Training Monday 30th November

For the winter months, the aim is to focus on strength and endurance as the possibility of regular, quality race pace sessions is at the mercy of the weather (there will be occasional 10k/5k pace sessions though to maintain what you have developed this year).

The first session of this series is at Lickprivick and is at threshold effort. This means you are not powering up a short hill risking injury but are running at a steady, sustained pace. We will do shorter, faster hills once the legs have adapted to hill running.

Take the usual route from the club to Lickprivick via the Murray. Then do 3 x 1 lap of the Lickprivick circuit (up to the water tower, over the top on the footpath, past the school and then turn left back down Owen Avenue and past the lock-ups to the start at the bottom of Lickprivick). The threshold effort is to the water tower; the recovery is the rest of the lap during which you should allow your pack to regroup.

Alan

Scottish Athletics COVID-19 - Advice and Information

In our current climate it is the club's responsibility to deliver organised sporting activity within the specific guidelines agreed with sportscotland and Scottish Government to ensure we can continue club training as long as we are allowed.

With the help of these guidelines, the committee have to create a safe training environment for all members to feel safe and happy to train in our club during these difficult times.  

Scottish Athletics has a dedicated page on their website covering all aspects of operating in a COVID-19 environment. When there are updates from Scottish Government regarding social distancing rules this is the page that gets updated by Scottish Athletics.

Please click on this link  https://www.scottishathletics.org.uk/clubs/club-support/coronavirus/ and you will see all the information you need.

Can I draw your attention to the following documents to look at which are Framework for athletes and Guidance for athletes

The committee understand that members get a variety of benefits being involved with our club from physical and mental health improvement and socialising. We can still get all these benefits but we need to social distance more before, during and after training. Be considerate to your fellow members and possibly good friends as ultimately we don't know what is going on in people's life. Work pressure, family problems, mental health issues, unemployment, financial issues and the list could go on.

All this can make people fragile, sensitive and react to situations sometimes not in the right way.

So be considerate and supportive but from a social distance point of view.

On  behalf of the committee

Richard

Training Thursday 26th November

Given the hard session on Monday, Thursday is a lighter, recovery/speed session.

3 sets of 6 x 1 minute @ 5k pace, 1  minute between reps, 5 minutes between sets.

The venue is Carron Place. Warm up via Murray Roundabout and Kelvin Road. 

Note that as of Monday we will be doing club sessions with each pack in a different venue. This is due to concerns brought to the attention of the committee that complete distancing between members of different packs is not being adhered to before/during/after sessions. Although most participants do what is required, some don't and this is the consequence. Pay attention to the information provided in advance of Monday's session. 

Alan

Training Monday 23rd November

We have finally arrived. Tonight is the 10k session and will hit a total rep distance of 10k at 10k pace. The session is as follows

2 sets of 9 x 400m + 1 set of 7 x 400m. 30 seconds of recoveries between reps and 2 minutes between sets (effectively 30 seconds recovery + 1:30 recovery after the last rep of each set).

Probably easiest to set this up on your watch as 3 sets of 9 x 400m (or 9 x open reps with a manual lap button press when you cross the finish marker) and then just stop after 7 of the reps on the last set.

Naturally, we return to Langlands Place for this session. The warm-up is along the Strathaven Road and cross at the small roundabout, around in front of Sainsburys and up the hill to Langlands Place. Decide in your pack how to cool down (probably via the shorterst route possible). Really important to hit the right pace from the start of the session and not to go too fast.

Alan

Level 4 Training changes

As of Friday 20th November at 6pm South Lanarkshire, along with other authorities in Central Scotland, has been put into Level 4 tier of Scottish Government COVID-19 protection level. This is for a 3 week period to Friday 11th December.

As a club we can still train in level 4 but with some changes that increase our social distance procedures.

Arriving

1. Meeting at Sports Club outside - will remain to do this as it reduces the bureaucracy from my point of view and the Sports Club remains closed during this 3 week period
2. Before and after training maintain 2m (6.5ft) social distance from other members

Training

1. Bubble size have been reduced from 15 athletes in Level 3. Now in Level 4 age 18+ its a maximum size of 8 athletes
2. When your pack has all arrived then please promptly start your warm up no hanging about and leave a sensible gap between packs leaving Sports Club
3. Maintain 2m (6.5ft) social distance from other packs
4. Due to Level 4 the field of play bubbles are suspended for those aged 18+ . Everyone must follow 2m (6.5ft) side by side & 5m (16ft) single file from warm up, main session and cool down within your pack

After Training

1. Even though it is tempting to be social able, when training finished leave promptly no hanging about
2. If you become unwell after training with COVID 19 symptoms and you engage with Test & Protect please give them my contact details as they will want to speak to me about the social distance procedures implemented during the run. My email is lawtons1@sky.com and mobile is 07849 231343.

