Trossachs Training Camp 2010

TTC update;
A place has come available for the TTC - if you are interested please call me on 01698 422448 to book. The cost for the weekend is £50

I know some of you were looking forward to the Sports Psychology Workshop but unfortunately the person cancelled on us. We have since been fortunate enough to secure a Sports Nutritionist who will be presenting two seminars to us over the weekend.

The menu for Friday and Saturday evening dinner is here. Please make your menu choices using this on-line form. If you have any problems using the form then send an e-mail to genevieve@athelite.net.

Thanks.

Lanarkshire AAA Track and Field Championships 2010

Young Harrier Emma Lawton, aged 9, put in a very impressive performance at the above event on Saturday at Wishaw Track. This was Emma's first attempt at a track event and opted to compete in the 100m and 800m races for the Under 11 age group.
Despite her lack of sprinting experience Emma cam 4th in the 100 metres heat with a time of 17.9 seconds . Putting her recent speed training to good use Emma was only 0.1 second behind the third place runner. The 800 metres was more tailored to Emma's running strengths and Harriers training . As soon as the race started she quickly moved up to join the lead runners and was one of pack of three runners at 200 metres and at 400 metres was in second place. Unfortunately the lead runner maintained a big gap but Emma did fantastic to push herself all the way to the finishing line to claim second place in a time of 3:01.5 . The first girl's finishing time was 2:56.1. The organisers of the event combined the two heats to determine medal winners and overall Emma finished in 4th place only one second behind third place. Just shows you that every second counts in a race !
Emma enjoyed the event enormously and is already planning to improve her finishing position for next year. Well done Emma !

EKAC Fun Run

A fun run for young athletes will take place on Wednesday 8 th September at 7 pm. Registration at at the running track at the John Wright Sports Centre from 6.30 pm. The entry fee is £2 and the distance is about 2km. The race is for 9 years old and upwards.

Usual training at the Sports Club is cancelled that evening.

All of our club's young athletes ,coaches and helpers should go to the running track for 6pm to allow enough time to enter the race and for a warm-up. Parents/Carers of our young athletes will have to ensure that they remain at the venue for the duration of the event as this is not a normal training night the coaches and helpers will be very busy assisting the organisers to ensure the safety of all participants.

This is an excellent opportunity for the club's young athletes to gain valuable experience in a fun based running event. It is hoped that as many as possible will take part.

Auldhouse Time Trial

Thursday 2nd September is the final Auldhouse 5k time trial of the year. Due to my absence, Graham Allan has kindly offered to take care of the registration and timing again. Please help him as much as possible by reporting to the club in good time (or leaving a comment on this blog post if you are going direct to the start) and giving your name to Graham so that he can work out the start order. Graham will also be looking for a helper on the finish line.

Thanks
Alan

Final Chatelherault - Early Start

On account of the fading light, the final Monday night Chatelherault of the year will start 15 minutes earlier than usual. The first pack should be at the start ready to run at 19:15 with the last and fastest pack going off at 19:30. If you are going to the Sports Club first to get/give a lift, aim to be there 15 minutes earlier also (18:45 at the latest).

I am out of the country as usual, so won't be there unfortunately.

Alan

59 th Brampton to Carlisle 10 miles Road Race

The club has attended this race every year since we were formed in October 1984. This years race takes place on Saturday 20 th November at 12.30 pm. A 52 seater coach has been booked and will leave East Kilbride Sports Club at 8.30 am stopping at Gretna Green en route to Brampton. On the return journey we will stop at that old favourite of the club the Star Hotel in Moffat for a meal at 5.30 pm . We will be back in East Kilbride for 8pm.

The race entry fee is £8.5o for affiliated members and £11.5o will book you a seat on the coach. Cheques for £20 or £11.50 should be made payable to Calderglen Harriers. Cash payments will be accepted.

Payment for the two course meal can be made on the day. (Cost as yet unknown but should not be any more than £10).

