileage week (recovery),” Velasquez says. “From there, the buildup will start again as the body should have adapted from the increased volume with the rest and be ready and able to tackle more.”

Think about your runs in terms of quality over quantity, Kaan says. “If you're adding additional speed workouts to your week, you don’t want to run a super long run that weekend,” she says. “You're just asking a lot of your body all in a short period of time.” Your body, on a microscopic level, is breaking down muscle tissue when you run, and it needs to time to rebuild (that’s how you get stronger). It’s important to look at the whole picture when it comes to weekly mileage, and think about the kind of miles you’re running and how that will impact your body.

Rule 5: Listen to your body.

When you’re following a training plan, it’s natural to want to hit the exact mileage that’s indicated—that’s how it works, right? “We always tell people to start with a plan, but that plan is not the letter of the law,” says Kann. “It's not like you're going to get a failing grade if you don't stick to that plan 100 percent.” Running mileage just for the sake of running mileage can actually backfire, because overtraining can lead to a general disintegration of performance or even injury. “Broken sleep, elevated resting heart rate, lack of motivation and restlessness are all signs of overtraining,” says Velasquez.

With running comes a certain level of discomfort; part of the challenge is pushing yourself past those I-don’t-know-if-I-can-do-this boundaries. But Kaan doesn't advocate running through pain. “Discomfort naturally comes with training as your body adapts, but if you feel the pain on one side of your body and not on the other or if you’re dealing with some kind of persistent pain, that's a sign that there's some kind of imbalance at play,” she says. When in doubt, err on the side of caution and pull back your pace or take a rest day. No runner ever healed any kind of pain or injury by running more.

Rule 6: A healthy runner beats an injured runner every time.

At the end of the day, the most important goal of any runner—whether you’re running a marathon, half marathon, 10K, or 5K—is to make it to the starting line. “The last thing you want is to overload yourself, break yourself down, and then push yourself past your limits,” says Kaan. “That’s when you're gonna pull yourself out of the game for three weeks to recover. Then you're really in trouble.”

“If you’re not feeling up to run, rest and reschedule,” says Velazquez. “And should that feeling persist, people training for longer races (i.e. a marathon) should give priority to the long run over the speed training.” Remember: No one’s grading you on how well you stick to a mass-produced plan anyone on the Internet can download. The real test is race day, and just how well you can get through it.

General Announcements

North Walls Rec Pavilion Appeal
There is currently an appeal in progress to raise funds for a new pavilion in North Walls Rec. This is fantastic news for Winchester parkrun as it will provide:

a store for our kit
a place to gather
toilets
a cafe
a meeting room for volunteer meetings

If you've a few bob to spare and love Winchester parkrun then please consider getting involved in the Pavilion Project crowd funding here: https://www.thepavilionproject.com/support/

WFC parkrun Club

Winchester Fit Club Runners is set-up as a club with parkrun. If you go into your profile (there is a link to it on the parkrun results email and newsletter email) you can select your club. Change yours to Winchester Fit Club Runners and you will appear in the consolidated club report that we get each week.

WFC Runners WhatsApp Group

There is a WFC Runners WhatsApp chat group where we generally just wang on about running, races and cake. If you are not already part of this then please get in contact with Coach James or Coach Mike who will add you.

WFC Runners Strava Club

If you are a Strava user there is a Winchester Fit Club Runners club page. This can be accessed here: https://www.strava.com/clubs/WFC-Runners. Request to join and we will approve!

Booking onto sessions

Booking onto our training sessions enables the coaches to plan the session accordingly. You can book on in the following location: https://winchesterfitclub.simplybook.it/v2/

Winchester Half Marathon - Volunteers needed!

Some of you may have seen the post by Lynn on the WhatsApp group about the Winchester Half Marathon needing volunteers for this year's race. The race is on Sunday 23rd September and needs over 300 volunteers to be successful.

By volunteering you get free entry into next year's race.

If you are interested please follow this link: http://winchesterhalf.co.uk/get-involved/win-city-marshal/

Race Calendar

Here is an updated race calendar. If you have any others that you wish to add, please let me know!

Overton 5 - 2nd September 2018

http://www.overtonharriers.org.uk/club-races/overton-5/

New Forest Half - 9th September

http://southernrunningguide.com/race/new-forest-half-marathon

Baccus Marathon and Half – 9^th September

https://www.209events.com/uk-running-events/surrey_bacchus_marathon_and_half_marathon

Meon Valley Express 5km, 10km and Half - 16th September
https://www.eventrac.co.uk/listed-races/meon-valley-express

Hursley 10km - 16th September
https://www.hursley10k.co.uk

The Lake Run, Andover 10km and 5km – 16^th Septembver