Club Training Monday 1st November

Monday's session is a progression run at Carron Place, similar but not identical to the session we did back in mid-September. I recommend editing the programed session on Garmin Connect and letting the watch tell you when to change pace rather than trying to glance at your watch in the dark. If you programmed this session back in September, you can edit it on Garmin Connect to change the paces to the new paces as given below and then transmit the session again to your watch and finally synch the watch to upload and over-write the old workout on your watch.

The run is a progression run of approximately 1 hour duration (the final cool-down may well take you beyond the hour depending on how far you finish from the club). For each pack, I shall set an approximate 10k pace and then the pace of each stage of the progression is calculated from that. The session is as follows:

• 10 minutes at 1.3 x 10 k pace (so if 10k pace for your pack is 4 minutes/km, then the pace of this effort is 1.3 x 4 = 5:12 min/km)
• 10 minutes at 1.2 x 10k pace (e.g. 1.2 x 4min/km = 4:48 min/km)
• 10 minutes at 1.1 x 10k pace (e.g. 1.1 x 4 min/km = 4:24 min/km)
• 10 minutes at 1.0 x 10k pace (e.g. 1.0 x 4 min/km - 4:00 min/km)
• 10 minutes at 0.95 x 10k pace (e.g. 0.95 x 3:48 min/km)
• 10 minutes (still at Carron Place or on the way back to to the club) at 1.3 x 10k pace (e.g. 1.3 x 4 min/km = 5:12 min/km).

Cool down at 1.3 x 10k pace (if the final 10 minutes does not take you all the way back to the club via the reverse of the run to Carron Place).

There is no gap or rest between each 10 minute. The pace should be stepped up as soon as each 10 minute period ends. This can be programmed as a workout on the Garmin Connect app and transferred to your watch. It is also possible to programme the pace setting for each 10 minute section. The video at the end shows how this can be done (although the pace settings are not those shown above). This needs to be entered as a pace range e.g. 10 seconds/km either side of the target pace such as 5:50 to 6:10 min/km for the 6 min/km target. Alternatively, someone with good eye sight can just keep an eye on the pace on the watch and keep their pack running at the correct pace. The 10k pace to be assumed for each bubble is listed at the end of the post. The packs usually consist of multiple bubbles e.g. Pack A might be bubbles 1 to 3 or 2 and 3.

The route is circuits of Carron Place, getting there by turning left onto the Strathaven Road, along Greenhills Rd to the top of the hill and then down Singer Road to Carron Place. The first 10 minute section starts as soon as you leave the club (watch out for open trenches on Greenhills Rd!!!!).

• Bubbles 1 to 3 should base their times on a 10k pace of 4 min/km.
• Bubbles 4 to 5 should base their times on a 10k pace of 4:30 min/km
• Bubbles 6 to 7 should base their times on a 10k pace of 5 min/km
• Bubbles 8 to 10 should base their times on a 10k pace of 6 min/km

Alan

Harriers Xmas Dinner

Eddie is planning to hold a Harriers Xmas dinner with drinks afterwards on Saturday 18th December at Carrigans. Names to Eddie as soon as possible so a group booking can be made.

Alan 

Club Training Thursday 28th October

Thursday is another longish, easy run. The route is as follows:

From the club to the NEL roundabout and then down to the Murray roundabout. Turn left along the Murray Rd and continue all the way to the junction with Westwood Hill Rd where you turn left. Run along to Lickpivick and then up Lickprivick to Greenhills Roundabout/underpass. Turn right through the underpass and up onto Greenhills Rd. Carry on down Greenhills Rd heading towards Hairmyres Rd. Take the usual back lane onto Hairmyres Rd, then back to the Queensway and back to the club.

The pace should be easy. It is of more benefit to spend longer covering the distance and hence getting a longer duration of aerobic training than it is to hammer it at race pace and effectively burn yourself out. Races are for racing; training is for training.

Alan

Club Training Monday 25th October

Monday is our fortnightly Brancumhall session. As stated in a previous post, the purpose of the XC training on a soft surface is to build muscle strength and propulsive power, to complement the elastic energy we get from the muscles when running on a hard surface.

The session is 4 x 1 lap reps at faster than 3k to 5k race effort with 1 minute stand-still recoveries.

