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A lot can happen in a week eh.
Twas the week Boris told us all to “stay alert”, that we “should” be doing unlimited exercise (that’s gonna be hard – think he meant we “can”), welcome cleaners into our homes, but still not to go visiting your aged parents. Unless of course, you just wanna meet one of them in a garden, just not their garden – a public garden. Or something. Anyway – whatever we think of lockdown lifting, am sure we are all glad for a bit of extra freedom getting out and about for some exercise! I sure am – dog walks AND running – not one or the other wahoo!
However, this week was also the week that there were a lot of big races that were meant to have taken place, to name just a few Ras y Gader, Hathersage Hurtle, Old County Tops and am sure many more. However, we all had to make do and most of us probably went out and just did something else like a 10k locally, secretly pleased that we hadn’t got to run 20 miles, 37 miles, or up a massive Welsh Mountain…
Turns out that Simon Toole isn’t “most of us”!! This gem dropped into the inbox earlier – get a load of what he’s been at!
“Not the Guernsey Ultra”
So, this weekend we should have been going to Guernsey for a 2 week holiday and today running the Guernsey ultra, a 36 mile race, the first 16 miles on the cliff path and 20 miles along the coastal route starting and finishing in St Peter Port. Training had been going to plan and the excitement building for what was going to be my first ultra………and then.
We all know what happened next, all races cancelled for the foreseeable.
Plan B then.
Determined to do this with the training put in, I decided to run a 3.6 mile loop (10 laps) with the aid station being at home and a finishing time in under 8 hours.
Managed to drag myself round in 7 hours 45, 1st ultra completed, no medal and t shirt at the end, just the satisfaction of completing it.
On seeing my run on strava Will Mather said if he had known I was doing this he would have put a mini-skirt on and cheered me on each time i passed his house.
Thanks for the offer mate but surely no one should be subjected to that no matter what they doing !!!!
Never thought for a minute that my 1st ultra would be a loop around Glossop, but these are strange times.
Hats off to you! Incredible feat – think anyone doing their first ultra as loops of Glossop deserves extra kudos! Great time, and beating your target time as well – what was on offer at the feed station?!
Quite clearly laps of Glossop has not been enough to put him off as he describes his “1st ultra” – look forward to more reports in the future!
Coaches Corner
Coach J continues his quest to get us all fitter and not just plodding round the same old routes day after day! Thanks Jeroen – so far they’ve all been great, and very varied. They can definitely be recommended, if you haven’t yet come to a coached session on a Tuesday, but want to get a taste for what it’s all about, maybe now is the time to give one of these sessions a bash on your own and on any day at any time! They can be done pretty much anywhere, but word from the wise – if it’s some flat intervals on offer, try and find somewhere flat – inclines aren’t your friend when going as fast as you can mid way through a 5 min rep! For this week’s session we managed to get down to the Community Running Track and that was ideal with the markers for 1km reps – didn’t see too many people even on a Saturday morning. So get involved!
Obviously can’t wait until we are all back together on a Tuesday night, but for now – lets see how Coach thinks it is all going and what is in store for us all this week!
Week 8 of lockdown 18-24 May
Despite trying to make the instructions as clear as possible, some are still struggling (no names!) 
This week is another great set to help build/maintain that base-fitness and… it is simple. It is a Blended 800m set. Blended as it “blends” or alternates 2 different speeds over the same 800m distance.
So this is how that works. You run 800m at ~5K pace or around 7.5 – 8/10 RPE (how it feels to you) followed by 1-minute easy jog. Then you run another 800m at “Tempo” pace or between 5 – 6/10 RPE. This is followed by a 3-minute recovery jog. That is 1 set. Do this up to 4x 
Another way of describing it is: 4 (800m@5K followed by a 1-minute recovery jog, 800m Tempo followed by a 3-minute recovery jog). This is another set you can quite easily adjust to run anywhere with the help of Google Earth as it is run on effort and not a defined pace.
And now a little on the warmup. First thing is, these are essential!! Some people, giving feedback last week, found the set “hard”. But then admitted to not doing much of a warmup, other than a (slow?) jog to the start of where they were doing their session. Recognise that? Well, I can assure anyone that if you start this set without a proper warmup, you will find it much harder than necessary. Apart from that, you are not looking after yourself and run an increased risk of injury.
So do yourself a favour and start the set with a rigorous, 5 – 10-minute warmup that ensures a raised heart-rate and some deep breathing. Include some short (60m) strides, some fast high-knees, butt kicks and do not forget some arm-swings. If you are a little out of breath after, take a couple of minutes walking break before the start of your Blended 800m set. Be kind to yourself 
Good luck and enjoy.
Coach J
PS. Don’t forget t get in touch if you have ANY questions (running/training related of course 
What else has been happening?
Mandy Beames found Harry hut trig- nice one Mand!
Amanda Rogers is looking for any trig!
Jacob Stinton has started trail running – yes at the grand old age of 2!
Spiderman has been back running round Glossop
David Chrystie-Lowe just keeps on getting quicker at the Glossop 10k – watch out folks!
The Glass Ankles took advantage of Team Simmo absence at quiz night to sneak a long awaited win – despite not knowing what Chad is (not the country…the other thing!)
There’s been some strava segment bashing going on with various longer segments around
Glossop trails and hills – some fast times being posted, has everyone been secret training?!
Right, think that’s all for now folks! Have a good week – keep running, keep safe, but most of all STAY ALERT!!!!!!