The session for Thursday is as follows, no kidding!
2 x 12 minutes at threshold, 4 minute jog recovery. Warm up and cool down very easily before and after the reps.
As with last Thursday, if there are more than 15 registered, then we will use two different routes for the run to comply with the Scottish Athletics specific rules. If there are 15 or less, everyone does the Venue 1 route.
Venue 1 (park at EKSC car park): Strathaven Road, Murray Road, Westwood Road to Hairmyres Road, Queensway, Strathaven Road to the club. Start the first 12 minute effort on passing the Murray Square.
Venue 2 (park at Torrance Golf Club/Zoo car park): Try to delay your start so that you are not going to be anywhere near catching the Venue 1 group before they have cleared the Murray Roundabout. A 5 minute start should be enough. The route is Strathaven Road, Queensway, West Mains Rd, East Mains Rd, Whirlies, Kingsway, Strathaven Road. Start your first 12 minute effort on turning onto West Mains Road.
The weather isn't looking great for Monday so hopefully these relatively short reps will prevent the session turning into a battle against the elements. The session is:
6 x 3 minutes at 5k pace, 3 mins jog recovery (regroup during the recovery)
As we still operating with a maximum of 15 at any one venue we will split over two venues if more than 15 register, otherwise everyone is at Venue 1.
Venue 1 (park at EKSC Car Park) - Sainsburys loop - actually, not a loop but an out and back session with a U-turn as the Greenhills Road stretch is unlit and too dangerous to run at speed. Warm-up via the Sports Club entrance onto Strathaven Road, Greenhills Road (carefully walking past the unlit section) and down the long hill on Langlands Road to the main gates. Start the session heading back up Langlands Road in what would be a clockwise direction if we were doing the full loop. Cool down via the most direct route to be decided within your packs.
Venue 2 (park at Torrance Golf Course car park) - Carron place. Warm-up via Strathaven Road, NEL roundabout, Murray Road/Kelvin Road. Do the session anti-clockwise. Cool down via the direct route back to the club to be decided within your packs.
Eddie is planning a club run in Callander on Sunday 9th May at 10am, subject to whatever Covid restrictions are in place at that time. If possible, we may also go for lunch at the Lade Inn at around 1pm.
To allow Eddie to plan the packs and lunch booking, could you please leave your name and whether a yes/no/maybe for lunch using this form. The responses received so far are here (note that when you click the submit button on the form, a message appears telling you that your submission has been successful. Please do not enter your details again. The spreadsheet will only update every 2 to 12 hours as there is a routine running to filter off the phone number data into a private, track and trace list so this information is not made public on the web).
This post is subject to the usual disclaimers surrounding Eddie's Mystery Tours Inc.
For Thursday the session is a Threshold Thursday session. Not as high volume as usual given that Monday's session was tough and will still be in the legs of those who did it (particularly if you did the session on Tuesday rather than Monday).
The session is:
Medium length steady run with a step up to 1 x 12 minute threshold effort towards the end of the run as described in the venues below. Reduce back down to easy pace for the run to the finish.
Under current rules, we are limited to a maximum of 15 in any venue. This session isn't using a venue as such but uses a route. If we have more than 15 registered, then we will use two different routes as described below. However as the first hundred metres of both routes is the same, please can the second group delay your departure until the first group is clear of your turn-off at Colonsay (you should be able to see the first group leaving the EKSC car park). As we are out on more public streets, please be strict with the social distancing within packs (5m inline, 2m side-by-side) and give pedestrians a wide berth in single file.
Venue 1 (parking at EKSC car park): The route is from the club to Murray Roundabout, turn left along the Murray Road and keep going through The Murray and Westwood until you reach Hairmyres Road, turn right and run down to the Queensway. Start the 12 minute effort on the Queensway heading back up past the town centre towards the club. Regroup into your pack when the 12 minutes is up and run the short remaining distance back to the club.
Venue 2 (parking at Torrance Golf Course/zoo car park): The route is from the club, past the Colonsay Field parking entrance and then turn right through the concrete bollards down through the houses at Colonsay (as if we were going to XC training), up and out onto High Common Road, St Leonards Road, past Brancumhall, Maxwellton Road up to Calderwood Square and down to the Whirlies. Start your 12 minute effort at the Whirlies up the Kingsway and back to the club. Regroup and run easy the short distance back to the club.
Something a bit different this week, working towards increasing pace with the prospect of races returning in some form in a few months. Now is the time to gradually build towards some race sharpness (thinking 5k to 10k for now, but having an excess of pace is useful for longer races also). The session is:
2 x 90 seconds @ 5k pace (90 second jog recovery after each effort) +
4 x 60 seconds @ 3k pace (60 second jog recovery after each effort) +
4 x 30 seconds @ 1 mile pace (30 second jog recovery after each effort) +
4 x 15 seconds @ even faster (15 second jog recovery after each effort).