Despite the heavy ground, think about being light on your feet, running tall as if there are strings on your head lifting you up out of the mud, keeping the cadence fast and skimming over rather than plodding through the mud. Visualising like this will automatically get you through the mud more efficiently.

As usual, a kind hearted Harrier (probably Gordon!) will take your off-road shoes down in his car.

Alan

National XC Relays Scone Palace

 

For the first time in what seems like decades, we finally had a new venue for the National XC Relays on Saturday. With a massive turnout of clubs from all over Scotland, it was a little disappointing that we could manage only 2 incomplete teams and one complete M50 team, however all of our runners enjoyed a wide open course with some gentle hills and no mud to speak of! As with the West XC relays two weeks ago, the lap distance was nominally 4k but the absence of severe hills made this a very fast course indeed. On the basis of our runners and those from other clubs who also ran the West, the course was between 60 and 90 seconds faster than Alexandra Park.

Our two ladies ran each other very close indeed. Alison Lessells was on first leg duty and ran an impeccably paced run with a powerful finish in 18:04. That would be a hard time to beat but Julie Thomson had found her cross-country legs on the second leg and ran pretty much solo to finish in 18:01 (rounding the official time to the nearest second)! This was over 2 minutes faster than at Alexandra Park and proved that Julie needed a race under her belt to get the pacing worked out. Well done to both ladies. We now have a very close competition in the GP and Scratch Championships with only a few points covering the top 3 or 4 in both competitions. 

For the men we had a senior team of 3 (one short of a complete team) and an M50 masters team of 3 (which was a complete team in that category). Kevin Farmer once again proved he can handle a crowded race situation on the first leg for the senior team, finishing in 112th position in 15:11. Jim Holmes took the first leg for the M50 team. Despite feeling a bit heavy-legged following the half x 4 hills on Thursday, Jim loosened off nicely for the race. It's a bit daunting to go straight to the back when the gun goes but this was the sensible place to be as many of the others were "over-reaching" on the fast, flat start straight and soon came back to Jim who picked his way through the field, finishing in 144th position in 17:07, again sticking to the formula of Alexandra Park minus approximately 1 minute.

Gordon McInally goes from strength to strength as his toe gradually heals and today was on the second leg for the senior team. Gordon followed the rules and also ran just over a minute faster than 2 weeks ago to cross the line in an excellent 18:39 (but failing to keep a flying Andy Butchart from passing in the overall lead on leg 3!). Gordon handed over in 132nd position. Jim Mearns continues to demonstrate the speed he has in addition to endurance on leg 2 for the M50 team. Jim was in fine form, not having handicapped himself with a double vaccinations beforehand this week, and finished in 17:19, a full 95 seconds faster than 2 weeks ago, suggesting that the vaccine is about a 30 second handicap! Jim was in 134 position which meant that the M50 team was now just 2 places behind the senior team.

Russell Couper was on leg 3 for the senior team up against me on leg 3 for the M50 team, starting 2 places behind. Russell had already agreed to pull his elbows in when/if I caught him to give me the shortest route around. With the long start straight, I could see Russell approaching the U-turn at the end when I started off. I was also aware that the 2nd and third placed overall (and several more teams) would probably come flying past early on so needed to keep my eyes (unsuccessfully) on the rear view mirrors to avoid tripping them up. This was one of those days which demonstrates the rule "do what the coach says, not what the coach does" as I have been suffering with a virus since the West and was tight chested and passing liquids like a mountain spring. The coach says "don't race if you feel like this!". Anyway, I didn't withdraw but felt the stress in the chest once the heart rate hit the max a few minutes in. Not a nice feeling. True to his word, Russell pulled the elbows in as I went past after about 400m just as we turned onto the first gentle climb up the banks towards the palace. The course climbed then dropped and then climbed again before finally dropping down a fantastic, firm grass surface to effectively the Tay flood plain. Surprisingly, this was also remarkably firm and the remaining 3.5km's to the finish were very smooth underfoot. The second, third, fourth (and possibly several other) teams flew past me eventually and I crossed the line in 14:49, only 50 seconds faster than the West, so a bit down. I subsequently noticed that all of the other club's M50's who were a similar time to me at the West were about 80 to 90 seconds faster here, so that kind of confirms how I felt, unable to push in the flat middle section, fearing I was going to flake out. Russell meanwhile put in a very even paced lap, except for the final 200m when he really piled on the pace, to finish in 20:24, some two and half minutes faster than at the West and the club's biggest improver. Russell is getting back to form with every race!

