WFC Runners: July 2019

Monday 22 July 2019

WFC Runners - Coach Mike 2, parkrun, Valentines, St Catherine's mIxed bag

News

The week the main news is Mike Hastie taking the Leadership in Running Fitness course, and therefore becoming the third trained coach for Winchester Fit Club RC (after myself and Mike D).

The one day course is a mix of classroom and practical activities and focuses on how to structure and lead running sessions and how to create development plans for both groups and individuals.

The course detail can be found here:
https://www.englandathletics.org/coaching/qualifications-landing-page/leadership-in-running-fitness/

Later in the year we have Rachel also attending the training course and it is our intention to send two more members next year. This is in addition to coach James also attending the Coach in Running Fitness course later this year/early next.

This is all part of our long term plans to develop and improve the running club for the benefit of the Fit Club members. More coaches mean that we can run more sessions each week. In addition we will have the ability to split the groups to enable more focussed sessions.

If you are interested in taking this course in 2020 please let me know and we can discuss further.

parkrun News 20th July

This week we had 21 Fit Clubbers running at 4 different parkrun venues. We had 16 at Winchester, Trish at Bangor (NI), Allen and Catherine at Vicarstown and Ben and Shelley at Millenium Country Park.

The notable runs were Allen and Catherine both bagging course PBs at Vicarstown. That included third place overall for Allen. Fantastic running from the Westobys!

Also worth nothing that Mike H was a guide for a visually impaired runner and still managed 21:12. Phenomenal running from Mike and great of him to help another runner in that way.

Lastly, spare a thought for Alf who visited Whiteley parkrun only to discover it wasn’t on!! Unperturbed he and 20 others proceeded to run it anyway. Well done Alf!

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-07-20

Thursday Session 18th July - St Catherine's mixed bag

This Thursday the runners met up at Garnier Road for a mixed bag session; a mix of intervals and hill sprints.

This week 17 runners joined Coach James on a beautiful summers evening for, what turned out to be, a short but high intensity session, focussed on pacing and endurance.

After a short warm-up jog we stopped at the bottom of St Catherine's steps where we would be based for the majority of the session. The first set of drills were based around pace judgement. Coach James set the runners off for a 30 second sprint. At the end of the 30s he blew a whistle and the runners had 30s to get back to the start point. This was testing the pace judgement of the runners...go off too quickly and thy won't make it back to the start. Go off too easy and you'll make it back to the start before the second 30s is up.

We then did the same but with 45s out and 45s back, then 1m out and 1m back.

Following this the group had a short break before doing one rep up the St Catherine's steps with a jog back down.

This whole session was repeated twice through before a jog back to the start and a stretch.

With Coach James away next week the run will be a social run led by Anne and One R. They will meet you at 7pm at Garnier Road. This will be an easy pace run of roughly 3-4 miles.

Race Reports

Valentines parkrun by Coach James

Sarah’s grandparents live in East London and so we decided to travel up to see them early on Saturday morning. This gave me the opportunity to visit Valentines parkrun in Ilford. parkruns beginning with a V are rare, with only 3 in the UK, so this trip enabled me to tick off another letter towards my parkrun alphabet.

We left home just after 6am for the 2 hour drive over. We had left a little contingency for the M25 but we had a really clear trip over which meant that we arrived at the park before 8am. This gave the kids the chance to hit the playground to burn off some energy before their trip in the buggy around the parkrun course. It also enabled us to meet the event team as they arrived and see the parkrun being set-up. It always amazes me how out of nothing a full event can be set-up in such a short space of time, and then seemingly out of every corner of the park people start arriving just before 9am. It’s very slick.

The route itself is a two lap course which starts and finishes outside the main café in the centre of the park. Running down the central path you turn and run around the boating lake, down through the car park (complete with speed bumps, which the kids loved), and then round the top part of the park before dropping back down to the start finish. The course was entirely on concrete paths and fairly flat, with only a few slight undulations. We started off steadily with me still struggling from a very tight glute, however by the end of the first mile this had eased and I was in full flow. It was a cracking morning for running with it being bright and sunny but not too warm.

