Club Training Thursday 11th June

Thursday's session is another Auldhouse variation as an easy run. The route is through the Glen to Langlands, past Langlands clubhouse to Auldhouse. Straight through Auldhouse cross and carry on to take the first junc on the left up the hill. Carry on up and round to Leaburn road and then second left to pass Park Farm. From there, back to the club via Sainsburys. Keep the pace easy throughout.

Alan 

Club Training Monday 8th June - Chatelherault

Monday's session is at Chatelherault, so do please follow the usual arrangements for filling in the training registration form so we know who is coming and who to wait for. 

This week's session is that old favourite, the Chatelherault uphill fartlek session. The purpose of this session is to focus a little on strength (the uphill bit) and a little on threshold (the effort to be put in on the uphills). Each time your pack reaches an uphill section that is more than 10 metres long, increase the effort to threshold effort (i.e. comfortably hard and sustainable for an hour if you had to). On reaching the top of each hill, ease back to an easy conversational pace, slow enough for those dropping off the back of your pack to catch-up. The first hill for the efforts is when you cross the first, big stone bridge and go through the narrow gate onto the trail on the other side of the gorge. The last hill is just before you descend the steep steps you ran up at the beginning of the lap. Run easy down that hill and back to the start/finish.

Alan

Club Training Thursday 4th June - Auldhouse 5k TT

We had a great turn out in May with many fine performances. Let's try and better that in the June edition. Hopefully the weather is favourable. Please register for training as usual as I upload this start list to the timing app and use it as the start list.

Remember that these time trials serve multiple purposes: a) a 5k effort is an excellent training session, boosting VO2max if done with enough intensity b) learning pace judgement; the Auldhouse TT route is up and down and requires a precise distribution of effort to maximise performance, as is the case in most road and cross-country races we do c) to monitor your progress in terms of fitness and strength over the summer. It is also fine just to cruise around the 5k route at a threshold level of effort and do the same effort each month. If you are getting fitter, then the same effort will result in faster times.

Alan

Club Training Monday 1st June

We've had a fairly intense period of longer races over the past month and a bit of an easier week last week to let the legs recover. However, now it's time to reintroduce a bit of an effort. Monday's session is a threshold session on the country roads. The session is 3 x 8 minutes at threshold (once you get a few minutes into each rep, its 2 or 3 word effort, or the effort you could sustain for about an hour in a race\) with 2:30 jog recovery.

The route is the one that starts on the back road across from the Crutherland, starting off through the glen. The first rep starts at the 90 degree bend on the backroad. From there turn right at the junction with Leaburn Rd. Stay on Leaburn Rd all the way to the end where it turns right downhill. At the junction at the bottom of the downhill turn right and then left past the Kennels. Follow Shields Rd back to Greenhills Rd and come back to the club via Greenhills Rd and Strathaven Rd.

Keep the efforts well under control. It should feel uncomfortable but not leaving you bent over double after each rep. It should be possible to slow down to the jog recovery without stopping.

Alan

Chatelherault World Championships 2026

The annual Calderglen Harriers Chatelherault World Championships took place in spectacularly Summer conditions on Monday 25th May. An eager pack of 11 Harriers turned out for one of the final few races in the 2025-26 Grand Prix with overall positions still in the balance. We split into three packs based on anticipated finishing time and the packs were set off at 5 minute intervals to ensure a reasonably compact finishing order.

Despite the 5 to 10 minute start given, Robert Dewar caught and passed everyone in the first half and finished fastest overall in a time of 52:27. With several of the runners either not being very familiar with Chatelherault at all or not having been there this year, there was always a concern that someone would go off course and end up in Larkhall. Chris Thomson fell into that category but thankfully did not go off course and was next fastest in 56:48. The remainder of the fast pack finished pretty close together with Jason Grant (58:00), Andrew Higgins (58:21) and Stephen Phimister (58:53) all running very strongly and, in the case of all three of them, recovering from or carrying injuries.

In the middle "pack" there was another fine solo effort from Frances Ferguson, finishing in 64:15, although Frances' first (repeatable) words were "how could I used to do that in 56 minutes!". Richard Lawton completed that middle start group to finish in 68:41 and maximised Grand Prix points with a 2 joker strategy.

The first pack away mainly stuck together as a group due to unfamiliarity with the 7-mile route. However, leading the breakaway, Gordon McInally finished in 71:49, the common theme being that Gordon is also carrying an injury. Then Geo Ferguson (80:27) headed the sprint for the line from the final group, followed by Tarlochan Mothada (80:36) and Jacqueline Balmer (80:37).

Well done to all. I wish we could get conditions like that for all of this summer's Chatelherault sessions but somehow I doubt we will. Some photos from the finish line are here.

Alan

Club Training Thursday 28th May

Thursday is another easyish run around the backroads of Auldhouse, hopefully still in very nice weather. The route starts out Strathaven Road and across to Sainsburys and from there to the start of the 5k TT course. Run round past Park Farm, on Leaburn Rd, turn left and then right and climb up to the cross roads where you turn right. Follow that top road along and back down to Leaburn Rd. Turn right and stay on Leaburn Rd and then turn left past Park Farm again and take the reverse route back to the club. Take it easy and conversational throughout.

Alan

Club Training Monday 25th May - Chatelherault World Championships

Monday's session at Chatelherault is the Chatelherault World Championship which is part of our Grand Prix. Please fill out the training registration form as normal (i.e. select "Training Venue" if going direct to Chatelherault at 7:30pm or "EKSC" if going to the Sports Club at 7pm for a lift or to give a lift). We will stagger the start by packs so that we all finish close to each other. Please take your own time on your watch just in case the time keeper (me) loses the plot.

The men's and ladies' Grand Prix are tight and are far from decided with 4 races still to go (Chatelherault, Polkemmet parkrun round 2, Dechmont Law and the Vertical Mile). It would be great to see the respective championships going down to the last race and this will happen if we have a good turn out at each of the remaining races.

Alan