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- Snow Time!
Harriers appear to have been out and about en masse this week playing in our lovely local winter wonderland: not just on foot, also on snowboards, skis and sledges. The ones that got up early on Saturday morning enjoyed an amazing cloud inversion and fresh pow …. the ones who were slightly slower off the mark enjoyed the combined navigational and physical challenge of drifting snow, missing paths and very poor visibility.
Things Harriers know
Given that we are once again in lockdown and given that there is so much uncertainty around this year’s racing calendar, we are changing tack slightly on the reports at least for the next few weeks. Where we would usually be sharing race reports, we are going to be tapping into the vast amount of collective knowhow and experience on all things running-related within the club. Once we have enough content, Dan S. will do techie things to create a new ‘knowledge’ section on the website. In the meantime, please see the first two articles in the new GDH Knowledge Series:
Next up will be some musings from Paul S. on Winter Kit and Immy T’s take on Mountain Marathons.
In addition to the great articles from Rick and John (thanks both!), Tim B’s blog from Feb 2020 on the importance of being well prepared when heading into the hills provides some very valuable food for thought if you have not already seen this: https://testedtodestruction.blogspot.com/2020/02/go-outside-sit-down-wait.html
New Year’s Running Resolutions
In the light of the hugely enthusiastic response to Paul S’s recent FB post on 2021 running-related resolutions, we are also hoping to feature blogs from various Harriers on how they are progressing towards their targets for this year be it (re)starting running, recovering from injury, achieving a PB or completing a specific race or challenge.
If you would like to share any pearls of wisdom on a running related topic or let us know how you are getting on with your 2021 running resolutions or if you have any running antics to report please let us know at the usual email address gdhweeklyreports@gmail.com.
The reluctant return of the “NOT” Coached Sessions Coach. (Lockdown V3 W1) courtesy of Coach J
Not because of any reluctance to coach but reluctant as I, and surely all of us, had hoped that instead of more restrictions, we could have at least continued with the group sessions as we did at in December. Never mind, I will continue to give you some ideas and hopefully motivation, to get out, run and do at least one intense effort session each week until we are free to train in groups again. Now that the festive season of indulgence and over-eating is behind us, it is time to re-focus on regaining any fitness that may have got lost so nothing to taxing or challenging but steady re-building. Also, nothing too complicated, requiring mental maths…
So, a very simple half pyramid starting at 400m with 400m increments up to 2K or 400m; 800m; 1200m; 1600m; 2000m. Run each section a little faster than 10K pace (or 7-7.5/10 RPE). After each section 400m easy jog.
If you are not running this on a track, convert to a time. Eg. someone running a 10K in ~45 minutes = ~1m50s. So you would run 1m50s; 3m40s; 5m30s; 7m20s and finally 9m10s. Your recovery can be 4 minutes easy jog between each effort. If you are not sure about your pace for 400m, my pace chart can help you. You can find it here: https://www.glossopdaleharriers.org.uk/training/speed-training/
For those who may find this a little short because they have been good boys and girls during the festivities and kept in peak fitness, you can try the following full pyramid set instead:
1000m; 2000m; 3000; 2000; 1000. Each segment run at ~half marathon pace with a 3 to 4 minute recovery jog between each effort. Again, my pace chart will help you work out your times if you want to run this “on the clock”.
Finally, and I cannot emphasise it enough , do NOT scrimp and save on your warm-up. At least 10 minute jog followed by some drills like high knees, butt kicks, karaoka (or grapevines), (high) skips, arm and leg swings. Your heart-rate MUST be raised after these! If you have not done anything like this for a while, take it easy as this is all about re-building and not pushing yourself to your limits, resulting in injury!
A couple of quick reminders
- The club AGM is scheduled for Wednesday January 27th in the evening – this will be the club’s first foray into digital AGMs and further information will be available from the Committee shortly.
- The 2021 GDH membership subs are now due – please see Vicki’s recent post on FB for more info.
Happy winter running!