In the distance I could see another buggy runner who I resolved to try and catch. I picked my pace up and started to close the gap. At half way I was a few hundred metres back from her, but I was closing. As we got to the boating lake she pulled further ahead again as we went up the slight hill for the last time. I caught her with about half a mile to go, but she reacted and got onto my heels. Concerned she may try and go past on the final straight I decided to start my finishing push early to try and drop her. We both finished strongly and I ended up pipping her by a few meters. I spoke with her afterwards and she had appreciated the mini-battle as we went round as she had broken her buggy running PB by over a minute!

After the run we headed to the café for a post-run breakfast. As the café is right by the finish we were able to watch the rest of the runners finishing and cheer them in.

All in all it was a lovely parkrun day. Great course through a really nice park, fast, fairly flat, friendly team and a nice café. Highly recommended!

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

- 25th July - Garnier Road

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/

Race Calendar

The race calendar is now stored here: https://wfcrunners.blogspot.com/2019/01/race-calendar-2019-and-beyond.html

Race Kit

The full range of kit available to purchase and instructions on how to order can be found in the following link: https://wfcrunners.blogspot.com/2019/01/kit-details-and-prices.html

Sunday 21 July 2019

WFC Runners - Intervals and track a recap!

With me (Coach James) being on holiday I thought we would recap some of the training advice written about in the very early blogs. This week, INTERVAL and TRACK sessions!

Interval Training

One of the attractions of classical interval training is its measured, precise nature. Workouts can be tailored to a runner’s current ability level; similarly, they provide an accurate benchmark of one’s fitness, allowing achievable competitive goals to be set. Interval training’s repeatability facilitates comparisons to performances of a month or five years ago. Conversely, it also possesses an almost infinite variety. By altering different segments of the workout, it’s possible to come up with a new training session each time you step out to run. Something I try and do regular for Fit Club.

Interval training was first developed in the 1930s, based on findings that the heart and lungs (the cardiopulmonary system) responded to repeated brief bouts of stress by becoming stronger and more efficient. By keeping the duration of these efforts relatively short, they found that runners could complete a greater volume and intensity than they could during a sustained, continuous effort. Basically you can get more benefit from a shorter session.

There are four variables in classic interval training, easily remembered by the mnemonic
D-I-R-T.

Distance is rather self-explanatory, referring to the length of each repetition.

Interval is the recovery period between repetitions. It is during this interval, especially the first 10 to 15 seconds, that most of the training effect occurs. Besides the duration of the interval, the activity (walking, jogging, etc) figures into the equation.

Repetitions the number of fast sessions to be performed. In longer workouts, repetitions can be broken down into sets, with a longer recovery interval than between individual reps.

T stands for Time, how fast each repetition should be run, or how long you are going to run for. This can be constant or variable, depending on the goal of the workout.

There are two rules to consider when completing interval training:

1. Go to each workout with a goal, and a plan.

2. Be Flexible within your workouts, within reason – if your body is just not up to the workout you have set do not be afraid to amend it, or even have the courage to skip it all together.

Types of interval training:

Repeats: The same distance, done a set number of times. Repeats of 400 meters, one lap of the track, are the most common, but distance runners may do repeat 1,000s or miles to improve their stamina. Repeats can also be run at anticipated race speed to develop a sense of pace and avoid going out too hard. With a mixed ability group the repeats could also be of a set time, rather than distance. This allows everyone to re-group during the recovery phase.

Ladders: Progress from shorter to longer repetitions; i.e. 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000. Recovery interval can be constant or increase. Ladders can also be run long to short.

Pyramids: An up and down ladder together, i.e. 400, 600, 800, 600, 400. Advanced runners may be able to do multiple pyramids.

Cut-downs: Designed to improve one’s finishing kick. Several longer repeats are done to create fatigue, then the runner performs shorter, faster reps to develop the ability to run hard when tired.

"Ins-and-Outs": Usually done over a mile or longer, accelerate the straights and jog the turns, or sprint 50 meters, jog 60.