Following the publication of updated guidance on travel from the Scottish Government and sportscotland on 20.11.20 please find further guidance on travel for athletics in Scotland. The key changes are:

Travel

1. Athletes living in a Level 4 area can now travel 5 miles from their local authority boundary to participate in sport
2. Participants aged 18+ living in Levels 0,1 and 2 should avoid travel to Level 3 or 4 areas to take part in sport

Level 4 - other travel details

1. Avoid any unnecessary travel out of the area
2. Keep journeys within the area to an absolute minimum
3. Participants aged 18 years or over (adults) living in a Level 4 area should only travel locally (within around 5 miles of their local authority area) to take part in athletics
4.  Participants aged 17 years or under living in a Level 4 area should only travel locally (within around 5 miles of their local authority area) to take part in athletics
5. Any participant attending school, college or university in another local authority area should not stay in that area to participate in athletics unless;
1. the session is taking place at the facility they attend for education
2. the training facility is within 5 miles of the local authority where they live

Please refer to recent post on using booking system and refresh your knowledge on our existing procedures by looking at the COVID 19 Training Booking Forms and Packs link. If there is any more new information I will update members.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and helping the committee to reduce the impact of COVID within our club and keeping members safe.

Richard

Training Thursday 19th November

Thursday's session is another threshold session. Before describing the session, please note that the long warm-up prior to a threshold session is part of the session. The idea is to start the session with the legs already fatigued such that you quickly get into a true threshold effort early in the first rep. If you just turn up at the venue, run an easy mile to loosen off and start the session, you are unlikely to hit threshold until late on in the first rep if at all, which will seem very easy. That's not the point and not what will bring you benefit. To give you an idea of taking this to an extreme, on training camps in Portugal, I have regularly been required to do a hard track session first and then immediately step off the track and into a hilly threshold session similar to that described below with serious fatigue in the legs before I even start. That is a bit extreme, so our session is easier. The session is:

3 x 10 minutes with 3 minutes jog recovery.

The session is on the Stewartfield Loop in a clockwise direction, running on the pavement all the way.

The warm-up is from the club to Lidl, along past the train station, past Kirktonholme and then into Stewartfield at the pedestrian crossing/bus stop. Run up the hill and start the session at the T-junction at the top of the hill where it joins the loop (crossing over to the pavement on the opposite side before starting). Regroup into your packs after each rep by turning and jogging back towards the back runner. Decide on the cool down route within your pack. The Stewartfield Loop is as shown below.

Alan

Stewartfield Loop

COVID 19 Training booking reminder

The committee has been made aware that members have strayed from following the COVID-19 training booking rules that were implemented back in September. These rules were developed by the committee for members to train safe and allow the club to comply with all the new rules laid out by our governing body Scottish Athletics.

The training booking system was created and managed by Alan every week. So for it to work efficiently and support Alan managing the system please initially read the COVID-19 Training Booking Forms and Pack link at the top of the blog page.

Please note the timing of booking a space for the next available training session is critical.

We train every Monday and Thursday so book your space as early as possible. If your circumstances change the system allows you to withdraw.

Key Points

• Book your place by the day of  training before 18:30 to allow the background of the system to work.  Otherwise timely manual adjustments need to be made.
• Between 18:30 and 18:45 Alan is assigning the packs to be issued on the blog for after 18:45.
• If your not registered by 18:30 you can't train with Harriers that night. Also please don't turn up at training venue if not registered. We need accurate registers of attendees of the sessions for Test and Protect if anyone tests positive for COVID-19 after a  training session.
• Entries re-open at 20:00 for the next session after each session.

Please be mindful of your actions and the impact on others and as we move into Level 4 on Friday 20th November at 6pm for 3 weeks it is even more paramount we follow our training rules.

Calderglen Harriers Committee

Training Monday 16th November

We have once again reached the point in the training cycle where we are due a lighter session after 5 weeks of hard running. The total duration of this session is a few minutes longer than our last "easy" session 6 weeks ago but you should still feel light on your feet given the short duration of each rep and the relatively long recoveries.

3 sets of 6 x 1 minute at 5k pace, 1 minute jog recovery between reps, 5 minute jog between sets.

Return again to Carron Place for this session. Warm-up via Murray Road, Kelvin Road, up past the factories and down to Carron Place. Decide in your pack what cool down to do. Regroup in your pack after every rep and every set.

Alan

Training Thursday 12th November

 The session this week is another in the series of Threshold Thursday sessions. We will return to a session from about 5 weeks ago. 

The session is 5 x 6 minutes at threshold effort with a 2 min jog recovery in between. Remember that "threshold" is a level of effort corresponding to the effort you could maintain for about 1 hour in a race (e.g. a 10 mile to 10k race depending on your race pace) or an effort that is just beyond comfortable such that if required you could gasp out about 3 words whilst in the midst of a rep. This session trains your system to continue to sustain effort in the presence of accumulating lactate levels.

