IF YOU ARE RUNNING IT

Monday 3rd July sees the start of the 12 week countdown to the 11th Ealing Half Marathon 2023 which is again supported by Ealing Eagles.

For all those running it we have a whole host of bits and bobs to get you firstly to the start line and then onwards to the finish line (hopefully with a smile on your face!). There is a Eagles Facebook group for all things EHM. Find other people to train with, have some friendly/competitive banter, and share your tips on how to train.

Ealing Eagles hopes to offer a range of training sessions over the EHM training period so there should be plenty of options for you to include in your own training. Because of the number of options on offer, we haven’t attempted to write training plans for all the conceivable choices of sessions that would be available. Instead, here are some thoughts on how to put together your own training plan.

Training Basics

  • Rest days are as important as running days to allow your body to recover from the stress of the training days and so heal stronger to increase your fitness

  • Long run *** at conversational pace *** to build up endurance

  • Hills or intervals – the club hopes to offer sessions on Monday mornings and Tuesday and Thursday evenings

  • If time, another continuous run, normally shorter than long run, at a slightly faster pace

  • Other runs and / or cross-training as appropriate

  • If you are following a training plan, always do your sessions at a pace / intensity ** so that you can do the next session ** - there is no point in running your long run so fast that you are too tired to do the other sessions in the week

  • Start slowly

  • Train consistently

Suggestions

Here are some suggestions for how many sessions to include each week and how to increase your mileage depending on your level of experience and your availability (and also with reference to the Summer League races and the various recce runs).

·       If you have recently progressed to running 5k, take a look at our 5k to HM recommendations

·       If you’re already running 5k regularly and have probably run 10k, you can have a look at our regular 5k to HM recommendations to start at a higher mileage

·       If you've run EHM before or it's not your first half in general (such that you might be happy to run 13miles three times in training over the 12 week period), have a look at the Intermediate recommendations or use the long run progression suggested there to design your own plan.

Recce Runs

With the route for Ealing Half Marathon on our doorstep, there will be plenty of opportunities to run sections of the route before race day. Do make use of the facebook group to organise self-led runs at the pace and distance that you want to go. In addition, we hope to offer four official recce runs which will be supported by Ealing Eagles providing runners who know the routes and are able to lead at different paces (for more information about the arrangements if you can help to lead or if you simply want to join in, please look at the facebook event pages or email coaching@ealingeagles.com):

Daytime runners are likely to be doing their long runs on Wednesday or Thursday mornings and this combination of the long runs for the different plans may help those wanting to co-ordinate a group of runners at different levels.

Suggestions of routes including sections on the EHM route may be provided for Eagles wanting to do some of their training on the EHM route. Eagles wanting a shorter run suitable for a midweek evening may be able to organise self-led group runs in the EHM Facebook group. Traditionally, those who often do a long run at the weekend, particularly on Sunday mornings, also switch to sections of the EHM route as race day approaches.

TIPS

We hope to publish tips each week based on questions and comments raised in the Eagles facebook group and these tips will be collected on this blog for those of you not on facebook and also for ease of access.

For your non-Eagle friends

In addition to the recce runs mentioned above, we have set up a facebook group to support non-Eagles training for EHM, in particular those who want to take part in the recce runs. Eagles are welcome to join this EHM facebook group including non-Eagles and to invite their non-Eagle friends.

ENTER

And I know this is a silly point but, if you’re intending to put in all this hard work, please remember to enter! https://www.ealinghalfmarathon.com/

IF YOU WANT TO VOLUNTEER

Opportunities for Eagles to help with Ealing Half Marathon on the day or in advance do crop up and may be mentioned here and / or in the club facebook group.

If you want to volunteer on race weekend (which includes the mile races on the Saturday), please register on the webpage https://www.ealinghalfmarathon.com/volunteer/