Training: Target Races and Distances

Ealing Eagles is fortunate that, as a reasonable size mixed ability club, there are normally plenty of opportunities to train during the week and running buddies with whom to train. This article sets out what provision is available in the club for a particular target race or distance at this time of year.

Other useful links show:

Please keep an eye on the list of sessions for the week http://www.ealingeagles.com/this-weeks-training (link also sent to you with News from the Nest) for more details and for any changes or updates.

EALING EAGLES 10K

Ealing Eagles 10k is a 10k race organised by the club to raise funds for ourselves and also for our club charities. Because Eagles is such a large and supportive club, we are fortunate that members are allowed to run in the race (there are races organised by other clubs where members who are available are expected to volunteer). The 2021 race will be taking place on Saturday 7 August (unfortunately, quite soon after Covid 19 restrictions are lifted and so we are not able to offer as many race specific training sessions as we had planned in previous years). Those of you who are not so familiar with the course may want to take the opportunity to check out the course with other Eagles.

- Monday 26 July at 10am – recce of the route - one lap is around 5k (possibly for those who have run more over the weekend - with parkrun restart and Summer League) and more of the route for Eagles with more endurance

- Saturday 31 July at 10am – recce of the route (one lap for those progressing to their first 10k and more of the route for Eagles with more endurance bearing in mind that it’s the week before race day - if there is sufficient interest, pace groups may be offered nearer the time)

EALING HALF MARATHON

12 week training plans for Ealing Half Marathon on Sunday 26 September started on Monday 5 July. More details of Eagles training for this award-winning race are set out on this article.

Those of you who are training for half marathon or 10mile races in the autumn may find it useful to join with those training for EHM with appropriate modifications.

As set out in the article, recce runs for EHM are planned on:

  • Thu 22 July at 10am - Hanwell side - long run options for runs of distance 6.6k / 4miles or 12k / 7.5miles or 16.4k / 10mile- facebook event page

  • Wed 28 July at 7.30pm – 4.2 miles / 6.8k around Pitshanger - route - facebook event page

  • Wed 4 Aug at 9am - Ealing side - long run options for runs of distance 8k / 5mile or 11.7k / 7.3mile or 16.8k / 10.5miles- facebook event page

  • Wed 11 Aug at 7.30pm – 5.4 mile / 8.6k around Hanwell - route - facebook event page

  • Thu 19 Aug at 9am - long run options for runs of 10k / 6miles or 16.8k / 10.5miles - facebook event page

  • Wed 25 Aug at 7.30pm – 5.8miles / 9.3k on the Ealing side - route - facebook event page

  • no recce run planned for the bank holiday week commencing 31 August

  • Sun 12 Sep (meet 8.45am for 9am start) – full 13.1miles - facebook event page

  • Thu 16 Sept at 9am - options for runs of 10k / 6miles or 16.8k / 10.5miles - facebook event page

  • Wed 22 Sept at 10am - 6.7k / 4mile run to check out the start and finish - facebook event page

MARATHON TRAINING

Those of you who are training for marathons may find it useful to join the facebook group for marathon training to be able to find training buddies for long runs and also to raise any questions you might have about marathon training for the Eagles marathon hive mind to consider.

We are also considering the possibility of a marathon workshop, possibly on zoom, so please join the discussion in the facebook group about what you think might be useful.

*** CROSS COUNTRY (XC) ***

Cross country running has many benefits. The undulating terrain and hills means you are using more muscles than in any other type of running, in turn strengthening the legs. The uneven ground stabilises lower leg muscles and develops them into great ‘shock absorbers’, whilst the changes of pace help improve the cardiovascular capacity of runners. Furthermore, contrary to some suggestions which state cross-country running increases the chance of injury, if done properly it’s arguably less stressful on the leg joints as the impact from the earth tends to be much less than on other surfaces.

In normal years, there are a good number of XC races in the Eagles calendar http://www.ealingeagles.com/cross-country (will be updated nearer the time) which are themselves good training for running generally. We will review nearer the start of the XC season (October) if there is a demand for one or two specific XC training sessions before the season starts.

NEXT STEP IMPROVERS

Next Step Improvers is for people who are able to run 5k and want to continue running, particularly those of you who are relatively new to running (including those who have recently progressed to running 5k without walking breaks. Those of you who are at this level may find it useful to join the facebook group Next Step Improvers to be able to find training buddies and also to raise any questions you might have about running for the Eagles hive mind to consider.

Depending on your level of endurance, you may want to consider:

We hope to target Osterley 10k in December and training plans suitable for those still at the 5k level will start at the end of September.

RUN / WALK

The club offers a run / walk programme free to the local community to progress people from not running very much to running 5k or more without walking breaks (so that they can join the evening club runs). The next run / walk programme is likely to start on Wednesday 6 October at 6.30pm or Thursday 7 October at 10am and take nine weeks to complete.

Healing Eagles (returning from injury) or those returning from time away are very welcome to join for part or all of the run / walk programme if they have been advised to do some run / walking and would like some company. Please email beginners@ealingeagles.com to check the level at which the programme is operating when you are thinking of joining.

The run / walk programme attributes its success (145 people graduated through the run / walk programme in the period October 2018 to July 2019) to the support and encouragement provided by the volunteers. If you are happy to run at a relatively gentle pace (7 to 8min/k or 11 to 13min/miles though some people will be faster and a few may not be so fast) and encourage beginners while doing so, then please think about contributing to the club and the running community in this way. Running at a more gentle pace is also a good way of working on your own running form (running gently does not mean running lazily or sloppily). For more information, please join the volunteers facebook group or email beginners@ealingeagles.com

In January 2020, Eagles offered a run / walk programme to University of West London with sessions on Mondays at 5.30pm. Other options for supporting our local community with run / walk programmes may arise in the future. Please contact beginners@ealingeagles.com if you would be interested in volunteering at other times in case something crops up which might be of interest to you.