Runners who ran last year will be forwarded an entry form from the host club Border Harriers. You can also download one from www.borderharriers.co.uk

The forms should be returned with the correct remittance to Russell Couper or myself.

As always the club welcomes any runners who are not members of Calderglen Harriers to join us on a fantastic day out. So please do not hesitate to invite anyone you know.

Scottish Athletics Membership

Further to the previous Blog and the upcoming relay season it has come to my attention that some members are out of date with their Scottish Athletics membership and would therefore not be allowed to compete in these events.
Please could all members check their status with Scottish Athletics and confirm with me their membership as we want to see a return to big turnouts at these events
Also any of our newer members that havnt joined Scottish Athletics yet and are not sure how to just ask any of the committee for details.

West District XC Relays - District Masters Championships

For the first time, Scottish Athletics are going to be awarding district championship medals to the first three masters' teams in the West District Relays (at Rouken Glen) this year. Further details here. Lets get our women's and men's vets teams primed for this one! (Date Saturday 9th October). As the race is so local, I hope that we can fill the field with Calderglen teams in all the age groups from Young Athletes upwards.

Alan

The 2 Hills (and Reilly's)

Stuart Hill & Nicola Reilly both took part in their first Park Run at Pollock Park today. Scot picked the Glasgow run to get some shelter from the strong winds and also thought that the bigger field of runners helped them both. Stuart crossed the line in 28:44 and Nicola in 29:16. They both found it tough in the windy conditions or it could be the fact its the first time they have been up before nine on a Saturday morning for a while!!!!!!!!!!!

Stephen and Scot both did the race too. Scot just got under the 20mins (19:59) and Stephen's time was 20:10. (They were both pleased with their times as their legs are still sore from Thursday's hill reps). Thanks to Scot for the report.

Meanwhile at the Strathclyde Park event, Russell Couper got his last run in before 2 weeks of tapering (a vertical taper aka holiday), recording an encouraging 24:39.

Well done to all of our parkrunners.

Alan

Copenhagen Race Report

A big event requires a big race report so I won't dump it here.

You can however see it plus Alans Photo Album on the ATHelite Blog.

http://www.athelite.blogspot.com/

Colin

Challenge Copenhagen Ironman Triathlon

Unusually, I'm on a non-work related visit to Copenhagen, doing the much more enjoyable task of providing backup to Colin, Genevieve and Graeme Allan who were competing in the first ever Copenhagen triathlon, contested over the ironman distance of 3.8km open water swim, 180km cycle and the 42km marathon to finish. This was Colin and Genevieve's second ironman within a year and Graeme's first ever. Needless to say, the dedicated training by all three payed off big time with massive pb's for both Colin and Genevieve and a very respectable debut time for Graeme. Out of 1600 competitors, Colin was 75th M35 in a time of 10:25:52 (splits of 1:06:36, 5:34:47 and 3:38:29 plus transition times). Genevieve took more than 40 minutes off her pb to finish in 11:01:52, 9th fastest F35 swim (1:11:39), fastest bike leg (5:34:01) and 8th fastest marathon (4:11:01) to give a 6th place in age group finish and 25th position overall.

Those of you who attended the first TTC 3 years ago will remember Graeme as the guy who was absolutely delighted to have finished his longest run ever on the 10 mile Sunday run. Now, he has completed his first ironman (including his first marathon)! Graeme's time was 12:03:43 (swim 1:24:29, bike 5:52:19 and marathon 4:35:01). Many Harriers would be proud to boast a marathon debut time like that without the swim and bike warm-up!

Very well done to all three.

Alan

Copenhagen parkrun

A perfect, flat course for fast times. 2 laps + 100m start straight = 5km. First 100m, great, into the lead and away from the field. Then into the first lap, entirely on gravel/dirt trails with all of the (many) turns clearly marked with arrows sprayed on the gravel. After one lap, cruising for an even paced, comfortable sub-17 minute 5k and an unchallenged victory. Lap 2, the same as the first lap. But that would be boring. Much better to make up your own route. Can you spot my deliberate mistake? 108 finishers, one DNF. I'm thinking that white paint sprayed on gravel isn't so durable when 108 people have run over it!

