WEST DISTRICT XC RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS

 Teams for Saturday are as follows

11.00am  Junior Girls  A   leg 1  no runner   leg 2 C Buchanan  leg 3 A McDerment

                                    B   leg 1 no runner    leg 2   N McMonagle   leg 3  A McCardle

11.45 am  Junior boys  A   leg 1  I McMonagle  leg2  H Anderson   leg 3  F McMonagle

13.00   Senior ladies   A    leg 1 S Caulfield   leg 2  E Carroll   leg 3  A Hayden

           Senior Ladies B    leg 1  L Buchanan  leg 2  P Rycroft    leg 3  J Balmer

           V40 ladies      leg 1 F Williamson   leg 2 F Ferguson  leg 3  C McSorley

14.15  Senior Men  A  leg 1  J Stewart  leg 2  K Leinster  leg 3  G McInally  leg 4  R Pattinson

           Senior Men  B  leg 1  A Rycroft  leg 2  R Couper  leg 3  free   leg 4  free

           V40 Men     leg 1 A Buchanan  leg 2 G Connolly  leg 3 J Mearns  leg 4 I MacLean

Please arrive in plenty time. Lorraine and Andrew will attend to the juniors. I will be at the course from noon to collect the numbers and be at the start area. If anyone can no longer make it please let me know asap as i need to go online to change the declarations also if anyone wants to take any of the spaces in the mens B team let me know asap.

Russell

Club Training Thursday 8th October

Thursday's session is another split session with a shorter route for those racing at the West XC Relays on Saturday and a slightly longer route for those not racing. The session is an easy run with 6 x strides over about 50m to 80m accelerating to race pace and back to easy.

The routes are Kingsway to the Whirlies, down East Mains Rd, up West Mains Rd to College Milton, cross the road and down through the factories as if doing the 4-hills and back up and back up Glenburn Rd the Queensway, then all the way back up the Queensway to the club. The shorter version is to miss out the College Milton section and just to turn left onto the Queensway at KFC. Within your packs, fit in the 6 x 50m to 80m strides on flat or slightly downhill sections of the route. Think of being relaxed and light on your feet as you accelerate up to race pace.

Alan

Grand Prix 2026 - 2027 is Go!

This Saturday's West District XC Relay at Kilmarnock is the first race of the new season Grand Prix. For those new to the Harriers, the Grand Prix is a series of 16 races which the senior Harriers use to contest two competitions in parallel, the Calderglen Grand Prix and the Calderglen Club Championships. The difference between the two competitions is that the GP uses a system of "jokers" to even out the scoring such that theoretically, everyone has a chance of winning if they do enough of the races (best 11 of the 16 to count) whereas the Club Championship is a scratch championship with no jokers to boost the scores such that the fastest runners should win if they do enough of the races! It looks like a good turn out of seniors and juniors for the first race of this season.

The Grand Prix rules remain unchanged again this year and are summarised in this post from a few years ago: https://calderglen.blogspot.com/2023/10/grand-prix-rules-2023-2024.html. The important point to note is that the number of jokers you are assigned at the start of the season is based on the training pack that you are currently assigned to; those in packs 1 to 7 get 1 joker whereas those in packs 8 to 10 get 2 jokers. Jokers must be declared to Russell or his nominated representative (well) before each race starts.

The first batch of races in this year's Grand Prix are provisionally as listed here. The list is also available in the menu on the left of the blog.

Alan

Club Training Monday 5th October - Brancumhall

Monday's session at Brancumhall is a bit of a recovery session for those who were racing so well at the GSR and for those who were not racing, it is a light threshold session. The threshold session is 8 x 2 minutes with a 40 second jog recovery. This should feel like an easy run with slight accelerations for 2 minutes and then easing back slightly to easy for 40 seconds.

For those who were racing, do the same circuit but without the increase to threshold, so just easy laps. The soft ground should be easy on the legs.

Alan

Club Training Thursday 1st October

Thursday's session is a pre-race run for those that are racing at the weekend. For those runners, there is a cut-off on the route. For those not racing, don't take the cut-off and continue on the longer run as our Brampton preparation continues.

The route is down the Queensway to McDonalds. Those who are racing at the weekend, turn onto West Mains Rd and return to the club via the railway station, Lidl and Churchill Avenue. Fit in 6 x 10 seconds approx strides out to race pace (depending on which race you are doing). For those not racing, continue on down the Queensway to the Holiday Inn, turn right and follow the by-pass to Morrisons and then Stewartfield Way and the lane parallel to Stewartfield Rd down to West Mains Rd. Then back to the club via the railway station, Lidl and Churchill Avenue.

This should be an easy paced run.

Alan

Club Training Monday 28th September

Monday's session is another basic speed endurance session at Langlands Place. It is 8 x 400m at 5k pace with a 1 minute jog around/stand recovery. These sessions at Landlands Place with variations and progressions will feature regularly through the winter months. As always, aim for consistent times. Try to stay within about 1 second difference in time for each rep. A reminder of 5k pace over 400m:

For this session, aim for your recent (within the past couple of months) 5k pace. It should feel quite easy, particularly for those racing this coming weekend where the objective is to get the legs spinning without introducing fatigue.

Alan

NATIONAL XC RELAYS

 This years National XC relays will be held in Cumbernauld as per previous years on 24th Oct

The junior races will be a mix of u/14, u/16, u/18 in that order although they can step up one age group

U/20, seniors and masters will run together in the same teams

Young females @ noon (3 x 2.5k legs), Young males @ 12.40pm  (3 x 2.5k legs)

Ladies @ 13.10 (4 x 4k  legs)(3 x 4k for W40 + W50) and Men @ 14.40 (4 x 4k  legs)

Cost is £24 for a junior team and £9.00 for u/20, senior and masters per head. 

Payment should be made at the same time as adding your name.

If you want to race i need names by Tuesday 6th Oct

Please make sure your SA number is valid on the 6th Oct and race day 24th Oct. The system does not allow entry if not.

Please register your name HERE.  Those registered are listed HERE.