We will return to the College Milton Loop for this one. For the warm up run down the Queensway to West Mains Road and then start the reps at the entrance into College Milton and do your reps around the Glenburn Road circuit in an anti-clockwise direction. The run back to the club is the direct route via the Queensway again.

As with all club sessions, it is imperative that your pack regroups during the recovery section after every rep, meaning that everyone turns and jogs back to the slowest runner in your pack and then continues jogging on until all runners in your pack come together (but socially distanced!). It is a jog recovery, so nobody should stop and wait for their pack to come to them.

As always, if anyone feels that over the past month they have been in too slow or too fast a pack, let me know and I shall adjust your bubble.

Alan

Training Monday 9th November

 Stepping up a in distance a little from last week's 3k pace reps but dropping the pace down ever so slightly to 5k pace. This week we are doing:

4 sets of (1 x 800m, 60 seconds recovery, 1 x 400m, 60 seconds recovery), 2 minutes between sets.

Pace is slightly slower than last week. Estimate your pace as follows:

If your 10k time is 40 minutes (= 4 mins/km = 1:36 /400m) then 5k time is about 19:11 (= 3:50/km = 1:32/400m)

If your 10k time is 50 minutes (= 5 mins/km = 2:00/400m) then 5k time is about 23:58 (= 4:48/km = 1:55/400m)

If your 10k time is 60 minutes (= 6 mins/km = 2:24/400m) then 5k time is about 28:46 (= 5:45/km = 2:18/400m)

If setting up the session on your Garmin, edit the session already on your phone and just change the number of reps from 3 (last week) to 4. You will have to click the send to phone icon again and you will also have to resynchronise the phone with your watch. Check that the session has transferred by finding the session in your workouts on the watch and selecting view workout and step through to check each step.

This session is a Langlands Place session with the usual warm-up via Strathaven Road and round the main entrance of Sainsburys and up the hill to the start. Cool down is to be decided within your pack.

Alan

Training Thursday 5th November

We are ramping the pace up to faster than 3k pace tonight (I see that some of you managed this on Monday's session too!!).

The session is 8 x 1 minute at 1 mile race pace with 2 minutes jog recovery between each rep.

The objective is to maintain good form and consistent pace on every rep as always. For the venue, we shall use the Futura Loop in Colvilles Place. I recommend starting each rep as far back along the "main straight" as possible and as shown in the map below. This ensures you get a good, long and flat stretch for most of the rep. In the 2 minutes recovery, jog back to the same start point via the shortest route if possible.

The session is short and fast. So take a long easy warm-up via the Murray Roundabout, Kelvin Road, towards Carron Place and then down Colvilles Road to Colvilles Place. Do 6 gradually accelerating strides over about 50m distance before starting the session to get the legs fully warmed up. Decide within your packs which route to take for the cool down (note that if you have entered the SA 3k time trial and are doing that on Friday, take an easy run instead as this would be a bit much the day before a 3k time trial).

Alan

Futura Loop - "S" marks the start

VIRTUAL 3k CHALLENGE

 This weekend we have a virtual 3k challenge. It runs from Thursday till midnight Tuesday.

I will not be entering everyone to this as there is a £2 fee per entrant.

This will be used as a qualifier for entry to the short course XC in December.

Entries need to be done by tomorrow evening (Wednesday) and should be done individually.

Training Monday 2nd November

As our next Scottish Athletics event is (hopefully) a 3k Virtual Time Trial to act as a qualifier for the National 4km XC championships, our most recent session gradually ramped the rep pace up from 10k pace to something closer to 3k race pace. This week we will actually aim for 3k pace during the reps. The session is:

3 sets of (1 x 800m, 60 seconds recovery, 1 x 400m, 60 seconds recovery), 2 minutes between sets.

The most suitable venue for this session is once again Langlands Place. Warm-up via the Strathaven Road to the mini-roundabout, cross over and then turn left into the factories and around in front of Sainsburys and back up the hill to Langlands Place. Decide within your pack which route to take for the cool down. Here is a video showing how to set up the session on a Garmin.

This session should be quite a bit faster than 10k pace. Some examples:

If your 10k time is 40 minutes (= 4 mins/km = 1:36 /400m) then 3k time is about 11:10 (= 3:43/km = 1:29/400m)

If your 10k time is 50 minutes (= 5 mins/km = 2:00/400m) then 3k time is about 13:57 (= 4:39/km = 1:52/400m)

If your 10k time is 60 minutes (= 6 mins/km = 2:24/400m) then 3k time is about 16:44 (= 5:35/km = 2:14/400m)

If you are somewhere in between these 10k times, then just split the difference accordingly.

Alan