Alan

Need a 10-Mile Race?

For those of us "sprinters" missing a long race to add to our 5k and 10k performance award/pb award portfolio for this season (which ends 30th September 2010) and not doing Glasgow Half/10k, the 22nd Tynedale 10 Mile Jelly Road Race takes place on Sunday 5th September 2010. Stuart and Eddie did this one last year and thoroughly recommend it. The race is pre-entry only; further details and the entry form are here.

Alan

Forth Road Bridge 10k

Ian Hughes has been on his travels again, this time finding A Bridge not Too Far to run over (twice).

A very warm day with only a slight wind on the way back over the bridge. I managed 37:32, 4 seconds over my PB, but it was a much harder route. I am pretty pleased, its a better time than I thought I would get. Its been about 3 months since my last 10K and I haven't been doing a lot of fast training. There was a large turnout of Carniegie Harriers taking part in this race with 12 finishing before me, the 13th was unlucky as I just managed to out sprint him.

Well done to Ian all those racing over the weekend.

Alan

Weekend Race Results

On Saturday John mcBride and Russell headed to Strathclyde parkrun for a much busier race than normal with Pollock being off. it was a warm morning but a bit off a breeze going up the lochside helped to cool a little. John obviously found the benefit of this and also running his flattest 5k ran a PB of 22.05 meanwhile myself still nursing a sciatic nerve problem and after running thursday and friday was happy to run 27.23. Also making his debut was Marc Cassidy one of our junior males and this should give him a base to work on and improve upon in a time of 42.20. Well done Marc and keep working hard at training and that time will come down.
on to Sunday and the Bella 5k George Stewart was first harrier home in what can only be described as hot conditions in a time of 21.12 and getting back to some decent form.
John on the back of his PB on Saturday was after another but just fell short in 22.10.
I went for another go but was definetly feeling the previous three days running but ran 9secs faster than saturday on a more technical course but happy with 27.14 as apart from a little stiffness the leg seems in reasonable shape but definetly feel the benefit of some consecutive runs.
In fact ive decided as tours are the flavour of the month to call these four days the tour of Couper(Calderglen Time Trial,Bellahouston Belter 10k,parkrun and Bella 5k) and its a great honour to be the first winner of this tour. In all seriousness its good to get back to back running in and hopefully i can build on this and get the pace up.

If anyone else was running at the weekend let us know.

Tour of Clydeside - Day 4 Bella Bellta

Some photos of the Harriers have been added to each of the Tour reports (except Dawsholm Park where the photos were too blurry). Thanks to Kenneth Phillips for taking the photos and forwarding them to Andy Henderson.

Over 100 runners lined up for the final race in the Tour of Clydeside series. The course was the familiar 2 lap loop through and around the perimeter of Pollok Park, run in an anti-clockwise direction (the first time I have raced it this way which I think was slightly easier). The Garmin confirmed that the two lap course with a short offshoot to finish in Cartha Rugby Club's drive was exactly 10k. Amazing! The changing skies on the lead-up to the race suggested that the weather could have gone anyway from humid and sunny to torrential rain but thankfully it just clouded over with a slight cooling breeze developing.

There were many more runners here tonight just doing this one race rather than the series and this required some careful scanning of the field in the first 400m to make sure no series competitors slipped away from me in the lead pack. As it was, series leader Adam Lee had a handful of fresh, young guns to keep him honest which meant that I could observe from a safe distance. Having established a reasonably comfortable 6th position during the first km, I thought this was where I would be happy to finish but between 3 and 4k two of the lead pack slipped back to me and I ran a fairly isolated race from 4k to the finish in 4th position, crumbling a little on the slight incline at 7k but otherwise running a constant pace with a slight acceleration over the last 500m as the scent of the BBQ pulled me towards the finish. My time was 35:52, possibly a 10k pw but then again, the extended 3-race warm-up had a lot to do with that! This gave me a final series position of 2nd overall and more importantly another kick start to my sporadic training.