Jim Holmes has now taken a surprisingly early lead (Jim normally leaves it to the last couple of races) in the GP although the top 5 are very close. Kevin Farmer has stretched out a well deserved early lead in the scratch championship. The next GP race is the National 4km XC at Lanark Race Course.

For comparison, Andy Butchart ran 11:31 with all 4 in Central's winning team being between 11:29 and 11:34. Amazing strength in depth, particularly as Central's B team placed second.

I have only a couple of photos this week in this album.

Alan

York Marathon &10 Mile Race Report

A quick background to the reason for entering this race was the fact that in 2019 an intrepid band of Harriers ran the York Marathon with great success, known as Andy's Angels this group (you know who you are) covered themselves in glory with Andy leading the way and Kenny close behind. It would be true to say that they celebrated with great success on the way home on the train as well and that was possibly when Kenny stated he would do the race again but faster.

So fast forward to 2021 and Kenny is running well and he decides that the York marathon is ready to be run again with high hopes of a faster time (some people seem to remember what they say when they have had a drink !!). Not having high hopes of fast times for anything never mind a marathon I decided that I had better go down with him to York to make sure he didn't get lost (seems he did once before somewhere).

For some reason I let myself be talked into the 10 mile race scheduled to begin about 45 minutes after the Marathon, at this point Frances decided we both needed looking after and entered the 10 mile as well. Chris decided nearer the time that he would enter the 10 mile too (a training distance for him these days). Then we found out that Davie Watt had been spotted doing a lot of running from a reliable source (Kirsty is not a policewoman for nothing, she notices things going on around her neighbourhood). Frances confirmed with Davie who stated he had entered the York Marathon but not broadcast the fact because he had not done a marathon for 35 years and as he had now entered the MV60 category (comes to us all sooner or later 😟) he thought he would give it a go.

So things are all set for the return to York, entries in, accommodation ready everything in place !! Well even the best laid plans go astray, Kenny picks up an injury which unfortunately means he will not manage to run the Marathon nor even drop down to the 10 mile distance, however he still plans to come down and hold our "jaickets" and cheer us on and buy us drink afterwards 👍. Ah well that didn't happen either as a family commitment prevented him getting to York at all.😞

So at last you will be saying get to the point and give us the race report, ok it is worth waiting for honest.

The day of the race started off wet and windy on the way to York University Campus , however the weather God smiles on Calderglen Harriers , well sometimes, and the wind dropped and the rain stopped. Frances and  I met Chris, Davie was already off and running, and got ready for the start, Chris sensibly getting up near the front and me sensibly getting near the back. Frances had said a few times before the race she was just out for a scenic run round York to see the historic landmarks on the route which meant she would be running with me. She would be sightseeing I would be huffing and puffing and seeing nothing much but the road in front of me .

I knew it would not last even though she was adamant it would, needless to say the Harriers competitive instinct kicked in (that's Frances 's competitive instinct mine is just a burning ember these days) and after a 1 slow mile for her off she went never to be seen again until the end of the race.

Chris meanwhile was absolutely flying round I don't know if he saw any historic buildings at his pace but I suspect not. So 10 miles passed as 10 miles does, with the Harrier's 10 mile results as follows:

 Chris       - 01:02:23 Category Position.        28 (out of 322)

 Frances  - 01:19:23 Category Position.        06   (out of 94)

 Billy        - 01:24:38 Category Age Concern 02  (out of 15)

And leaving the best till last, what can I say Davie Watt's Marathon may have been 35 years to wait for but his race was incredible.

 Davie     - 02:58:15  British Masters Silver Medal for 2nd place in the M60 category.

I think I can safely say that we were all pleased with our performances and that Alan's training schedules definitely work, this is surely proof of that, thanks Alan.👏👏

By the way  Chris is now a media star as he was interviewed at the end of his race for York University TV, not sure if he is looking for an agent yet but you never know.

