Club Training Thursday 17th October

 Thursday's run is a pre-race run ahead of the National XC Relays at Cumbernauld. The route is Strathaven Rd to Greenhills Rd, down Lickprivick and back to the club via The Murray. This should be at an easy pace but not a plod. Within your packs choose 6 flat or slightly downhill stretches of about 100m to pick up the pace in a gradual acceleration to 4k race pace.

Alan

Glasgow Uni 5 Mile Race

Saturday saw the 2nd race in the Grand Prix series and a good turnout of harriers taking part in the Glasgow Uni 5mile road race. The weather gods were certainly smiling down on us as the pouring rain stopped about half an hour before the start of the race to allow us to get warmed up in the dry, and the skies were blue for the start of the race. The race consists of 2 laps starting and finishing at Garscube sports complex and is a hilly 5 miles with not a lot of flat - it’s either uphill or downhill, the good part is the last kilometre is all downhill. Andrew Buchanan is seeing the benefit of managing consistent training again and was first harrier home in 31:59,

Jason Grant also ran very well and was second harrier back in 33:09. Sileshi Tesema had been feeling some tightness in his calf so had to ease off in sections finished not far behind in 33:22. Julie Beveridge was first female harrier finishing in a time of 34:22. Julie also finished 2nd female vet.

Well done Julie. There was a couple of minutes until the next harrier Alison Lessells who ran steadily to finish in 37:29. Alison had been expecting Jim Mearns to overtake her on each hill she ran up so was surprised to see him cheering her on from the sidelines at the final corner. Unfortunately Jim had to pull up injured just before the start of the 2nd lap and declared he’s never entering this race again as it’s the 2nd time he’s DNF’ed it with Russell claiming his scalp… Robert Gibson and George Ferguson were closely matched, with Robert finishing ahead in 41:19 and Geo closely behind in 41:41.

Richard Lawton also had a strong run finishing in 43:01. Russell Couper ran a steady race to finish in 48:34 with Lorraine Buchanan about a minute behind in 49:40. Lorraine was cheered to the finish and managed to pip the lady from Wee County Harriers that she was racing up the finishing straight on the line. Well done Lorraine. Thanks to Morgan, Susan Grant and especially Heidi who had the loudest cheers for us all for the support on the day.

Club Training Monday 14th October - Brancumhall

Continuing to focus on sessions specific to shorter race-pace on the XC sessions, Monday is 5 x 1 lap at 5k race effort with a 90 seconds stand/jog in circles recovery (so each rep starts at the same place). If underfoot conditions are softer than previous weeks, then the pace may be slower for the same level of effort.

Alan

Club Training - Thursday 10th October

Thursday's session is a light session to get the legs spinning over pre-race (GU 5 mile road race). The session is at Langlands Place with the usual warm-up via Strathaven Road and Sainsburys. The session is then 16 x 200m (i.e half of Langlands Place) at 5k pace with a 200m jog recovery (i.e continue jogging on to the end of Langlands Place and turn around to start the next rep). Try to remain consistent on every rep and relax with good running style (tall posture, high knees, light, consistent foot strike, elbows at 90 degrees and arms sweeping gently past the hips). Cool down via Greenhills Rd and Strathaven Rd.

Alan

NATIONAL SHORT COURSE XC (KIRKCALDY)

 This year the National short course XC will be held at Kirkcaldy High School on Sat 2nd November.

This is 4k the same as the relays but instead a straight race with a mass start.

Ladies start at 13.30 and Men at 14.00.

Cost is £9.50 per head and should be paid in advance for adult races.

Cost of junior races is £8.00 per head

U/15 girls and boys compete over 2k with races starting at noon

U/17 girls and boys compete over 3k with races starting at 12.40

Please make sure your SA number is up to date.

I need names by Tuesday 15th Oct

If you wish entered please leave your name HERE. Those already registered are listed HERE.

Club Training Monday 7th October

Monday's run is a fairly long easy post-race run. If you were racing the half marathon, keep the pace on this very easy and conversational. For those who were running the shorter races over the weekend, this run is to build endurance in preparation for the increasing distance of races we have coming up, culminating in Brampton. The route is Queensway to the Holiday Inn, Stewartfield bypass to Morrisons and then onto Stewartfield Crescent as far as Stewartfield Rd. Follow the lane parallel to Stewartfield Rd to West Mains Rd, then through the village to Lidls, up Avondale and back to the club.

Thursday's session will be short, quick reps at Langlands Place.

Alan

WHERE HAVE ALL THE PUDDLES GONE

 Today was the West District xc relays in Kilmarnock. The event was poorly attended with it being the same weekend as the Great Scottish run. Ive never seen this venue so dry even a part of the course known as the swamp which explains what it is was bone dry with not even any softness in the ground. Never the less we had some fine performances particularly from some of our juniors. First race up was the girls race for a 3 leg relay of u/13, u/15, u17 First up was Charlotte Buchanan and in an incomplete team Jessica Prior with Charlotte running 11.21 and putting the team in 6th place and Jessica running 13.41. Next up was Sophie Lewandowski running 12.19 followed by Aimee Creasy running 13.51 for a final placing of 29th. Onto the next event and the boys this time with one complete team running for us. Off on leg 1 was Hamish Anderson running 10.20 also putting the boys into an early 6th place. On the 2nd leg we had Gavin Boyd looking to further his experience of racing xc with a fine performance of 13.20 and onto the final leg with Francis Santangeli running 10.46 and bringing the team home in 23rd place.

Onto the Ladies race and we had one complete team of 3. On leg one we had Julia Pechlof looking for a wee burst with her legs before next weeks Budapest marathon and finishing with 17.11 handing over to Alison Lessells who matched Julias run with a time of 17.15. Onto leg 3 and Lorraine Buchanan coming back from a bit of a lay off running a time of 23.02 and bringing the team home in 31st.

With the Mens race to finish off the day we had a complete team of 4 and a single leg runner. On leg 1 we had Andrew Buchanan posting a great time of 15.07 with Russell Couper running the single leg in 20.49. Onto leg 2 and we had Kai Wheeler whos been showing great progress in training lately showing what hard work can do by beating his coach with a time of 15.01. Onto leg 3 and we had Jim Mearns returning to the shorter distances with a time of 17.38 handing over to Kenny Leinster putting in his usual strong and steady performance finishing with 18.07 and placing the team 30th.

A good days racing from everyone setting us up for a good Autumn/Winter season.