Joanne proved that she is on the road to good form (if she can also make her training less sporadic) with a fine 4th place in a time of 43:32 also confirming her 4th place in the series. Well done to Joanne. It was the turn of Russell Couper to be the Harrier making a one night only guest appearance on The Tour. Following on from last night's club Auldhouse TT, Russell was satisfied with his 54:30 time and fully intends to do Strathclyde Park parkrun tomorrow, building up some fitness reserves to generously give away on his forthcoming holiday!

A great little race series, impeccably organised by Stewart Irvine, Colin Shields and the host clubs of Kilbarchan AAC, Clydesdale Harriers, Garscube Harriers and Bellahouston Harriers. Hopefully we will see a few more of Calderglen Harriers' regular participants out next year, injuries allowing.

Tour of Clydeside - Day 3 Garscube Gallop

In all the years at Uni I trained around Maryhill Road/Dawsholm Road and in all the years we ran up Dawsholm Road in the University Road Race, I never even knew that Dawsholm Park existed. What a fantastic little park it is; something like the steep and twisty bits of Chatelherault combined with Calderglen. Tonight's race was a 3 lap course of total distance 5km (1 x 1km + 2 x 2km), the shortest race of the series but probably the toughest so far.

The first short lap was relatively open and allowed the field to spread out a little but the start of the second lap was a shock; a couple of sharp, blind downhill bends that almost had me in the trees, then descending further via some stairs before a couple of steep uphill hairpin bends and more stairs leading up to the edge of a steep gorge. Then it was back down to the lowest part of the course before a long steep drag back up to the highest part of the course and round to the end of the lap. One more long lap to go!

Many were there just for this race tonight, including George Stewart who had not raced since Saturday and hence was suffering withdrawal symptoms. Joanne and I continued with the full Tour though. The Garmin confirms that the first lap was fast but at the end of it I was in a bigger than usual pack with the leaders and many first timers. Thankfully the severe climbs of the second lap soon saw the pack reduced to 5 with me sitting in 5th for most of the lap before moving away into 4th on the last lap with series leader Adam Lee out in front chased by two Kilbarchan athletes and Paul Thompson on my shoulder (none of whom were doing the full Tour). The final 100m was a downhill tarmac stretch and I sensibly resisted the temptation to get involved in the 3rd to 6th place sprint and settled for 6th place, saving some energy for the final race tomorrow. I finished in 18:58, consolidating 2nd place in the series. Joanne proved that her strength is her strength and powered ahead of two of the ladies who have beaten her in the first two races to finish in 22:20 and as 2nd lady in the series. We await to see if this has moved Joanne up in the overall standings from her pre-race 4th position. I can see some speed endurance sessions being added to Joanne's training sometime soon!

George squeezed a lot into his 26:52 minutes of action, including twisting his recently injured ankle again, lying down to take the weight off the ankle, walking/hopping, stopping to talk to a marshal for a minute and eventually finishing. Looks like George has to give the rough terrain a miss for a few weeks if that ankle is to recover.

The final race is tomorrow at Cartha Rugby Club, Pollok Park. It is a 10km road race organised by Bellahouston Harriers and entries are being taken on the night with a free BBQ afterwards (weather dependent).

Alan

AULDHOUSE TIME TRIAL TIMES

Times for this months time trial are now on the link at the left hand side
Special mention goes to Catherine Anderson on her 1st run with the club completing the course in 32.20 and thanks to Chas for keeping her company on the run

Auldhouse Time Trial - August

Tomorrow is the August edition of the Auldhouse 5k TT. As I am hopefully in Tour of Clydeside action, Graham Allan has kindly volunteered to organise the TT. Please give Graham as much assistance as possible by turning up early at the club and giving your name to him so he can work out the start list. If you are going direct to the start and not going to the club, please leave a comment on this blog post well before 6pm Thursday. Have a good one!