So there we have it, all done and dusted, t-shirts and medals in the goodie bag, along with cans of "non-alcoholic beer", actually tasted ok, but I did go for the real thing later on courtesy of Frances, obviously feeling guilty about running away and leaving me !!

Next year ? well who knows what Kenny will come up with we will wait and see.

Billy B 

Club Training Thursday 21st October

The run on Thursday is quite simple. For those NOT doing the National XC Relays, it is the 4 hills (Kingsway, Village, Market Hill, College Milton, Dunedin, Lickprivick). For those doing the National XC Relays it is the first part of the 4 hills as far  as College Milton but rather than crossing the Queensway into the factories on the other side of the road, stay on the Queensway back up to the club. The pace should be easy.

Alan

NATIONAL XC RELAYS TEAMS AND INFO

 These are the teams for Saturdays race at Scone Palace.

Ladies     Leg 1   A Lessells,  Leg 2    J Thomson. legs 3+4 spare

Men M50    Leg 1    J Holmes,   Leg 2   J Mearns,    Leg 3   A Derrick.

Men Sen     Leg 1    K Farmer,    Leg 2   G McInally,   Leg 3  R Couper.  leg4 spare

There are 2 spare legs for the Ladies and 1 for the M sen so if anyone still wants to run let me know and i will check if your listed in the reserve list.

Ladies start at 13.20 and men at 14.45 so i need the ladies there for 12.30 and the men for 14.00 but it would be nice if you could be there to support the Ladies. 

Parking There will be NO parking at Scone Palace. Access to the site is via Stormontfield Road accessed off the A93 approximately 1mile NORTH of the entrance to the Scone Palace grounds. Parking is available on the grass area to the left of the access road. Please park responsibly.

Masters-only Teams Masters teams - attach “V” to the FRONT and BACK of team members’ vests. V50 teams - attach “X” to the FRONT and BACK of team members’ vests. “X”s and “V”s can be collected from declarations on the day of the event. Masters/V50 athletes running in Senior teams do not need this additional indicator.

I will do the declarations online before i leave on Saturday morning and collect the numbers and X's  before 12.30.

If anyone can no longer make it please let me know by first thing Saturday morning at the latest.

Russell 

Performance Award Scheme - Updated with M70 Standards

I have added the M70 category to the performance standards for the Harriers Performance Award Scheme. The standards at each of the distances have been calculated from the top performing M70's in the Power of 10 web site in the same way as all the other age group standards have been calculated. i.e. gold = within 112% of the average of the UK top 5 M70's, silver = within 116% of the average of the UK top 5 M70's and bronze = within 125% of the average of the UK top 5 M70's.

The revised table for men is here.

The equivalent women's table (unchanged) is here.

These tables and all the other information and forms can be accessed via the blog menu on the left.

Alan

Club Training Monday 18th October

In the midst of all those races but with longer races on the horizon, it is important to keep the quality training up on at least one of the club nights and to recognise that the races we are doing, particularly the shorter ones, are training sessions in their own right. So for this Monday we return to the session from two weeks ago which mixes slightly faster than (short) race pace with short race specific pace. The importance of this type of session is as much about muscle memory (i.e. training the legs to move fast without straining) and speed endurance. When we move up to the longer race distances, this muscle memory makes the slightly slower cadence of the longer races easier.

The session is as follows:

The warm-up is a run up the Strathaven Rd and then onto the Sainsburys Loop. Continue clockwise around the loop, past the entrance to Sainsburys and then all the way up the hill to the junction with Greenhills Rd. The session starts here. Run from there run clockwise around the Sainsburys loop at 4k XC race pace until you reach the Sainsbury's main entrance (it is approximately 1100m). Take a 5 minute recovery but during the recovery, jog up to Langlands Place. 

At Langlands Place do 3 sets of the following:

400m along Langlands Place at slightly faster than 4k race pace. Jog recover for 200m back along Langlands Place then run the remaining 200m of Langlands Place to the junction at a slightly faster pace than the 400m was run at. Standstill recover for 2 minutes.

After 3 sets of the above, take a further 3 minutes recovery (5 minutes total) during which you should jog up the hill to Greenhills Rd. Then do one more effort at 4k race pace from there clockwise around the Sainsburys Loop to the Sainsburys entrance.

