WFC Runners: August 2019

Monday 26 August 2019

WFC Runners - parkrun, stats, cathedral sprints, slow running

News

With no races there is very little news! Fit Club once again had some superb performances parkrun again had some fantastic performances (see below) and the Tuesday sessions continue to go from strength to strength with the casual, social format working really well. It's also pleasing to see so many mini-social groups running together at weekends.

Some club stats! Since going affiliated in May we have had 14 Thursday sessions (13 full and 1 social). We have had 54 different runners completing 285 runs between them. That's an average of 20 per week!
In those 14 weeks Jenny and Elise have run 13 of the sessions with One R and Mike H having run 12 each.

In the week I posted an article about slow running. It went down really well so I thought I would pop it in the blog as well. This is exactly what I try to promote through WFC Running Club and what I want us to continue to promote going forward. Full inclusivity and changing perceptions about what it means to be part of a running club.

https://runnersconnect.net/coach-corner/so-what-youre-a-slow-runner/

parkrun update - 24th August

This week we had 21 Fit Clubbers at 2 different parkrun venues. We had 19 at Winchester and Alfie and Alf at Haldon Forest.

There were more amazing PBs:

Isabel 28:02 - Winchester

Sally 28:16 - Winchester

Simon 30:26 - Winchester

We also had Katie celebrating her 50th parkrun! Katie has run 48 times at Winchester, once at Abingdon and once at Eastleigh (where she took out the finish funnel with Jenny)! Katie has a PB of 22:30. Look forward to seeing you in your new red T-shirt soon. Next week should see Shelley also reach the 50 milestone.

Also of note...Mike and Sarah’s parents ran their first ever parkrun. Superb running from both of them! Trish volunteered and was given Su’s Corner (big responsibility) and Simon H was photographer for the day whilst he recovers from a hamstring injury!

Congratulations to everyone who ran and volunteered.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-08-24

Who wants some parkrun stats?

So far this year Winchester Fit Club Runners have run a total of 775 parkruns. We have had 55 different runners and have run at 67 different venues between us in four different countries (UK, Ireland, Germany and Australia). We average 21 runners a week.

We have run 603 times at Winchester, with the next closest being Eastleigh with 23.

We have an average finish time of 26:50 and a fastest time of 17:52 (Charles). Only three runners have run all 36 possible runs: Jenny L, Glenna and myself.

Thursday 22nd Session - Cathedral Sprints

This week we had 20 runners joining coach James at Abbey Gardens for another sprint session. It was a glorious summer’s evening and perfect for running! After a short warm-up the team headed off along the river, past Wolvesley Castle and into the Cathedral Square. Here we started the session with a quick sprint warm-up. 4 laps of the square with a short recovery between each. After this we jogged over to the high street which was to be where the bulk of the session was to be held.

The intention was to do a pyramid session using Pret, the Buttercross and the top of the high street as target points. We started with two reps of sprints to and from Pret. During these reps it became clear that the high street was far too busy and our group far too big to make it a safe session. After a quick re-think we headed to the park in front of the cathedral. Here we set up in one corner of the park. The team therefore sprinted down towards the cathedral, turned and ran hard up the central path before jogging back down to the start point. These sprint triangles were repeated 5 times.

After this we headed back to the cathedral square where we did two more sprint laps of the square before jogging back via the river to Abbey Gardens and cooling down and stretching.

We then headed to the pub where we celebrated Philippa’s special birthday complete with some gorgeous cake from Simon H’s wonderful mum.

It was another cracking session, thank you to all who took part!

Next week we will be meeting at Dean Lane Park opposite Waitrose in Weeke.

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

Dates for your diary:

Thursday 29th August - Dean Lane Park, Weeke
Thursday 5th September - Garnier Road
Thursday 12th September - Abbey Gardens, running club 2nd birthday drinks afterwards

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

Tuesday 20 August 2019

WFC Runners - a tale of two tunnels, adventures in Germany, North Walls sprints

News

This week saw Fit Clubbers returning to racing with Simon and Wendy at the Bath Two Tunnels 10km. The website describes the race as follows:

"A truly special race that not only takes in many of Bath's beautiful attractions but also has the longest underground sections of any running race in the UK!

Cutting right under the city of Bath, the two tunnels offer a truly unique running experience. The Somerset & Dorset Railway closed in 1966 and until April 2013 the tunnels have been sealed and inaccessible. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Two Tunnels Group and Sustrans over 7 years, the two tunnels now have a new lease of life as a shared use path. The first tunnel; The Devonshire Tunnel is 408m long and the second Combe Down Tunnel is 1672m long. Both tunnels are well lit and well surfaced, and have recently been converted into a shared use path for the enjoyments of runners, walkers and cyclists looking to make the most of the city whilst remaining a flatter ground."