Track Sessions

The best way to learn how to run faster times is to get used to running fast and track sessions are a fantastic was of building your speed. A one-paced strategy just won’t nibble away at that PB, whatever distance you like to run; so the best thing to do is practice. This means speed interval training and the track is the best place to execute these specific speed-enhancing sessions. For new runners, getting immediate and consistent feedback is critical to improving your ability to execute a specific skill. On the track, you can easily and accurately measure your pace every 100, 200, 300 or 400 meters. Once you start to develop a sense for the effort needed to run a certain pace, there is nothing to distract you.

Overall benefits of track speed sessions

A lot of runners like to incorporate track sessions into their training plans to focus on speed. Although it might not be everyone’s favourite session in terms of location and content, it is the perfect environment in which to focus on structured high intensity intervals to really hone your speed, fitness and running economy. There are three main benefits to speed training:

It improves your running economy. Essentially, shorter, faster repeats train your body to burn less fuel while going further. It’s like getting better petrol mileage for your legs.
It breaks up the boredom. Distances runners have to run a lot, and it’s more fun to get in some speed, knowing it will make you faster overall.
Short, fast repeats allow you to insert some volume of running at a pace that is significantly faster than race pace. If your goal is a 9:00/mile, you’ll do workouts at 8:10-8:50/mile, which allows 9:00 to feel easier.

There are three types of track intervals sessions that you can do. These are dependent on what you are training for. For example if you are aiming to improve your 5km pace, you will typically do shorter speed sessions. A focus on race distances of between 10km and 10 miles would mean you will probably look at the middle distance intervals and half marathon and above will focus on the longer distance intervals.

Short speed intervals

Typically short intervals involve sprints of 100m, 200m or 400m, basically no more than one lap of the track, with a suitable recovery in between. The idea is to boost your power and economy over a burst of short distance sprinting, which will ultimately help you maintain your marathon or longer distance race pace for longer. Over time you can extend the intervals and increase the number of repetitions, which will certainly improve your 5k speed. The key to success here is to make sure that you leave sufficient recovery time between intervals because each interval has to be run at the same flat out speed and intensity. If you don’t leave enough time to recover your speed will decrease and your ability to build power will be diminished. How you choose to recover between each sprint is up to you. You can either walk or jog as you prepare for your next sprint.

Here are some suggested Short Interval Workouts
6 x 100m with 50m recovery

6 x 200m with 100m recovery

6 x 300m with 150m recovery

6 x 400m with 200m recovery

Middle distance speed intervals

Middle distance sessions are generally anything from 400m to around 1200m and these intervals should be run at something close to your 5k race pace. These sessions are all about improving your lactic acid recycling capability and your ability to resist the effects of fatigue. Muscles that are tired just don’t perform as efficiently, so the longer you can maintain a certain pace without getting tired, the greater the likelihood of achieving a PB. As a general rule after each of these intervals, give yourself a recovery period of around 3 minutes to allow the body to recover sufficiently and then repeat the interval with the same intensity as the first. But again, the duration of your intervals and recovery periods will be dictated by your level and ability.

Here are some suggested Middle-Distance Interval Workouts
5 x 600m with 300m recovery

4 x 800m with 400m recovery

3 x 1000m with 500m recovery

2 x 1200m with 600m recovery

Longer distance speed intervals

Long distance sessions tend to be anything from 1600m upwards and they should be run at something approaching your 10k race pace. This is primarily an exercise in lactate threshold running, which means running at such a challenging pace that lactic acid starts to accumulate in the blood. It’s not like an eye-bulging sprint, but a sustained pace that makes conversation difficult and feels hard. If you can maintain that pace over a sustained period, the body’s ability to recycle lactic acid increases. Over time this will enable you to be able to run further, faster and for longer. Just as with all of the other intervals though, it’s important to incorporate a suitable recovery period before going again.

Here are some suggested Long-Distance Interval Workouts
10 x 800m with 400m recovery (Yassos....I will talk about these in a future blog)

4 x 1600m with 800m recovery

3 x 2000m with 1000m recovery

3 x 2400m with 1200m recovery

The track at Bar End is £3 for as long as you want, check their website for opening times. Also, worth noting that at weekends through the summer they will have athletics meets and on Tuesdays and Thursdays WADAC train there and have it booked out.

WFC Runners - Hill Training a recap.