Jog back to the club as a cool down.

Alan

Glasgow University Road Race - Centenary

 

It was great to see the Glasgow University Road Race, one of the long-standing races in the Scottish road running calendar, celebrating it's centenary on Saturday. The Harriers have run in this race over variations of this course for most of the past 37 years, originally starting from the vicinity of the old GU Westerlands Sports Grounds (now where the Anniesland Morrisons is) over one 5 mile lap and more recently from the new Garscube Sports Complex over 2 x 2.5 mile laps. The hill at Dawsholm Park has always been a feature; originally up the steep section, nowadays down (twice). Given the hills (up and down), this has always been a hard race but falls at the right time of year when we are working on strength by doing cross-country and building towards 10 mile road race and 10k cross country endurance.

It was therefore nice to see so many Harriers turning out (some later than others) on a cold Saturday morning to join a field of more than 160. This was the second race of the Harriers' Grand Prix season and there is already a sense that this is going to be a very competitive GP. It was very fitting that Glasgow University Hares & Hounds occupied the first 3 places, the winning time being 25:33. First Harrier to finish with a very confident run was Kevin Farmer in 31:46 (57th) who had gradually opened up a gap on Callum Wright (32:42) throughout the race. Julie Beveridge was next Harrier across the line (33:59) and 15th lady. Julie led a very tight Harriers race-within-a-race, heading Kirsty Wilson (an excellent 34:01) and a bewildered Stephen Phimister (34:05), who thought he had the sprint finish covered.

Davie Wardrope's legs are just beginning to recover from the London Marathon and he felt pretty good, finishing in 35:46. Jim Holmes ran very strongly and finished very well, resplendent in number 118, in a time of 36:23. Demonstrating the benefits of many years of Harriers' training, Richard Lawton made his first race since pre-pandemic and knocked nearly 2 minutes off his previous best time from 2009, finishing in 37:33. Richard Beaton slipped past without a Harriers vest in 38:43. However, I was surprised and delighted to see Geo Ferguson back in a Harriers vest after a long, long injury and a steady run in 39:16, with no injury recurrence. Robert Gibson was another big improver, gradually making up ground throughout the race and finishing in 39:50. Next on the return from injury (or in this case, return from surgery) trail was Gordon McInally who will soon be back to great form on the basis of his time of 40:48. It's a while since Davie Searil did this race but great to see Davie back racing very regularly, finishing comfortably in 44:25. Russell Couper rounded off the Harriers' finishers with a time of 44:44. 

Of course there were other Harriers in attendance. As I was walking back to the start line some 4 minutes after the race started, I saw a Harriers vest running towards the line. Given that 2.5 miles in 4 minutes would be stretching human performance limits, this was unlikely to be the leader starting lap 2 and was instead the very late Martin Howell starting lap 1! Martin gave chase for a few minutes and then eventually abandoned as he was too far behind (and would have to collect his number on lap 2). Then we had two hindered by the lurgy. Both Morgan Beaton and Jim Mearns had been under the weather the past week or so and sensibly pulled out after the first lap. It was good to see Stuart Gibson making his gradual return from a long injury, finishing in 28:31 and 22nd position overall.

Some sensible joker playing has brought Kirsty Wilson into the lead in the women's GP and Stephen Phimister has leapfrogged to the front of the men's GP.

The main thing I noticed was how strong the majority of the Harriers looked at the finish; a reflection on the consistent hard work they have put in over the summer. Some photos of all Harriers racing are in this album.

Alan

NATIONAL SHORT COURSE XC

 This years National short course XC will be held at Lanark on Sat 6th Nov

This is a straight race over 4k

Timings are not yet posted but will be early afternoon.

Cost is £8 each and should be paid to the club before race day.

Remember to make sure your SA membership is up to date at time of entry and race date otherwise the system doesnt allow entry.

I need names by Monday 18th Oct

If you wish entered please leave your name HERE

Those already registered are listed HERE

Club Training Thursday 14th October

It's threshold Thursday again! Remember this is the effort you could sustain for 1 hour under race conditions, so somewhere between 10k and 10 mile effort. At this effort, each rep becomes uncomfortable after the first minute or two and then remains uncomfortable for the rest of the rep. The recoveries are quite short such that you quickly get into this uncomfortable state on the next rep.

