Club Training Thursday 9th May

Thursday's session is a longish easy run (for the half dozen signed up for the Loch Leven half, I recommend that you do only half of the run).

The route is through the Glen, coming out at Langlands, up to Leaburn Rd via Park Farm, turn left then immediately right and keep climbing up to the cross roads. Turn left at the cross roads and follow the top road along to the end. Turn left back down the hill to Leaburn Rd. Turn left and run along Leaburn Rd to the end where it turns right down the hill. At the bottom turn right and then left past the kennels and along Shields Rd to Greenhills Rd. Turn right and return to the club. Those cutting the run short as a pre-race run should turn right on Leaburn Rd after Park Farm and run along to the end of Leaburn Rd, down the hill, right then left past the kennels etc.

This should be an easy, totally aerobic,conversational run in your pack.

Alan

Club Training Monday 6th May

Monday's session is another in our sequence of 10k race specific sessions. The session is 8 x 1km at target 10k race pace (so easy to work out if your watch is set in km's!). e.g. 35 minute 10km is 3:30/km, 40 minute is 4:00/km, 50 minute is 5:00/km, so very easy to calculate. The recovery is half the effort time (approx). To make this more specific to the packs where a small range of abilities will be present, I am setting the recoveries as follows:

10k range    Recovery

35 - 40        2:00 minutes

40 - 45        2:15 minutes

45 - 50        2:30 minutes

50 - 55        2:45 minutes

55 - >60      3:00 minutes

Take account of who is in your pack when setting the recovery.

This will be done as a continuous session out in the country. Warm-up through the glen to the bridge at the Strathaven Rd and climb up the bank, run out to the Crutherland, cross over and turn into the country road on the right. Gather at the usual 90 degree left hand bend where we often start reps. Start the first rep, at the junction with Leaburn Rd, turn right along Leaburn Rd, stay on Leaburn Rd all the way to the end where it turns downhill. At the bottom of the hill, turn right and then left past the kennels on Shields Rd. At Greenhills Rd turn right back to the Strathaven Rd.

It's a bit undulating but apart from the first rep, should be flat enough to be able to average the target pace over each rep. During the recovery, the faster ones should turn around and jog back to their pack.

Alan

May Auldhouse 5k Time Trial

18 Harriers turned out on a reasonable weather night on the first Thursday of May to set their benchmark times for the Summer season of Auldhouse 5k time trials. This was more Harriers than any of the TT's from last year and was particularly impressive given that it was the day after the Troon 10k and the SVHC Snowball Race, at both of which a number of the Harriers were competing.

Fastest time of the day and on an Auldhouse 5k TT debut went to Jordan Stewart in an impressive 17:39. Fastest lady and setting a new course best was Karen Allen in a very impressive time of 20:24, highlighting the massive aerobic boost that marathon training gives and how that carries forward into all the distances we race over. Karen's time was 1 second faster than her previous course best but that was set in 2014 and Karen's best times in recent years have all been in the 21's and 22's. Very well done Karen on a return to your best form.

Karen was not the only Harrier to record a course best. Julia Pechlof continues to improve each year and knocked 35 seconds off her best to record 22:46, another impressive improvement which will no doubt reduce further through the Summer.

There were also a few first timers on the Auldhouse TT. Surprisingly, this was Gerry Connelly's first time, starting off with an excellent 20:18. Tony Goodall recorded 26:27 and Tammy Hutchison 25:04 and both will be improve as the season goes on, now that they have their eye in.

Several more Harriers demonstrated their careful progression back to form. Jacqueline Balmer is on the way back with a 26:23; Andrew Buchanan set his first sub-20 time for many years recording an excellent 19:47, again off the back of consistent high mileage marathon training; Robert Gibson was significantly faster than his best from last year and set his fastest for several years recording 23:15; Richard Lawton recorded a cautious 26:28; Frances Ferguson is heading back to form with 23:48, which was a faster time than two years ago, despite racing in the Snowball Race the night before; Geo Ferguson was also racing in the Snowball Race and recorded 24:30 on tired legs; Gordon McInally is definitely on the post-injury comeback and will improve significantly on his 25:39 as the season goes on; Ian McKenzie knocked 2 minutes off last year's time with a 26:43; Claire McSorely has missed the TT for the past 3 years but is already ahead of her last recorded time with a 23:30; Jim Mearns is recovering from a persistent injury and set the benchmark for the season with 23:08; Eddie Reid ran his fastest time for 5 years, finishing in 22:47 and confirming the rumour that he is ready for a big leg on the WHW; this was an injury test for Russell Couper which he passed in 29:57.

Well done all and hopefully we see even more at the next edition on 6th June. All results are available in the Auldhouse Time Trial link in the Blog menu on the left or here.

Alan

Club Training Thursday 2nd May - Auldhouse 5k TT

Thursday is the first Auldhouse 5k TT of the year. For those new to the club, these occur on the first Thursday of each month from May to September. This is an individual time trial where each runner is set  off at 30 second intervals, with the fastest runners starting last such that we roughly all finish within a few minutes of each other. All the previous times are available from the link in the menu to the left of the blog page. The Auldhouse 5k is a wheel measured 5k and counts for the purpose of performance rewards. It's not an easy 5k though!

Register for training as normal as the registration list will form the basis of the start list, making it easy for the timekeeper. I'll probably come straight to EK from my work to time the event.

Alan

West Highland Way Relay Minibus Pick-Up Times

The following WHW Relay pick up times have been set by your early morning driver. For those not familiar with the WHW Relay, these times are Saturday 18th May AM! Any questions (or complaints), contact Eddie. 

Club Training Monday 29th April - Chatelherault

Monday is the first of our fortnightly Chatelherault trail run sessions. Full details of where to be and when and what to put on the training registration app are in this post from a few weeks ago:

https://calderglen.blogspot.com/2024/04/chatelherault-training-starts-soon.html

The important point about the Chatelherault session is that it is not a time trial. The session is about building aerobic condition (which means taking the pace relatively easy/steady so that you remain in the aerobic energy system) and building strength from the wide variety of hills, twists and turns. So, for those who know the route, if you hammer the first half such that at the bottom of the log jam you have to walk all the way up and take a rest at the top, then you are not getting the strength benefit of running slowly up the stairs. Arrive at the log jam relatively fresh so that you are able to work up the steps and then carry on recovering on the run from the top.

For those unfamiliar with the Chatelherault lap, please stick with your pack of more experienced Harriers as there are various junctions where it is possible to go wrong. Although not for a while, we have had to send search parties out towards Larkhall in the past looking for missing Harriers! Similarly, experienced Harriers, don't let anyone drop off the back of the pack and be left on their own.

Finally, in the days before Strava, we kept track of Chatelherault times using this form, the idea being mainly to see perceived effort reducing whilst the time per lap remains more or less the same or slightly faster. Anyway, we have years of Chatelherault times and comments in this sheet, so let's keep it going by recording your time, effort level and any comments after each session.

Alan

Harriers' Sports and Quiz Night

As part of the Harriers' 40th anniversary celebrations, Billy is organising a multi-sports night at the club, exposing teams of Harriers and former Harriers to a range of sports. This is similar to the event Billy organised in June 2021 and which was a great success and a lot of fun.

The event will be at the Sports Club at 7pm on Friday 31st May. Please be there at 6:30pm so that teams can be picked.  The sports event will be followed by a quiz on the theme of the history of the Harriers.

Leave your name on this form and this list will be used to form the teams on the night. The events are open to Harriers and former Harriers so do please spread the word and ask everyone to fill in the form.

Any questions about the format, please direct to Billy!

As a reminder of the 2021 event, here are some photos.

Alan