With me (Coach James) being on holiday I thought we would recap some of the training advice written about in the very early blogs. This week, everyones favourite, HILLS!!

Hill Training

Nothing builds running strength better than hills. Benefits include:

Development of power and muscle elasticity
Improvement of stride frequency and length
Development of co-ordination – encouraging the proper use of arm action during the driving phase and feet in the support phase
Development of control and stabilisation as well as improved speed (downhill running)
Promotion of strength endurance
Development of maximum speed and strength (short hills)
Improvement of lactate tolerance (mixed hills)

Despite the benefits, many newcomers (and old-timers, too) avoid hills – after all, defying gravity can be tough, both physically and mentally. But simple form adjustments and a gradual approach can reduce the challenges and boost your fitness.

Add hill work to your training by following these four steps.

Start Easy

For your first hill workout, jog for 10 minutes to warm up, then walk for two minutes. From the bottom of a gentle incline, run up at an easy pace for five seconds, then walk back to the starting point. Run up again for seven seconds. Walk down. Run for 10 seconds, then walk down. If you’re feeling strong, repeat. Cool down with a 15-minute jog.

Progress Slowly

Do your initial workout several times, then ramp it up. Perform two lots of 10 seconds: run up the hill for 10 seconds, then walk down and repeat. Then do two lots of 15 seconds, followed by two lots of 20. On your next hill workout, repeat this sequence twice before rounding the session off with a 30-second run.

Stick With It

Schedule a hill run every seven to 14 days. As you get stronger, add time to your segments and/or add an extra rep until you’re running a total of 10 inclines. If you’re training for a hilly race, try to mimic in your workouts the types of hills you’ll encounter in your race. If your motivation dries up, run hills with a friend and take turns leading the upward charge.

Maintain Good Form

As you ascend, shorten your stride and keep your feet low to the ground. Try to keep your head, chest and hips perpendicular to an imaginary horizontal line. On descents, take short, quick, light steps, and keep your centre of gravity over your legs.

Top Tips

Once you are used to running hills here are some points to help you get the most from your sessions:

Be prepared to attack the hill before you reach it, so you’ve picked up pace as you reach the bottom.
As you run up the hill pump your arms and shorten the length of your strides, but take faster strides to keep up the pace.
At the end of your hill running workout, you should feel like you’ve worked hard, but you could manage one more hill if you had to.
Get plenty of practice, it’s the only way to get better at hill running and improve your technique.

Monday 15 July 2019

WFC Runners - PPP Winchester, Mountain Ultra, parkrun and hills hills hills!

News

This week we had a number of runners competing in the Winchester Pedal, Paddle Pace. Starting in waves outside the Guildhall (inconveniently for any events going on inside) the triathlon (with a difference) consists of the following:

Pedal 20km through Hampshire Country Lanes

Paddle 2km up the Itchen Navigation Canal, kayaks provided

Pace 5km along the newly-restored Hockley Viaduct

The event can either be done as a solo entrant or as a 3 person team with each person doing one leg each.

Alf, Sarah H, Lynn, Alice, Graeme, Simon Hm, Jenny and Katie all participated. Well done to everyone involved! Definitely one for next year!

Running club founding member and all round amazing chap, Adam ran a 102km mountain Ultra with 4,000m of elevation this weekend. Despite three huge thunder storms and all those mountains he finished in an amazing 15h15m and came 22nd. What an absolute legend! Congratulations Adam!

parkrun News 13th July

This week we had 15 Fit Clubbers running at 3 different parkrun venues. We had 13 at Winchester, James at Valentines and Glenna at Brooklands.

Despite it being another scorching hot morning there was one PB...Anne at Winchester with a cracking 29:04! This was later attributed to a lack of people to chat to and therefore having to actually run! Great work Anne!

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-07-13

Thursday Session 11th July - Blue Ball and St Giles Hills

This week the team met up at Abbey Gardens with 20 eager runners keen to take on another hill session. After a warm-up we headed off to Blue Ball hill for the first set of reps.

Once at Blue ball we did a hard effort from bottom to the cross roads at the top, with jog recovery back down. This was repeated 4 times.