As some will be doing the GU Road Race on Saturday, the number of reps has been reduced compared to last time. Run controlled at all times; don't run yourself into the ground. The session is 3 x 6 minutes with a 2 minute jog recovery.

The route is from the club up Strathaven Rd to Greenhills Rd and then along Greenhills Rd. Start the first rep after crossing High Whitehills Rd (a downhill start!). Carry on all the way to Greenhills roundabout and then turn right onto Lickprivick. Run down Lickprivick and then bear right again at the bottom and head for the Murray Rd and back to the club past the Crooked Lum and the NEL.

Alan

Club Training Monday 11th October

Monday is our fortnightly cross-country session at Brancumhall. The session is as follows (referring to the aerial photograph below):

Run one side of the quadrangle at 4k race pace then slow down to a "float" pace for the next two sides of the quadrangle and then do the next side at 4k pace. Do this until you have completed 6 complete laps of the quadrangle. So, you start off with side 1 at 4k pace, float for sides 2 and 3 and then side 4 at 4k pace and then sides 1 and 2 at float and side 3 at 4k pace and so on until you have done 6 complete laps of the quadrangle. Press your lap button at each change of pace so there is a good record of there actually being a change of pace.

"Float" pace is not a jog, it is something like 10k to 10 mile race pace, so means taking the foot off the gas from 4k pace. 6 complete laps is approximately 3 miles of which about 1 mile will be fast and 2 miles at float.

Take the usual route to and from Brancumhall and bring a change of shoes, if you have them, for the cross country reps. If we are lucky, someone may even take you cross country shoes to the course in a car but come prepared with a small bag or rucksack to carry them in if not.

Alan

West District XC Relays - Speed Golf Harriers' Style

 

Saturday saw the welcome return to normality as far as Scottish Athletics competition was concerned with a very well attended and competitive West District XC Relay Championship at Alexandra Park, Glasgow. This new venue provided a challenging course with a surprising amount of elevation change but a also a firm, grassy surface in the light rough at the sides of the fairways. There were perhaps only 4 or 5 steps in slightly squidgy ground on the whole course, which was remarkable given the amount of rain in the preceding days and the number of feet that had pounded the course by the time the senior women and men ran at the end of the day.

The women were running in teams of 3, each completing 1 lap of the 4km course. We had one full and one incomplete (2 runners) team competing. We had the two Julies on the first leg of each team (Julie Beveridge and Julie Thomson) and each ran very well. Julie Beveridge paced the leg well and was able to take advantage of the terrain to finish very fast indeed in a time of 16:57. Julie Thomson has taken great strides forward this past year, hitting multiple pb's on the road but is still relatively new to cross country and is learning how to pace herself on hilly courses such as this. Julie had a fine run of 20:09. Kirsty Wilson made a welcome return to cross country (at least it was welcome for all of us supporting; speaking to Kirsty after her run, she was not so certain!) and put in a very strong performance on leg 2 for the first team to finish in 17:40. Frances Ferguson has been struggling with a few niggling injuries in recent months but showed good natural ability to run a very consistently paced lap in 19:38 for leg 2 of the second team. Alison Lessells completed the first team and, as seemed to be the case with most of our runners, got involved in a finishing straight sprint to hold a place, not that Alison had much choice given the very vocal encouragement she was getting to "Gooooooo" by her teammates. Alison finished in 19:06. As the ladies held onto their jokers, the Grand Prix and Scratch Championship leader boards are exactly in finishing order with Julie Beveridge leading both.

For the men we had two complete teams and a half complete team. The men were running in teams of 4 over the same 4km lap as the ladies. Our senior men's team was led off by Kevin Farmer who was getting himself unnecessarily worried about a return to racing. However, once he got going he was fine and stormed around on the crowded first leg in 16:13. Our over 40's (well over 40 in most cases) masters team was led off by Graeme Lindsay, stepping down considerably in distance from his last race. Graeme sped around the lap at a very consistent pace uphill and down in 16:54. For the incomplete team, Gordon McInally made his first race post foot surgery and surprised himself with an excellent time of 19:44. This shows that for all the race distances we cover from 4k to marathons and beyond, the bulk of the energy we use comes aerobically and Gordon has maintained his aerobic fitness despite the layoff from running by doing a lot of cycling. Gordon will of course get faster as he is able to add more running to his training but he has done a good job so far of keeping his aerobic fitness up.