Alan

Tour of Clydeside - Day 2 Canalbank Canter

A quick way to get your heart up to racing speed is to turn up at a race thinking it is 4.8km only to find it is 4.8 miles! Ah well, this was not going to be an easier night after all. The course followed the canal tow path from Clydebank eastwards for 2.4 miles before turning around and following the same course back. There were a few undulations in this one (30 feet at the highest point) and the numerous locks we passed on the way out confirmed that we were indeed climbing. The paths were mainly dirt tracks with about 2 miles of tarmac

section at the start/finish.

Now kitted out in one of my (fast) Harriers vests, Joanne looked the part and felt fine despite yesterday's race. The pre-race plan to stick with the woman who she usually beats for the first half and then to pile it on in the second half to regain some of the gap from yesterday did not quite work however and all the ladies seemed to finish in the same order as yesterday with Joanne 4th lady (and even being passed by a man who she recently sold a pair of racers to - that's gratitude for you!). Joanne's time was a fine 32:46 (6:48 mins/mile).

Meanwhile it seemed that the two Kilbarchan athletes who had finished ahead of me yesterday were not here and it was just the overnight leader, young (and fast) Adam Lee who was now ahead of me in the series if I finished tonight in a similar position to yesterday! With wearier legs throughout, the pace was much more even than the night before (although surprisingly a slightly faster pace overall by me). The very fast Paul Thompson from Helensburgh turned up tonight and chased after Adam from the start. I let them go although closed the gap towards the end, finishing third overall in 27:25, falling probably another minute behind Adam in the series but extending my second place in the series also. There were inevitably a few neds out on the course tonight with their usual limited range of predictable comments who hopefully did not spoil the event for anyone, particularly the ladies.

Wednesday is a rest day (but I'm going for a run) and then it is (definitely) a 5km trail race at Dawsholm Park on Thursday (note that you can enter any of the races as a one off on the night and that the final race - a 10k in Pollok Park on Friday - includes a free BBQ afterwards courtesy of Bellahouston Harriers).

Alan

Harriers weekend results

Various Harriers were racing in various places over the weekend
See the report below for Georges efforts
On saturday Stuart Waugh ran Strathclyde Park parkrun in a PB time of 19:37 no report but fantastic run, also on the same day Colin Jarvie ran Glasgow parkrun in a PB time of 22:28 another fantastic run.
On to Sunday and 3 Harriers headed for the seaside at Helensburgh and the 1st Harrier home was Graham Lindsay 1:40:41 followed by David Wardrope 1:46:32 then in what i believe is his first race as a Harrier Andy Riley 1:58:24 again no report available
Two Harriers headed to the other coast at Aberdour for the Donkey Brae Run on what turned out to be a very warm and muggy day. David Searil was 1st Harrier home 57:56 continuing his comeback after a long lay off and happy to make over a 2 min improvement from the last time he ran it. Also coming back from yet another injury was Russell Couper never pushing as promised 1:06:14 but 3:30 faster than last year and no adverse effects
Nice to see Harriers spreading themselves about various races and this week we can follow the progress of Alan Derrick and Joanne McEvoy in the Tour of Clydeside.

Tour of Fife - The Conclusion

Now for the real Tour - a 6 race series which George Stewart completed on Saturday. Here comes George's race report:

Wednesday - 28th day of rest!! Well, physio actually...thighs, hamstrings and lower back!!