In fantastic performances the wonderful Holmans posted the following times:

Wendy H - 1:00:40
Simon H - 58:41

Well done guys!

parkrun News 17th August

Due to Winchester parkrun being cancelled a number of members took the opportunity to do some touring. This week we therefore had 18 Fit Clubbers running at 9 different parkruns. We had Andy, Alice, Kathy and Graeme at Southampton, Jenny, Stefan and Lucy at Andover, Trish at Whiteley, Tom, Marie-Claire and Fran at Eastleigh, Anne at Skipton, Glenna at Salisbury, Mike and Anna at Queen Elizabeth, Katie at Abingdon and James and Olivia at Jersey Farm!!

On a tough course at Queen Elizabeth park Anna managed to bag the first lady position. Congratulations Anna! And with Mike in 5th place overall it was a good trip for the Hasties!

Elsewhere we had a course PB of 22:37 for Jenny at Andover and a course PB of 31:06 for MC at Eastleigh.

Lastly Coach James completed his UK alphabet...running at a UK parkrun beginning with each possible letter of the Alphabet (only X and Z not possible in the UK).

Winchester is back on next week as usual.

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-08-17

Thursday Session 15th August - North Walls sprints

Coach James was back from his holidays and put the group through a set of sprints in North Walls rec. Meeting at the front of the sports centre we welcomed new runners James, Vicky and Vanessa along to their first ever Fit Club session along with 22 other runners.

After a short warm up we stopped and regrouped at the Cricket pavilion where Coach James explained the first part of the session. The idea was to run steadily down one side of the line of trees (on the grass), go round the penultimate tree and then sprint hard back to the start. This was repeated 10 times without rest, just using the steady part of the run for recovery.

After a short break we separated into 5 teams of 5 for a couple of rounds of sprint relays. Each runner in the team had to sprint about 30m, turn and sprint back, tagging the next member of the team.

Once done we had finished the fun and games we got back to the matter at hand with a few sets of shuttle sprints. For this we did a sprint of about 10m, turned, jogged back to the start and then turned and sprinted about 20m, turned and jogged back to the start, then turned and sprinted roughly 100m before jogging back to the start. This was repeated three times.

We then jogged around the park before cooling down and stretching. It was a cracking session, thank you to everyone who attended!

Next week we will be meeting at Abbey Gardens before going for drinks and cake at Number 5 Bridge street to celebrate Philippa D's big birthday!

Race Reports

German parkrun adventures by Coach James

This summer we decided that we would go on a European road trip from Calais down to Bavaria. With parkrun starting in Germany about a year ago I had the opportunity to visit a couple of new venues whilst away. We therefore settled on Aachener Weiher parkrun in Cologne on the 27th July and Luitpold parkrun in Ingolstadt on the 3rd August.

After possibly our worst ever experience in an Airbnb we arrived super early in Cologne. The core team were just setting up and we had plenty of time to warm up...which naturally we avoided and spent the whole time taking pictures and chatting. Aachener Weiher parkrun is run almost entirely by Ex-pat Brits from the Milton Keynes area who were keen parkrunners in the UK before moving abroad. This made the briefings nice and easy from our perspective.

As Germany is only just taking off in terms of parkrun there was a small field of just 48 runners. The course was two laps of the park. The route was gently undulating with one of the only hills in Cologne in the middle of each lap. The paths were wide, we’ll maintain concrete paths that were excellent for buggy running and with no congestion at the start perfect for making a quick getaway!

After the hill on each lap you dropped down through a short wooded section and down to do one lap of the pond, before coming back to the start. This was repeated twice.

We had been in the car for nearly 10 hours the day before and had then been out until nearly 11 pm doing a walking tour of Cologne so Olivia was knackered, but she ran superbly well and managed a great sprint finish coming in in 43rd place with me just behind. Despite being nearly last we found ourselves both being first in our age category!

Afterwards we helped pack up and then accompanied the core team to the local coffee shop where we chatted all things parkrun and the kids had ice cream for breakfast. It was a fab morning all round and I was so please we made the time to visit.

A week later we found ourselves a few hundred miles south near the city of Ingolstadt, famous for being the home of car manufacturers Audi. It was a 45 minute drive to the parkrun but wild horses wouldn’t have stopped me!

Again we go there early, but this week we got there so early that the core team weren’t there. We didn’t know this so proceeded to do a one mile loop of the park to try and find them, which eventually we did. Good warmup I suppose.

Whereas the week before was predominantly Brits abroad this was most definitely a German affair with us the only non-Germans in the field of just 23 runners.