Leg 2 of the senior team was given to Richard Beaton, making his cross country debut as an adult! Richard made good use of his new trail shoes to finish in 19:26 and with a strategically smart move, played two jokers to take an early lead in the Harriers Grand Prix. Stephen Phimister was on leg 2 for the Masters team and made up ground and passed several, including Richard in our first team, finishing in 17:19 with not a spec of mud on his legs; this was definitely a clean cross-country course. Russell Couper was on leg 2 for the incomplete team and was somewhat isolated but still kept the pace under control, finishing in 22:55.

Leg 3 for the Masters team was taken by me and as I was on the verge of several recurring injuries I lined up for the changeover with some trepidation. However, despite not having raced since October 2019, as soon as the leg was underway, it was business as usual and chase, chase, chase! I definitely felt my age on the uphills, lacking the power that I remember from even a few years ago but paced it well enough to even have a big sprint in the final 50m to make up one more place, finishing in 15:37. Callum Wright was on leg 3 for the senior team and despite not having done many cross country races of any distance, let alone a relative sprint such as this, ran very well and overtook many on his way to a time of 16:05.

Jim Holmes was on the final leg for the Masters team and held on well to the team's position. Jim enjoyed the lap much more at race pace than he did doing the warm-up lap with me, when it seemed there were only uphills on the course! Jim finished in 18:04. The senior team was also fielding a Jim on the 4th leg, this time Jim Mearns. Jim doesn't necessarily like to take the easy option, so somewhat handicapped himself by having a covid and flu booster jag the day before. However, Jim's main concern was finishing in time to see the Scotland match which had a 1700 kick-off. He needed have worried and was another Harrier demonstrating an impressive range of race distances from 4k to ultra, finishing in 18:52 (not at 18:52, in which case he would have missed the first half).

Well done to all who were able to compete and those who came down to support (Anne and Allan). Also a big thanks to Shettleston Harriers who hosted the event and put in a power of effort to put the first post-covid championship XC on at a completely new venue.

The impressive thing about all the Harriers running at the weekend was the very obvious commitment to chase down every vest in front of us and make up places for the team. For those new members who haven't competed in a relay for the Harriers (road or cross-country) and thought that running was purely an individual sport, this sort of event really makes you feel part of a team and, although there are unfortunately not many relays on the calendar, I would recommend getting a Scottish Athletics membership such that we are able to pick you for a future event and you can enjoy the team spirit first hand. 

There are a few photos from Frances and some from me in this album (which you can upload to). Also, the up-to-date Grand Prix and Scratch Championship scores are available via the Grand Prix menu to the left of the blog.

Roll on Scone Palace in two weeks (also remember that the Glasgow University 5 Mile Road Race is next weekend and is a GP event. There are still over 100 places available for pre-entries on Entry Central)!

Alan

Grand Prix Season Start Jokers

I've done a few simulations of the joker scoring system to try to even it up a bit this year as it was becoming possible to run away with a total that was dominated by those with more than a few jokers at the start of the season. This also reflects the fact that the numbers taking part were on average down the last time we ran a full GP which again biased the result to those with many jokers at the start of the season. So, based on the average participation over the past few Grand Prix and some simulations of average positions throughout the field, the list of starting jokers for the season is here and is based on our well established pack ranking. Note that those starting with zero jokers will still pick up jokers after 5, 8 and 11 races completed as described in an earlier post here. To stand a chance of winning, it is still necessary to do at least 11 races.

For this year, given that we are starting with a lower number of jokers, there is no upper limit on the number of jokers that can be played/earned per season.

Alan

WEST DISTRICT XC RELAY TEAMS

 The teams for Saturday are listed below

LADIES A     Leg 1 J Beveridge,    Leg 2 K Wilson,     Leg 3  A Lessells

LADIES B     Leg 1 J Thomson,     Leg 2  F Ferguson

MENS SENIOR TEAM    1 K Farmer,   2 R Beaton,  3 C Wright,   4  J Mearns

MENS MASTER TEAM   1 G Lindsay,  2 S Phimister,  3 A Derrick,  4 J Holmes

INCOMPLETE TEAM     1 G McInally,  2 R Couper,  3 A McLellan.