Note that the idea is to run slightly faster as the reps get shorter. So long as the first set of reps are at 5k pace, just focus on running a bit faster at each subsequent set; it doesn't matter if you do not know what 3k, 1 mile, etc pace is. Regroup to your pack during the recoveries (this may not be possible after the 15 second reps).
Precede with an easy run warm-up and finish with an easy run cool down. I have put a video together showing how to programme the Garmin below. For those able to programme their watch, please give a clear shout at the end of each rep and recovery so that those with non-programmable watches know when to start and finish each rep (and ideally manually press the lap button). I would recommend switching off the auto-lap (1 mile or 1km or whatever) function on your watch before doing this session as it makes it very difficult to interpret the pace data for each rep/lap on Garmin Connect afterwards.
As usual, the limit at any venue is 15 persons under the current rules. If we have 15 or less, then we will all train at Venue 1. If we have more than 15, then approximately half the packs will be at Venue 1 and half at Venue 2. The pack list will confirm which venue each pack is at. The two proposed venues are:
Venue 1 (park at EKSC car park): Carron Place. Warm-up via Murray, Kelvin Road and Stroud Road. Cool down via a route of your choice.
Venue 2 (park at Torrance Golf Course/Zoo car park): Collvilles Place (Futura). For the warm-up, exit the Golf Course car park via the one-way system out to the Strathaven Road at the New Farm entrance. Run up to the mini-roundabout and then onto Greenhills Road. Run up Greenhills Road, through the first roundabout to the second roundabout at the top of the hill (be careful/walk if the street lights are out at the top of the hill). Cross over and down Singer Road into the factories and along Colvilles Road to Colvilles Place. For the cool down, decide within your pack the safest way back (you will know better than me the status of the roadworks and road-crossings). Ideally, re-enter the country park via the New Farm entrance back to the golf course car park.
Threshold Thursday is back this week. The session is:
5 x 6 minutes at threshold effort with 2 minutes jog recovery
Remember that threshold is a level of effort rather than a specific pace. It is the constant effort you could maintain for no more than 1 hour during a race. Therefore, if doing this session on a hilly circuit, the pace will vary with the hills but the level of effort, as indicated by how hard you are breathing, will remain the same.
As advised in the post about the return to training, this time around we are limited to a maximum of 15 people at any training venue, including the pre-session meet-up and post-session. If we have 15 or less signed up for training, then we will all train at Venue 1. If we have more than 15, then approximately half the packs will be sent to Venue 1 and the other half to Venue 2. The venues, warm-up/cool down route to the venues and parking arrangements are listed below.
Venue 1 (park and meet in EKSC car park)
Is the Sainsbury's Loop. Warm-up along the Strathaven Road, crossing into Greenhills Road at the small roundabout and then first left into the factories at the next roundabout and around to the Sainsbury's main gate where the session starts. Run the circuit around the loop in a clockwise direction. Cool down via the shortest route back to the club.
Venue 2 (parking and meet at Torrance Golf Course/Zoo Car Park)
Warm-up to bottom of Avondale then use the following circuit for reps, regrouping into your packs after each rep. Up Avondale, through the hedge at the top and turn left along to Whitemoss Roundabout and then turn left again down the hill past St Brides and left again back into Avondale. Cool down to the club via the shortest route on finishing.
The Executive Committee has taken the decision that this year’s Annual General Meeting will be postponed. These are exceptional circumstances, public health and safety needs must take precedence and the Club committee are following guidance from the Scottish and UK Governments regarding special measures. This does not permit our standard AGM within the timescale of our Constitution.
We, the Executive Committee propose that there will be no increase in the membership fee for the year 2020/2021. This can be ratified as soon as we are in a position to have our AGM. Minutes of 2020 AGM are attached herewith for your perusal. Any matters arising, nominations for Office Bearers or any other questions to be raised please contact me by 19th March 2021 via email secretary@eksportsclub.com The 2020 Accounts along with the President’s and Section Reports will be emailed to your Section rep for distribution on Monday 22nd March 2021.
The committee is still determined that the information exchange takes place involving all members of the club with the opportunity to ask any questions, submit nominations for office bearer positions and raise any motions.
The current office bearers have agreed to continue their stewardship, steering the Club to survive through the challenging COVID climate while striving to continue with the enormous and essential ongoing task of upgrading all areas of the ageing building.
Frances Ferguson
Secretary EKSC"
I havent added the minutes from 2020 mentioned above as it would be several pages long but if anyone wants them i can forward them to you
We are back to training in packs, so a slightly longer post than usual to cover all the information. Please also read this post on returning to group training for the background and registration form instructions.