The event director had studied in Crewe and had participated in parkrun whilst there. On his return he set it up in Ingolstadt. With Nuremberg to the North and Munich to the South Ingolstadt attracts few tourists, so we were a rare site on their 13th event.

The briefings were held and we were basically told to just follow the person in front.

The course turned out to be a 3 lap route through a wooded park. As with the previous week it was perfect for buggy running with good wide paths. The course was fairly flat and very peaceful for the most part.

It was beautiful sunshine when we stared but this didn’t last a d by the second lap the heavens opened and we were drenched! Elsie and Bertie has the worst of it in the buggy though.

As soon as the rain started Olivia picked her pace up to try and get it finished quickly. This meant she was over a minute faster than the previous week. She was once again first in her age category and even took the JW10 age group record! We came 19/20th respectively.

We were soaked as we headed to the coffee shop with the core team, but it was worth it as the bakery was superb. Olivia has a well earned cheesecake and Elsie and I had pastries and hot chocolate.

We were made to feel so welcome at both events we visited and I’m so glad we made the time in our schedule to do it. The big decision is where to go next year!

General Announcements

WFC Running Club Calendar

Dates for your diary:

Thursday 22nd August - Abbey Gardens, drinks afterwards at Number 5 Bridge St
Thursday 12th September - Abbey Gardens, running club 2nd birthday drinks afterwards

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

Monday 12 August 2019

WFC Runners - Half Ironman Sarah, parkrun milestones, Coach Mike's debut, Tuesday socials, C25K

News

With it being the summer coach James took a well earned break and missed three sessions. The first of these was a social run covered by the beautiful duo of Anne and Sharon. The next two weeks saw the debut coaching of Mike H. An interval session on Palmers Field was followed up last week with a hill session at St Giles Hill. It was a superb debut and one which shows the growing strength and capability of the club. Congratulations and thank you to Mike, and thank you to Anne and Sharon! In September we have Rachel also taking her Leadership in Running Fitness course.

In addition to the coaching staff growing we have also added to our weekly sessions by starting the Tuesday night social run. These are not formally coached sessions, but social runs with the route and pace agreed by the runners who are able to make it each week. with the track sessions once a month on Mondays, the Tuesday socials, the Thursday coached sessions and our ever increasing presence at parkrun on a Saturday we are really expanding what we offer members. Thank you to everyone who makes it possible!

In addition I would like to congratulate Sarah for her phenomenal performance over the half ironman distance of 70.3 in cracking time of 6:15. The half Ironman consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and then a half marathon to round it off! Congratulations Sarah!

In other exciting news Winchester Fit Club is launching a Couch to 5km programme. C25K is an NHS running plan for absolute beginners. The plan involves 3 runs a week with a different schedule for each of the 9 weeks. Couch to 5km works because it starts with a mixture of running and walking to gradually build up your fitness and stamina, with the aim that by the end of the 9 weeks you will be able to run for 30 minutes without stopping. We are aiming to start the programme in September with the graduation being at a parkrun in late November/Early December. If you're interested please contact Mike Day, myself or Sharon Smith.

Dates for your diary:

Thursday 15th August - Meet at River Park Leisure Centre
Thursday 22nd August - Abbey Gardens, drinks afterwards at Number 5 Bridge St
Thursday 12th September - Abbey Gardens, running club 2nd birthday drinks afterwards

parkrun News 10th August

This week we had 27 Fit Clubbers running at 5 different parkrun venues. We had 23 at Winchester, Shelley at Chippenham, Andy M at Basingstoke, Allen at Lowestoft and Simon E at Teignmouth.

Congratulations to Sally Boyden for completing her first ever parkrun in a very respectable time of 29:35. In addition we had three fantastic milestones...

Elise - 50 parkruns - 45 at Winchester, 2 at Lee-on-the-Solent, 1 each at Swindon, Netley Abbey and Hogmoor Inclosure. Elise has a PB of 24:16.

Karen P - 50 parkruns - 46 at Winchester, 1 each at Weymouth, Whitstable, Wimpole and Eastleigh. Karen has a PB of 26:33.

Mike H - 100 parkruns - 88 at Winchester, 4 at Eastleigh, 2 at Basingstoke and 1 at Tooting Common, Rickmansworth, Southampton, Heaton, Moors Valley and Bury St Edmonds. Mike has a PB of 20:03

Look forward to seeing you all in your new T-shirt’s soon!

Despite the windy weather we still had a PB recorded! Allen ran a course PB of 20:13 at Lowestoft. Congratulations!

Here is a link to the consolidated club report: http://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=26888&eventdate=2019-08-10

General Announcements

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