Please arrive in plenty of time. (see instruction post below)

Training Thursday 7th October

Thursday is a pre-race run of relatively short duration with some light strides in the middle. The suggested route is from the club to High Common Road via the lane down past Colonsay Field. Follow High Common Rd downhill to St Leonards Rd and along towards Brancumhall. Carry on past Brancumhall to Maxwelton Rd up to Calderwood Square. Cross over the road and run down to the Whirlies and back to the club via the Kingsway. Start the strides on the better lit parts of St Leonards Rd (if there are any better lit parts) and fit in strides (i.e. a gentle acceleration to a relaxed, light on the feet pace) on flatter parts of the route. Each stride should be approximately 50m to 100m in length (e.g. between 3 lamp posts), Do 4 to 6 strides when the conditions allow, well spaced out with at least a few minutes between each one.

Alan

WEST DISTRICT XC RELAYS INTRUCTIONS FOR SATURDAY

 For those racing on Saturday please read the following.

Parking is available on Blochairn Road (Post codes G21 2DU or 2DZ). This a large industrial area which is free from traffic on Saturday. A footbridge takes you from this road directly over the M8 into Milnbank Sports Hub where you find the tented area and course. Please note strictly no parking allowed in Park or in residential housing next to park. Club tents can be dropped off at the side entrance of the Park via Sannox Gardens (G31 3JE). This street is accessed off Alexandra Park Street and Coventry Drive. Individuals dropping off tents may park in these streets -This will be strictly monitored by Community Police. No others may park in this area.

Can someone pick up the tent and bring it along.

The course is at Alexandra park golf course and is a mixture of golf course and parkland. 

There is no changing available so come ready to run.

The Ladies start at 13.00 and i need everyone there by 12.15 to allow distribution of numbers and to allow a warm up. The Men start at 14.15 and again i need everyone there by 13.30 for the same reason as the Ladies but it would be good if you can be there before this to support our Ladies running.

Anyone that can no longer make it should let us know asap to allow a restructure of the teams.

Those running are J Beveridge, F Ferguson, A Lessells and K Wilson. For the Men A Derrick, R Couper, J Holmes, J Mearns, G McInally, G Lindsay, A McLellan, R Beaton, S Phimister, K Farmer, D Wardrope and C Wright.

There are 2 spaces available in the Ladies team and there are 2 reserves entered K Allen and J Thomson so if either want a run let us know asap. At the moment there are no spaces in the mens team but there are many reserves listed so if anyone not listed above wants a run let me know and if a space becomes available i will let you know.

Teams and running order will be listed when the Club Captains and Vice Captains get back to me.

Club Training Monday 4th October

Note, that following Gordon’s comment below about part of the pavement being dug up on Sainsburys loop, scope it out during the warm up and decide if you are running on the road (in which case run single file facing the traffic) or pavement. The rep pace is 4k race pace so it won't be a frantic pace anyway and if you have to slow down or stop for traffic, please do so. 

A complex session for Monday to get the legs spinning over prior to the first of the short relays.

The session is as follows:

The warm-up is a run up the Strathaven Rd and then onto the Sainsburys Loop. Continue clockwise around the loop, past the entrance to Sainsburys and then all the way up the hill to the junction with Greenhills Rd. The session starts here. Run from there clockwise around the Sainsburys loop at 4k XC race pace until you reach the Sainsbury's main entrance (it is approximately 1500m). Take a 5 minute recovery but during the recovery, jog up to Langlands Place. 

At Langlands Place do 3 sets of the following:

400m along Langlands Place at slightly faster than 4k race pace. Jog recover for 200m back along Langlands Place then run the remaining 200m of Langlands Place to the junction at a slightly faster pace than the 400m was run at. Standstill recover for 2 minutes.

After 3 sets of the above, take a further 3 minutes recovery (5 minutes total) during which you should jog up the hill to Greenhills Rd. Then do one more effort at 4k race pace from there clockwise around the Sainsburys Loop to the Sainsburys entrance.

Jog back to the club as a cool down.

Alan