Thursday - 29th 4.25 mile St Andrews beach "where chariots of fire was shot".
Any normal minded person usually stays well clear of sand, in fact there was about 5 meters of it on Tuesday's race and everyone sacrificed a few strides to run round it!! No hiding from it tonight!! A few different faces tonight, I think some just come for this one. Lost 2nd female last night on the hill (chucked it after half a mile) and tonight no leading female. The guys race is a bit of a non event as 2 guys from Portobello have been 1st and 2nd all the way. 22 people have dropped out or haven't participated in all races since the first one.

Actually really enjoyed this one, one end of the beach round a buoy and back. Wet sand was fine for running, but everyone decided to cut the corner and save a 10 meter wide turn. Bad idea! Lost the will to live on the soft stuff and got past by a few. Once back on wet sand I managed to pick up and finished a bit closer to some that had beaten me in previous races. Afterwards headed in to the sea with about 50 others, minus god knows what degrees, lovely!!

Friday 30th 2.25k TT
The BIG ONE... so I'm told. I mean, it's only a mile and a bit!! I did the vertical mile in 7 minutes something....can't be that bad! Apparently, Andrew Lemoncello holds the record at 9.52....he's only one of two that have broken 10 minutes.
So, off in 2's, 30 second intervals, completely random, not allowed to help your partner. They were right....absolute "HELL"...had to walk twice. There are definitely NO hills in EK!!
Great atmosphere, they do make it feel like a ski slope with all the locals at the top cheering and banging on pots with wooden spoons, cow bells and whistles. 14.36 for my efforts...and managed to beat some for the first time in 5 races! Might actually be improving.

Saturday 31st 5.6 Multi Terrain
The last one. I thought that it was going to be a bit of a wind down after 5 hard days. No chance, 5.6 mile including the last 4 miles of "The Devil's Burden" relay course. More hills!! A good mixture of tar, hills, woods, cabbage field finish!! Ran well considering the tired legs, but same for every one. 45.05 was my time. Just wanted to get finished and get started on the 100's of cakes waiting.

In summary
I finished 65 out of 158 starters, 3.32.54 to run a combined distance of 27.3 miles. 133 completed the full thing.
One of the best things that I have ever done. It's hard, takes a lot of commitment (I mean travelling as well as running) great mixture of events, distances etc...met some great people over the week and the organisers did really well too. Definitely do it again next year....and perhaps persuade a few others to take the plunge.

Pictures of all 6 races are in the following link (courtesy of RoadRunPics.com)

Very well done to George; it just shows what you can do if you have some confidence. I doubt that George has run 6 times in a week many times before let alone raced 6 times, so that is a huge achievement. In fact George is already lining up 2 more races in the coming fortnight (6.8 mile Hill race and an 8 mile road race, both in Fife).

Tour of Clydeside - Day 1

Two Harriers, Joanne McEvoy and myself (yes, Joanne has officially joined the club) made their way via varied routes to Kilbarchan for race 1 of the 2010 Tour of Clydeside, a four race series taking place on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. A record field lined up on the disused railway line to Lochwinnoch (now converted to smooth tarmac and part of National Cycle Route 7) for the 5.5 mile race. The course was a straightforward out and back route following the (thankfully) meandering railway line through the Renfewshire country side. To say the course was flat would be an understatement, the largest undulations being a few piles of horse manure!

The initial pace was a relatively steady 35 minute 5k pace which gradually accelerated over the first mile to around 33minute 10k pace at which point I realised this was stupid for someone back down to single figure weekly mileage with screaming Achilles tendons and eased back to let the leading three go. A lonely few miles followed until the turn at which point I was joined by the Clydesdale athlete who kept the pace going for the next mile or so. Two approaching horses provided the "spur" for me to move ahead into single file and then to break away over the final mile, finishing well clear in 4th in a time of 31:11, although probably already an insurmountable 2 minutes down on the leading three. Meanwhile Joanne was having a little battle for 3rd placed lady with a Westerlands athlete, eventually settling for 4th place in a time of 37:02. There are plenty of races left this week for Joanne to turn that around. Next Clydebank and a 3 mile Canal Bank race; no hills there either then!

Alan