We then headed up to St Giles hill via Alresford Rd. We stopped at the bottom of the footpath that leads into the park. This is another hill of roughly 100m length and fairly steep, so good for another set of hill sprints. As with Blue Ball we ran from Bottom to Top as a hard effort with jog recovery back down. This was repeated 4 times.

We then headed into the North West corner of the park. Here we did shuttle runs up the length of the hill to the top of the park. The first section was roughly 20m long, then 40m and then 80m. We put in a hard effort up the hill and jog recovery back to the start, before immediately turning and going off hard again until all three distances had been completed. This was repeated twice through.

Lastly we did 2 reps up the same hill to the lamppost and back. After this was completed we headed back down to Abbey Gardens for our cooldown and stretch.

We had arranged to head to the Willow Tree for drinks following the session and a large group came along. It was an excellent social drink and a great way to spend a summer’s evening, we will do the same again before the summer is up!

Next week we are meeting at Garnier Rd at 7pm.

Race Reports

New Forest 10 by Catherine Westoby

I booked the new forest 10 after doing a 14km trail run one Sunday with Anna H, 1R and Rachel, followed by a 9km run the next day with more fit clubbers. It was the furthest I had run since I gained an injury last October and I felt great. I bragged ’not even a niggle’ when I came home buzzing from the run. I liked the sound of the new forest 10 as it was trail and amongst the ponies in the New Forest. I had never done a trail race but since moving to Kings Worthy my default run is trail and I feel at my happiest amongst nature.

A week or so after signing up I ran 10km back at the riverbank at my home. I felt the old niggle quite soon into the run but rather than stopping I STUPIDLY kept going….and was back to making involuntary yelps going up stairs and was gutted. I remembered how sad I was last year dropping out of Gosport half so made the decision that no matter how much it hurt I was going to keep running and try to do the race, albeit at a slower pace.

The week before the race I was nervous and couldn’t decide if I was being really stupid but reckoned coping with disappointment of dropping out would be worse than hobbling a bit! Race morning arrived and I arrived ridiculously early for me (>1.5 hours!!) collected my race number and then just chilled out. It was quite a late race – starting at 11.15am but thankfully the weather wasn’t as warm as the previous day and even a few drops of rain were falling before the start of the race which was very welcome.

The race started in a bit of an over-grown field in New Park Brockenhurst but it wasn’t long until it turned into a gravel path. The 10mile was a loop running through the New Forest with lots of ponies on either side to distract me. I broke my watch strap the week before the race so had to use Allen’s old TomTom. I didn’t really know how to work it and it didn’t have a pace per minute so in a way it helped as I couldn’t feel disappointed by my pace and had to just go with what my body was able for.

I met a nice lady whom I ran with for the bones of the first 11km. After that point my injury started to bother me/I was hungry and had no gel as it was about 12.30…..my usual lunch time – schoolboy error! The miles went very slowly after †hat point but I told myself that it was only a parkrun to go and even if I walked a bit I would comfortably make my target time of 1hr 45mins. It felt like every person in the race passed me in the last 2km…..even the man that made the ‘last breath of life’ kind of noise whilst running passed me.

I was super chuffed to see the finish line and a cheering Allen at the end and tried to sprint, unsuccessfully! I must have looked rough crossing the line as the paramedic asked me if I was ok and then the next person gave me a beer as a ‘spot prize’. The Medal was absolutely hench but no ribbon sadly to hang it around my neck.

After I had caught my breathI went to the lovely ladies doing voluntary massages in aid of a local hospice. I wasn’t expecting much but she was excellent and got straight to work on my injury. I think this really helped as I recovered fairly well post run.

Overall I would say, injury aside it was my favourite race. I absolutely loved being off road and the ponies and lovely forest completely distracted me from the run. There were loads of marshals and support every step of the way. Everything was signposted well and there were 3 very welcome water breaks on a fairly hot day. Allen tells me the bacon sandwiches were lovely but there was a lack of cake. The free beer made up for it however. I would definitely recommend it as a race & plan to do it again next year with more company hopefully.

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

- 18th July - Garnier Road

WFC parkrun Club

WFC Runners WhatsApp Group

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