It’s the Summer Solstice weekly report

And just like that…it’s the 21st June?! Despite feeling like this covid weirdness has been going on forever, at the sametime it seems insane that we are almost in July! Normally i’d be getting all excited for 2 weeks of doing very little work and screaming at the TV whilst Wimbledon is on.

The weekends around the longest day are usually jam packed full of all sorts of races, and any normal Sunday i’d have probably had to start the weekly round up at about 3pm with legs battered and aching, and the weekly report inbox brimming with highlights, lowlights and tales of all sorts of running delights. But this week, as has become the norm, there is one solitary submission from Coach J. You can wait until the end to see what delights he has in store this week!!

So anyway what’s been happening this week then?

Well as we gradually come out of lockdown, and can start meeting up for socially distanced runs we’ve had:

Chris Smith encouraging folk to join him on some Friday morning jaunts up Lightside

More attempts at Oate’s Round Glossop Run – looks like Lizzie Leason and David C-L both put in some fast times at this! If you haven’t already seen it – have a peruse down the FB page for the route/instructions which Ian O shared recently

Matt Cromptons hill rep heroes surviving the best (scariest?) thunderstorm we’ve had in a while

Celebratory 7 milers and 7kms for Mummys Star’s 7th Birthday

Thursday “fartleks” and Thursday road and fell socials

Week 2 of the return of Jeroen & David’s sunday social 

The Munday’s bashing out some big miles marathon training

Some (not)parkruns in all sorts of exotic places (basically anywhere that isn’t Glossop probably counts as exotic right now)

More big Autumn races taking the sensible, unsurprising , but still sad decision to cancel/postpone

Stats geekery

I don’t usually go in for stats geek stuff but Greg’s got strava to crunch the numbers so let’s see who’s done what this week:

Top distance male – David Munday –  108km in 9 runs

Top distance female – Jess Camp – 70.5km in 5 run

Top climber male – Jamie Helmer – 2697m in 6 runs

Top climber female – Rachel Walton – 1508m in 5 runs

Top speedster male – Sean Phillips average of 4.21min/km over 3 runs

Top female speedster – Emma Peters average of 5.09min/km over 2 runs

And who managed the longest run this week? Anthony Walker casually chucked in a 36.8km run!

Nice one folks, but remember, it’s not just about who goes the fastest, highest, or furthest- it’s just about tying up your laces, getting out the front door and enjoying a run whether it’s tarmac or fell, 4km or 40km, 30 mins, or 3h 30 mins.

Missing racing? This might be for you:

For those of you missing racing, Peak Raid are still doing their Summer Series. These are mini mountain marathon style events and there are 3 more left in July, August, and September. To do this you download the map using an orienteering app and that will upload all your timings and route to the race site and work out your points. More details from http://explorerevents.co.uk/map-run/ if you’re interested.

Coach’s Corner

Well what can I say – Week 12 of NOT the Coached session was truly horrific challenging! Coach J is clearly determined to make us fitter and faster at the end of all this 😉 I’m sure we will be glad once we get racing again that we kept this up! Thursday night is the new Tuesday night – well, it was this week, so we headed up to the Derbyshire Level to give 12 x 400m reps a bash. Blimey. Anyone who did it will i’m sure agree it was definitely one of the toughest sets yet, so kudos for getting that one done! We were glad for some GDH support on the first few reps with the unexpected bonus of bumping into Mark D, Rachel W, Emma R, Tracey & Cecil who were off on a social fell run. So whilst I still feel a little bit broken from the last sesh, let’s see what is in store for us this week courtesy of Coach J:

NOT Coached Session, week 13 of significantly less locked-down, 22-28 June

Now that we are a little less restricted by viral guidelines and more people have gone back to work, some may be slightly more restricted in the time they have available for training. Your fitness and race pace do not have to suffer as long as you train smarter and not just more.

This week’s set shows how you can train for a 10K without running 10 kilometers or more in training. It is all about the quality and not (just) quantity:

Run 800m at 10K (6.5-7 RPE) pace, then jog for two minutes

Run 400m at 5K pace (7.5-8 RPE), then jog for a minute

Run 200m at your estimated one-mile race pace (8.5-9 RPE), then jog for 30 seconds

Run 1000m at 10K pace, then jog for four minutes. Then repeat the session. 

Complete this set at least twice but regulars of the Tuesday Sessions can/should do three sets. Note that this is a continuous set!! And make sure that your final 1K is not slower than your first one!

As the intensity is not the highest at the start of the main set, you can incorporate some warmup drills that focus on the range of motion and technique. Done well, they still achieve the main aim of a raised heart rate, increase in core temperature, and generally getting your body ready for exercise without wearing you out. Just some ideas for you to try out:

*Baby skips with arm circles (~20 m) 

*Walk back to where you started the skips but walking on your toes (straight, pointing in and out)

*Backward baby skips with arm circles

*Walk back to the start on your heels, lifting toes as high as you can.

*Carioca (aka Grapevines) with a step-over (20m each side)

*Skip for height, bring the knee up close to the chest and exaggerate arm-swing.

Enjoy

Coach J

That’s all for now folks. Stay well and keep running! Don’t forget if you have any news/updates (generally running related of course but will leave it to the report writer’s discretion…!!!) send it in to gdhweeklyreports@gmail.com