The session is:
8 x 2 minutes at 5k pace, 2 minutes jog recovery
During the recovery, the fastest ones in your pack turn around and jog back to the slowest one who should carry on jogging forward.
As advised in the post about the return to training, this time around we are limited to a maximum of 15 people at any training venue. If we have 15 or less signed up for training, then we will all train at Venue 1. If we have more than 15, then approximately half the packs will be sent to Venue 1 and the other half to Venue 2. The venues, warm-up/cool down route to the venues and parking arrangements are listed below.
Venue 1 (parking in EKSC Car Park)
Carron Place: warm-up via Strathaven Road, NEL roundabout, Murray Road/Kelvin Road. Do the session anti-clockwise. Cool down via the direct route back to the club to be decided within your packs.
Venue 2 (parking at Torrance Golf Course/Zoo Car Park)
Sainsburys loop: warm-up via the Sports Club exit/Christmas handicap road (exiting at the New Farm) onto Strathaven Road, Greenhills Road and down the long hill on Langlands Road to the main gates. Do the session clockwise. Cool down via the most direct route to be decided within your packs.
Our man in the field (or is our man in the flood), Geo, reports that the low point of Chatelherault at the bottom of the logjam is completely flooded and the only way up or down is up the steep bank through the trees. Just in case anyone was planning a Sunday run down there.
As Richard advised, we are starting group training again on Mondays and Thursdays as of Monday 15th March. The form for booking your place on training is available via the "Covid 19 Training & Booking Forms" link at the top of the blog. You will also find the instructions on how to use the form there. The important points to note are that a) the form does not transmit your entry through to the packs spreadsheet after 18:30 on the day of training - so please be fill it in early and b) please spell your name correctly otherwise the formula will not pick your entry up.
This time around, formal training sessions for our sport are allowed to have up to 15 people at any one venue, maintaining social distancing (2m side-by-side or 5m in-line). This includes the before, during and after phases of the training session.
For most of our group training sessions last year we had about 12 to 15 runners, so we would usually be OK training at one venue. However, occasionally we had more than 15. To allow for that eventuality, the description of each session on the blog will propose two training venues; Venue 1 and Venue 2. When all the names for each session are submitted, if there are more than 15 names, I will also put Venue 1 or Venue 2 beside each pack such that approximately half the packs use one venue and half the other venue. If there are less than 15 names, then all packs will train at Venue 1.
For those meeting at the Sports Club, we have to maintain the maximum groups of 15 there too and no inter mixing between those groups. Therefore, the committee is suggesting that, for example, the training Venue 1 people park and meet in the Sports Club car park and the Venue 2 people park and meet in the Golf Club/zoo car park. I will confirm that on the training session blog post too. The Sports Club is still closed anyway so it is no handicap to be parking at the golf club.
The exact text from the Scottish Athletic guidance is:
Those aged 12+ and over can take part in organised athletics training, group exercise and competition within their usual club or facility environment.
Group (i.e. bubble) sizes of up to 15 people, including coaches and officials, are permitted at any one time.
Physical distancing should be maintained at all times.
Where there are multiple bubbles operating at the same venue risk assessments must be completed to ensure there can be no mixing of participants before, during or after the activity.
I am also going to be refreshing the pack list as Harriers have moved up and down in terms of fitness and injury status. As always, if you find you are struggling in a pack or are not being pushed enough, let me know and I will adjust the packs for the next session.
We are gradually edging towards higher paced sessions for the next phase of training. Thursday's session is:
5 x 3 minutes at 5k pace, 3 minutes jog recovery.
Precede the session with a 20 minute gentle warm-up and finish with about 20-minutes gentle cool down. Use a reasonably flat course so you can hit a realistic 5k pace.
This Monday is a threshold session assuming you had an easy run on the Sunday, otherwise delay this session until the Tuesday. Threshold is stressful on the body!
5 x 6 minutes at threshold with a 2 minute jog recovery.
Start off with 15 to 20 minutes to warm-up and also 15-20 minutes to cool down at the end.
There are a few "walking wounded" in the Harriers at present, myself included. So do make sure that after every training session, you go through our full set of stretches as many of us used to do after every session at the club. The stretching is to reduce stiffness the day after and it could be that the various injuries we are suffering are due to cumulative stiffness in the muscles causing damage when we go into a reps session. The stretches are detailed in this sunny post from Portugal.
To balance out from Monday's progressively harder effort, Thursday is an easy run of about 80 minutes duration. On finishing the run, do 6 x accelerations over about 70 to 80m on the flat or gently downhill. Think of feeling light on your feet without straining. For those doing the British Masters' Mile at the weekend, you may wish to use these 6 accelerations to practice accelerating up to your mile pace over the first 50m and then holding that pace for the final 20 to 30m.
