The Next Step After 5k - Autumn Improvers!

Have you completed the club beginners’ programme or are otherwise able to run 5k?

Currently running at or willing to run at a pace of 8min/k (parkrun 5k in 40mins)?

Want to run faster and further?

Improvers will be restarting on Monday 2 October meeting at 10am. This course will aim to progress Eagles from running 5.5k to running Osterley 10k on Saturday 9 December (so get your entry in before it sells out http://osterleypark10k.co.uk/) and to provide an introduction to speed work. There is no requirement to attend all the sessions but you will make most progress if you do and you will also be expected to do “homework” outside the Monday sessions if you wish to take part in a training plan for 10k. The length of the sessions will necessarily depend on the distance being run that day but you should allow from about an hour to 1 ½ hours. The sessions will move around depending on the focus of the session but the first session will meet at the gazebo in Walpole Park by the café / play area with an informal workshop afterwards. (Daytime runners who can already run 10k are welcome to join us for any of the sessions; details of individual sessions will be advertised each week.)

For those who can’t make daytime sessions, there are plenty of training sessions going on in the evenings. All sessions are open to everyone in the club. The sessions that appear to be hardcore – intervals, track and hills – are, in practice, more beginner-friendly because everyone stays in the same place so there is no worry about getting lost. For those who still feel a bit daunted, Starter sessions will be offered on an ad hoc (and trial) basis to introduce you to the options available. A provisional programme is set out below – all meeting times at 7.30pm.

Wed 27 Sept Starter short club run (meeting at Ealing Green for anyone who isn’t feeling confident after the summer)

Wed 11 Oct Starter speedplay (meeting at Ealing Green and using the short club run with little bits of running at faster pace so that you learn to run at more than one pace)

Wed 18 Oct Starter hill strides (meeting at Ealing Green but then going to the area near the Town Hall and using either the bridge or the pedestrian ramps to do some short sharp hill strides after appropriate warm-up and drills to prepare to do hills)

Wed 25 Oct Starter long club run (meeting at Ealing Green and reassuring you that you can have a go at doing the long club run)

Thu 2 Nov Starter hills – meeting at Haven Green to go to West Walk

Tue 21 Nov Starter track – meeting at Osterley track

There will be an informal workshop after club run on Wednesday 27 September for those people who would like to work out how to put all these sessions together to make a training plan for Osterley 10k on Saturday 9 December (so get your entry in before it sells out http://osterleypark10k.co.uk/).

If you’ve already done a few short club runs or parkruns and are free on Wednesday evenings, then the combination of beginners and a club run can also help to extend your distance.

If anyone, particularly beginners who graduated in June 2017, hasn’t been doing much running over the summer and is not confident about being able to do even the short club run at a conversational pace, please get in touch with Wei Hei at whkipling@talktalk.net and we will see what extra sessions, if any, need to be organised.